Mangini Talks Newest Cleveland Browns and Match-Up With Buffalo Bills

(Opening statement)- “Good morning everybody. How are we doing? What we’re going to do today is move into third down. I really thought that we did a good job last week making some progress in that area. That had been an area, both offensively and defensively, where we hadn’t been playing very well. It was improved. I’m looking for that same type of improvement this week. I was talking to the guys, I thought throughout the course of last week, the practices were crisp. I thought we did a nice job identifying what we had to stop, what we had to do and that translated. As we go through this and are able to teach off the different experiences, there’s a lot of good teaching that came from cause and effect last week. That’s something that we’ll continue to emphasize throughout the season, but it was more apparent last weekend then it had been.”

(On if Chansi Stuckey and Jason Trusnik practiced yesterday)- “No, with the flights and things and then the medical part of it, they had to go through all those tests. They were in the meetings later in the afternoon, so they caught really the offensive and defensive meetings. They met with the coaches last night, met with them this morning. They’ll be out at practice here today.”

(On if Stuckey and Trusnik can contribute right away since he knows them)- “Well there is a variation in the system with, just on special teams, Brad (Seely) does different things than Mike Westhoff does. I think knowing both these guys and the way that they approach their preparation, whatever they don’t have or don’t feel comfortable with, they’ll make sure that they have that stuff by the time we get to Sunday.”

(On Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie’s first practice without Braylon Edwards)- “I thought they looked very similar to how they’ve looked throughout this process. Both the young kids have worked at it each day. Mohamed’s just gotten a little bit more time than Brian has. I don’t think their approach shifted dramatically yesterday.”

(On if he has figured out where Stuckey fits in the offense)- “That’s going to be something that we’ll work at and figure out. With all those guys, with Mike (Furrey), with Chansi, with Brian, with Josh (Cribbs), where they all fit, what they can contribute, how the roles on special teams are going to play into it. A lot of the times when we game plan, there could be specific packages for each guy based on what we want to get done. That’s not just because of the move we made, it’s what we typically do.”

(On if Stuckey and Furrey are similar players)- “Chansi doesn’t play defense. We tried him there a little bit. He didn’t do bad. He played a little bit in the slot for a while, so he’s had some reps there. They both have good short area quickness. They both have good hands. They’re both smart guys. There are some real similarities in terms of those things. I think that group will get along really well together and we’ll figure out exactly where each piece fits and how we can best use them and move forward from there.”

(On if Furrey could play more on defense now)- “I’m not opposed to him playing whatever percentage. With Troy (Brown), that year we had him playing defense, he actually had more defensive reps than he had offensive reps that season. I think it was 250 defensive reps and maybe 230 offensively. Troy, he played like a starting player between what he did on O, D and special teams. Cumulative, he was around 700-800 plays I think.”

(On Furrey playing safety against Cincinnati)- “Mike has been working since OTAs at safety, a little bit at the slot corner spot. With the experience he’s had as a player and starter and the work he’s done, it’s less of a transition then say, taking somebody who only has played offense. He’s worked there before. There’s a comfort level there. He’s working down a little bit, which is newer, but he’s heard a lot of the concepts defensively. It may be a different language now, but there’s some stuff to build off of.”

(On the defensive back combinations used against Cincinnati)- “Their 10 personnel group, Cincy’s, is a pretty salty group. They have a lot of speed. They have a lot of playmakers. We were just trying to get the best fits for their different guys.”

(On if the Cribbs at wide receiver experiment is over)- “To me, it’s not an experiment. I would never classify it as that. To me, he’s a developing wide receiver and he’s done a good job with that. He’ll continue to do a good job with that and continue to improve and continue to play. What percentage he’ll play could be different each game. Some of it will depend on how many reps he has on special teams, because you don’t want to lose that element of it. I think he’s done a nice job doing both.”

(On Lee Evans and Terrell Owens)- “They both can make big plays at any point. I’ve seen that throughout the season. Lee Evans has great vertical speed. He’s one of those guys that can threaten you deep, but he has the change of direction where if you play him really far off, he can stop quickly. Some of those speed guys can burn, but they can’t transition. He’s one of those guys that can burn and transition and makes it tough. He’s made a ton of big catches over the years. He’s made, unfortunately, too many against teams that I’ve coached. He hit us with one, it was close game, they were backed up, ball got batted, found his hands and went way too long. He’s a tough guy to deal with. When you look at T.O., it’s the same thing. He’s a bigger guy, stronger guy, but has the ability to go deep, to catch the underneath routes. He is really a physical player than can threaten you deep. I really like Josh Reed as well, consistent, tough, slot guy. He has a ton of conversions on third down over the years. Roscoe Parrish, he takes a hitch and can go 70 [yards]. His change of direction, you see it on punt returns, you see it every week. Now, you’re giving him the ball in different ways and he creates some underneath problems.”

(On how the addition of Owens affects Buffalo’s offense)- “It adds another guy that can do a lot of things. They have quite a few options along that receiving corps that they can go to and they all have real strengths that you have to address. He’s another part of that. Really, when you look at the backs too, in last year, in December, between (Fred) Jackson and Marshawn Lynch, they were leading the NFL in receptions for backs. Whenever we played them in late December, I think it was late December, that tandem had the most receptions. I think it was 70 receptions. They have a lot of guys that can catch the ball.”

(On the problems with defending a consistent no huddle like Buffalo)- “It’s getting used to it, because that’s something that they do every day. That’s how they operate. That’s business as usual for them, so it’s very natural. Defensively, we’ve practiced against it, I think, more than most because we do it quite a bit. The tempo is for four quarters, is a little different. You work on it in practice. You give the offensive group a core group of plays, or you prep them ahead of time, but try to make it as fluid as you can to really let the defense feel it.”

