Head Coach Hue Jackson:
On if QB Kevin Hogan has been running scout team in practice:
"No, I shut him down. He tried to throw a little bit in individual. It is painful. I know it is. We kind of shut him down. (QB) Cody (Kessler) took all of the other scout team reps."
On who the third QB is in the game:
"(WR) Ricardo Louis. And after that, Hue Jackson (laughter)."
On if he has a feel for if the players listed as questionable will play:
"I think there is an opportunity for some of them to have an opportunity [to play]. We will just kind of see where it is tomorrow, but I need to go in and see the medical staff now and see where they are."
On DB Jason McCourty's injury:
"Ankle. He tweaked his ankle in practice yesterday."
On DB Jabrill Peppers' and McCourty's chances of playing on Sunday and the pair being two of the team's better players:
"We will see. We will see. No doubt they are. We will see."
On indications QB DeShone Kizer can be the QB of the future:
"His makeup. He is not one that goes in the tank and shies away from the tough times. He could have buried his head in the sand and thrown up the flag and said, 'Oh my God, I can't do this right now,' but he hasn't. It's like 'Give me more. Keep pushing me.' That is what we have done. I think he has handled that part of it well. To me, as I said before, we have to know. We have to find out and know for sure, and that is what we are going to do over the next several weeks – find out for sure what he is."
On how often the organization talks about Kizer's standing as the QB of the future:
"Quite a bit. I think we have to. That is part of it. If he is playing, he is playing because he earned it. It wasn't a plan. He is playing because he earned it. Then, all of a sudden, I took him out because he wasn't earning it. He has to go back, play well and continue to play well. He will keep playing. He gets it."
On the difficulty of maintaining young players' focus when losing after coming from winning programs:
"It is hard for me. It is foreign for me. I'm not used to losing like this. It is different for everybody, I think. It is different for everybody on this football team who haven't been here. This is tough. I said that yesterday. We are here to win. Is it hard? No. It is hard in the sense that we want to win. It is hard in the sense that you work hard every week, and you go out there and the expectation is to go win the football game. When you don't, my job as the head coach and the leader is to reset everybody, put us back in the right frame of mind and go take the charge to the next week on what we have to accomplish. What I try to do is always give our players hope. I want them to feel and know that every week there is an opportunity for us to do anything great, but we have to do it. We have to make the plays and do the things that teams do to win football games. That is the challenge every week. I show our guys, I lay it out for them exactly what we need to do offensively, defensively and special teams. If you do it, you have a chance to be successful. If you don't, then you probably won't. So far we haven't. We are going to keep sawing wood, keep working at it and see if we can get there."
On how much WRs Ricardo Louis and Rashard Higgins to step up:
"They need to. There is no questions. Whoever is playing for us this Sunday needs to go make plays. The guys that we put out there, they have to go make plays in the game that can affect the game for us. I'm sure those guys are excited about playing. We are excited about our gameplan and what we are trying to accomplish. Now, we just have to go do it."
On who will play CB if McCourty can't play:
"Obviously, there is (DB Briean) Boddy-Calhoun who we can stick out there, but we will cross that bridge when we know for sure. We have some guys that we can play there – (DB) Michael Jordan. We have other guys here. At the same time, we want McCourty to be there. He is one of our best players, like you are saying."
On if the Browns may have a different returner if Peppers is limited in any way:
"I may do that, absolutely. If it is something that we can help him with throughout the game, no question. We will do whatever we think we need to do to have him have success but also be able to help our football team as we go through this game this weekend."
On if WR Bryce Treggs can return punts:
"Yeah, he can. Yes sir."
On if DB Howard Wilson practiced this week:
"No, he did not this week."
On if Wilson is out for the year:
"No, I think there is a chance that he could still be back. There is a chance for that."
