Tuesday June 2nd presser; fro the
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Cleveland Browns: Eric Mangini's Tuesday press conference
by The Plain Dealer
Tuesday June 02, 2009, 6:53 PM
The Plain Dealer
Browns coach Eric Mangini talked about his club on Tuesday.
Opening statement - "How's everybody doing? Hope you had a good weekend. I'd just like to start off by thanking all the people that were involved in the camp this weekend in Hartford.
It was really our best camp yet. We say that every year, but we ended up with 760 kids from five different states and 61 different towns. It's the most satisfying when you hear some of the stories. I talked to (Defensive quality control coach) Andy Dickerson yesterday and Andy was teaching ball disruption.
He said a little boy came up to him and said, "You taught this drill last year and I used some of these things and I ended up with 11 turnovers last year," which is pretty positive. It kind of shocked Andy but it was great to see that because they are taking that information and bringing it back and applying it to their own schools."
"A friend of mine brought a little boy who's father had been killed two weeks go and his mom was in jail for drug dealing. To know that he had a good day and to see him smiling and to let him know that people cared about him, to let him know that he was important, that was incredibly satisfying.
To watch the speeches and hear Alex Mack talk about going into college and how he really wasn't highly recruited. His emphasis was on school, but he didn't let anybody discourage him from the things he wanted to do in football, and he built himself up into a first rounder. (New York Jets tight end) Dustin Keller talking about how your teachers and your coaches, they have your best interests at heart and how important it is to listen to them.
Bryan Cox talking about finding a good mentor and Bryan growing up the way that he grew up and how he was able to find someone that could show him the right things to do and how important that was to his development."
"Teddy Atlas, I love Teddy because of the insight he has into people and into situations. He just talked about events being an opportunity to practice caring. Caring like any other skill is something that you can get better at and when you keep practicing it you are going to continue to improve.
It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day issues that you face and it's so easy to forget the difficulties that a lot of other people face. I can't thank the 200 volunteers enough who came out, fireman, police man, teachers, business men, all different walks of life, the 135 coaches, and the state police and right on down the line. I just wanted to make sure I did that."
"In terms of today, what we are doing is we are in the rotation today is generally a review day. There will be a few things going in offensively and defensively, but overall we're trying to take the practices that we have had to date, go through some of the issues that we've had through those practices, redo some of those plays where we set up some of those situations and see what we have been able to learn from it, teach off that and then start the next cycle here on Thursday."
On what he learned after the first system installation process in New York and how he incorporates that into the system installation process here in Cleveland - "We definitely refined the schedule, not just the meetings schedule but the practice schedule to make it more efficient.
When I did it initially in New York, I went by more of the traditional method of putting all first and second down in first so that may take three of four days. Then putting all third down in, then putting all red zone in and it struck me that we never learn that way. We never teach that way during the course of the season.
I wanted to get the guys in the thought process, especially younger guys, newer guys of the way that we actually do it during the course of the week. Everything else in practice is set up that way, down and distances, situation, you are always trying to simulate what's going to happen when you have the regular season. So I thought why not cater the teaching progression to what's going to happen when we do open up."
On what he has sees in cornerbacks Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald - "I've really liked (Brandon) McDonald's competitiveness. He is tough at the line of scrimmage, he finishes plays well. I liked that even before I was the head coach here. I liked his style of play, his approach. I thought those things were good.
With Eric (Wright), he is a very smart player. I brought him up to the board and had him draw a whole defense. He was able to do the defensive line, the linebackers and the secondary. I think that natural intelligence can really help him as he understands whole schemes. His improvement should continue to be substantial as he is able to apply that onto the field and learn concepts. I think he's got really good feet and really good ball skills."
On the cornerbacks getting beat deep last season - "Everybody gets beat deep at some point. Otis Smith, is always my go to guy, he got beat and it didn't matter. He came back the next time and fought the same way.
You've got to be that way at cornerback, you've got to have a short memory and go back and fight the next play. Otherwise, you are worried about the time you were beat or the touchdown that you gave up, odds are you are going to give up another one pretty quickly."
On how defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's experience in Oakland will transfer to Cleveland - "It's not our defense, it's not my defense, it's not New England's defense. The playbook evolves and you take the ideas that Rob had in Oakland, the things that he learned, you put those in. The things I learned in New York, you put those in. With (Linebackers coach) (Matt) Eberflus the things he brings in from the college level. What you are trying to do is let it evolve and it becomes the Browns defense.
That book is a starting point each time that you have an offseason and it evolves. Sometimes you go back five, six, seven years and you say "do you remember that play we ran against"? We had a whole defense against the Lions on Thanksgiving. We called it turkey and turkey resulted in eight sacks. Then turkey evolved into a sub defense, and it went to nickel and then it went to dime and it became this whole evolution and now it's a package. All from that one game, something easy to remember for the players.
That happens all the time. Bill (Belichick), I remember telling us a story about an offensive personnel group where it was two receivers, two tight ends and a back, and for a long time in our system that was called Detroit. Nobody knew why it was called Detroit, it made no sense, and it was just Detroit. It was the first time that anybody had seen that formation. That was the evolution. I didn't ask him when it was (put in); it is just interesting to hear how things evolve."
