The Cleveland Browns brought back defensive coordinator Ray Horton this offseason. Horton, 56, was the defensive coordinator in Cleveland back in 2013.
That season his defense started off strong, but after quarterback Brian Hoyer tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), it seemed like the whole team panicked and finished the season 4-12.
The Browns face the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EDT. This team is hoping that Horton and the young defensive athletes can show up and produce at a high level.
Horton talked with the media following practice the other day and just discussed basic fundamentals and if this team is ready for the challenge.
On the Browns defense and where the pieces are settling, given previous comments about it being a kaleidoscope:We had a lot of unanswered questions. We wanted to look and see different people in different positions and we are going to play a lot of players. We are going to be that type of defense where if you have a hat, you will play for us. We are going to roll guys through. We know we are young. We are excited about what that entails with the speed and the athleticism on the field and just the excitement of guys in their first NFL game, the locker room and going out. That is what we are going to be. We are going to be pieces of guys coming in playing one spot moving to another spot, position flexibility. It is going to be exciting to watch them grow.
On Eagles QB Carson Wentz:He played, he came in right before their two-minute drive against Tampa Bay and then got hurt in the third quarter so he has basically had two quarters of play. We went back and watched the Senior Bowl. We watched his college tape, and obviously, we watched the Tampa Bay game. They are running his style offense from college. I’m sure he will feel comfortable with where he is standing in the pocket and how they call the plays. I think that really helps him a lot knowing that he did this in college even though he probably missed reps throughout the preseason. I’m sure he will be excited just as we are to get out there and play a football game.
On what he sees in Wentz:I see a quarterback that is big, that can run. I’m going back to college obviously. He had command of their offense and multiple shifts and motion. At Philadelphia, they didn’t do much with him because he got hurt. I’m sure they were going to expand the offense for him. From us, I see a capable quarterback as they all are. He was the second pick in the draft so they thought very highly of him, and it will be a good challenge for us. It always is in the NFL, whether you are a rookie or a seasoned veteran. The preseason is a little bit different obviously than the regular season, whether it is the simplification or the multifaceted things you do see in the regular season. It will be a learning experience for him as us. We are a young team, too. It will be an exciting brand of football out there, I hope.
On DL Danny Shelton and if he is currently where he needs to be:I hope Danny at the end of the year is better than he is now. We have asked him to do some things, to change some things and he has. He has been outstanding that way. What I like to do, we don’t have a really older guy on the line that can say, ‘This is how it’s done.’ We are young up there, too. Most of our guys are first- or second-year guys so I have been giving him homework assignments of other players in the league to watch. I think that is critical that you watch peers in the league do things and so you can say, ‘Oh, that is how it is done at a high level,’ especially when we are young. Danny, he is getting ready – I don’t know how many games he started last year – to play his 17th NFL game. That is a small sample of games. He is going to continue to get better. It is not, ‘Well, he was a first-round pick last year so what is he?’ Give him some time. It is not a new system for him because he has been playing that position forever in his career, but it is with us. It is going to be a collective effort of guys around you. It is not just one guy that is going to bring home the bacon for us. It has to be everybody.
On balancing showing many different defensive looks at Eagles rookie QB Carson Wentz while maintaining a defensive identity:If you watched the game last night, (Broncos QB) Trevor (Siemian) did not have a lot of experience either and he walked away with a victory. I think one cannot just say, ‘We are going to do this and it doesn’t matter, no matter what.’ We have to balance it with field position, down and distance, the weather conditions, his emotions, how (Eagles Head Coach) Coach (Doug) Pederson is calling the plays. Do we want to create havoc and confusion? Yes, but we also know that we have young guys, too, and the most important thing is that we play sound football and stop them from scoring. We want to come away with a victory. We don’t care how we get the victory, just we want to come away with a victory. Do we understand all the side issues with their rookie quarterback, their first game, for us on the road, for him at home, the crowd, the Philadelphia crowd, which is a different crowd? Yeah, we do, and that is why it is so exciting for us because it gives us an opportunity on defense to have some success if we do our job.
On if it is unsettling that the Browns do not currently have someone on the roster with a history of getting sacks and disrupting opposing QBs:On paper if you look at us, we are young so we are going to find pressure and turnovers, and some of it may be a bend but don’t break defense as we go along. As we evolve into our guys understanding what they do best, how they are going to attack a certain scheme or player, I have to adjust to that somewhat to see what works best for us. Is it all out zero pressure? Is it sometimes rushing three? Is it a combination? Really when I said way back when with the kaleidoscope, it is going to be that. We understand where we are at right now and what we want to be, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to drive that nail that hard because we may not be that package right now. You often talk about a par 5 in two shots in golf, everybody says ‘Power, power, power. Hit the par 5 in two.’ I think Zach Johnson won the Masters by laying up on a par 5. Sometimes you have to be smart.
This will be an exciting matchup to watch as these two teams have a questionable defense and offense. If the Browns have their younger athletes ready to show up and play, this team could surprise people in 2016.
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