On Don Carey's performance - "He is doing well. He has good ball skills. I talked to him a little bit yesterday. He is impressive in terms of the questions that he asks. I saw that the very first meeting I was in, the very first meeting he was in. He asked a question that a lot of vets don't ask for a month down the road and he caught it right away and asked it. At that point you know, one, he is paying attention and two, he is really bright."
On why Coye Francies lasted until the sixth round in the draft - "I never know the answer to that because with the draft, if a team with a need fills that need with somebody else, or the guy they want isn't there, or they decide a player they didn't expect to be there is there and they take him.
A guy can slip a significant amount just by one domino falling in a different spot. It really doesn't matter now, he is in the room, so whatever he does, he does."
On what he has seen from Alex Hall - "He is a tall player but he actually has very good weight for his height. I think that one of the things that he has been focusing on and we have been having him focus on is really playing with good technique and good leverage.
When you are a taller guy it's that much more important to sink your hips and have the right hand placement because your height naturally doesn't give you a great leverage point. He is focusing on those things, learning the defense, getting more reps, communicating, focusing on that as well. It is different when you are working with the ones or twos, and the expectation of communication with those groups increases as well."
On if he could tell Hall needed to make strides specifically with the run defense- "I think there is a lot of different areas that he can make strides in. The key thing was identifying what's our starting point. What I ask these guys each day and I think I've said this before, you go out with one or two things that you want to get better with.
Not what we are asking, something you really want to focus on, have a plan to do it, access whether the plan worked and continue to use the things that work and revise the things that don't work. We help with that or it could be something personally that a guy wants to identify."
On David Patten as a mentor - "I agree, when we had him in New England, tremendous maturity for a guy his age. Some of that could stem from how he sort of got into the league, how he sort of came up, but he is just a good person all around.
He works with all of the receivers, always wants to help those guys get better. He's got a great personality too. He's very easy going, he's fun. You can poke at his age a little bit, it doesn't bother him. I am happy he is here."
On if Patten has enough left to be the No. 2 wide receiver - "He will get every opportunity to show what he can do. David sometimes has the maturity to do things more efficiently, to take advantage of some things you see, just know, you've experienced and you can be really productive, even if maybe you are not quiet as spry as you once were."
On if he would ever consider doing Hard Knocks and why - "No. I think the more you just focus on what you're doing and this isn't a judgment on anyone that does it at all. For me personally, I'd rather have less cameras in the meeting room."
On the difference between mini-camps and OTAs - "It's just the structure of the day. I don't treat the days very differently. We start a little bit later; it's really the only thing that affects us. I try to block those days out as one group of days, whether it's voluntary mini-camp, OTAs or mandatory mini-camp.
The progression line each day, looking at it as a chunk and somewhat near what is going to go into training camp. You've got the three installation review, but that's part of a bigger chunk which is OTAs, voluntary mini-cap and mandatory mini-camp, which then translates into training camp and that's the second big chunk, big pattern. Hopefully it's hitting the brain multiple times and the retention increases."
On if he can get more accomplished during mini-camp - "It's not structured really in a way that's radically different. It's sort of the time allotments, and for us it's not substantially different in that way."
On how Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn are coming along - "They've both been making some good progress. It's a group thing. If the routes are run crisper and at more precise depths, then some of the throws will improve.
As they learn the reads better and the plays better and we've thrown a ton of stuff at them, so it's high, high, high volume to expose the group to as much as possible. Then as you review it, they've heard it, they've seen it and now they are getting a second time, a third time, as opposed to a real small chunk, focusing on that, moving the next small chunk with more volume and then repetitions."
On how poised the two quarterbacks have been -"They have been good. The nice thing about quarterbacks is they relish that. They are excited about learning as much as possible, hearing as much as possible.
They are always very proactive in trying to get the next day's install, the next day's script, the next day's situation. All of the quarterbacks I've dealt with over time have had that mentality."
On how Brian Robiskie is coming along - "I'd say he is like the rest of the rookie group where there are some days something clicks and he runs that really well or does that really well, and there are some days where maybe he's got it jumbled up with what he did at Ohio State and he doesn't quiet look the same.
Those guys are dealing with so much right now in terms of change of environment, change of coaches, change of terminology, going from the big man on campus to rookie. All of that stuff is new and getting used to the way that we structure practices and meetings. They are dealing with a lot of stuff. I think as a group they are doing some positive things."
On Ryan Tucker - "He has done some nice things too. What's good with him is he works at both guard and tackle. Our goal is to get the five best so having that position flexibility is another chance to compete in two areas as opposed to just one."
On players switching positions - "Some of the stuff is exploratory to see what it looks like, see how they handle it, see what the combinations are, see how much versatility each guy has and there's a lot of that going on right now in all of the different position groups, trying to build the maximum possible flexibility."
Transcript courtesy of the Cleveland Browns
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