(On the defensive advantages when the offense runs the no huddle)- “You still have to change personnel groups, so if you want to go from 11 to 12, or whatever they’re going to put in, there’s some time down there. It depends whether it’s a true hurry up no huddle, or whether it’s the type of no huddle where the play clock still gets down to 10, 12 like you would if you huddled up. I think there are some real plusses to running the no huddle. I think drives can be short when you’re in the no huddle. That could be a down side, offensively, when you run it. We ran it pretty much the whole year with Ted (Marchibroda) in Baltimore and I liked it there. We ran it quite a bit over the course of time in New York. I think there are real plusses to it and there are some things that you give up.”

(On if Jamal Lewis looks like he will play this weekend)- “Yes, I think all those guys have a real chance this week.”

(On how he will rotate the running backs against Buffalo)- “It will be like we had been rotating it prior to Jamal’s injury. There’ll be different packages, but both guys will have the ability to work in the different packages. I thought it was great to see Jerome (Harrison) have the production that he did with the opportunity that he had. I’m sure that gives him an added boost. Now we have two guys that can go in and play first, second or third down, and do it well.”

(On if Phil Dawson is included in the players he thinks have a chance to play this week)- “Yes, he’s part of that group. I felt good about it going into last week, but like with any set of injuries, you get to the end of the week and it’s not quite as good as you hope. I kind of feel the same way this week, so we’ll see.”

(On what led to missed passes the most: the velocity of Anderson’s passes, the receivers not being used to Anderson or the receivers not being ready to catch a pass)- “It could be a little bit of all three of those things. [The ball] may be coming out a little quicker. I don’t really think getting used to it, because they’ve caught a lot of balls from him. You want to catch the one that hits you in the face mask. You should have a shot at that one.”

(On if Anderson needs to do anything different or if it is the receiver’s issue)- “I think it’s both. I think sometimes you can get the ball out too early in the break point, and not give the guy a chance to really get two or three steps into his route to look back for the ball. There are some times where if it hits you in the head or the hands, you have to come down with it.”

(On Mike Adams at cornerback)- “He’ll continue to work there throughout the season. He has worked there prior to last game. He’ll continue there, but with Mike, he’s going to play different roles as well. He’ll work at safety. He’ll work at corner. That’s a nice thing that Mike can do, because of his flexibility.”

(On putting James Davis on injured reserve)- “I think James has done a really nice job since he got here. You never want anybody to go on IR. It just was one of those situations where we had to. It didn’t look like it was going to get better and didn’t look like it was going to be really good for him or for us. By doing the things that we need to do medically now and going through that process now, he should come back that much stronger next season. I really like him as a kid. Kid? Man. I like the things that he’s done, the way he contributed. Unfortunately it’s not going to be this year, but he’ll continue to grow.”

(On how he evaluated Derek Anderson’s play against Cincinnati)- “I thought he did a lot of things well. I thought he did a nice job with the reads, did a nice job with some throws. He got some throws in there that were into tight coverage. I think, overall, the checks were pretty solid. One or two [I] probably would have done a little bit differently, but when you look at it over a course of a game, it wasn’t the type of percentage where you look back and say, ‘Hey, the prep was flawed or we just had too many checks,’ or things like that. I really liked a lot of the stuff that he did. The one interception, that’s something that we’ll continue to work on. I understand what he was thinking on the throw, and how he went to it. When you look at it, the DB made a pretty impressive play, falling back off the wide receiver on the outside, coming in. We didn’t have an end zone copy, couldn’t tell if he got the hand underneath the ball or not, but it counted, so I guess he did.”

(On if he could have challenged Jerome Harrison’s fumble)- “I feel you. I understand exactly what you’re saying and no, we couldn’t have.”

(On what the call was on Cedric Benson’s fumble and if it was the same Harrison’s play)- “It was forward progress and that was the determination, so when they determine that forward progress is stopped then it’s stopped. That’s how it was explained. We talked through the challenges, talked with Dick (McKenzie) about the challenges, talked with the officials about the challenges. That was the explanation. That’s one of those things that’s subjective and whatever it is, it is and you just have to move forward.”

(On how seriously he thought about going for it on fourth down late in the third quarter against Cincinnati)- “We actually had it closer on third down then we did on fourth down. On third down, I don’t know how many inches it was, but it was closer. Then we got a little bit further back. Just thought at that point, take the points, tied game and just thought that was the best decision at that point.”

(On if he thought about going for it on fourth down)- “I think about it every fourth down. I like going for it on fourth down. That’s one of those plays where if it hits, you’re really, really smart, but if it doesn’t, you’re really, really not. I did it against Indianapolis one time, because Indianapolis’ offense is so explosive. I thought we had a real opportunity with the play that we had and understood that you have to score, usually, a lot of points to beat Indianapolis. We came back and ended up losing by three points after getting stopped on fourth down.”

(On if he went back over that play and thought a touchdown there would have changed the shape of the game)- “Yes, and you can look at it the other way. If you didn’t get three there, the whole shape of the game would have changed as well.”

(On if he feels like he needs an established number one receiver)- “No, what I’m looking for is a group of receivers that get open and catch the ball, whether it’s the one, the two, the three. Same thing with the quarterback’s reads. I think Tom (Brady) used to say that, ‘The receiver I like the best is the open one.’ Just be able to run the routes, be able to have the spacing in the routes, being able to provide the quarterback options. It’s not always necessarily going to be one guy. I want them all to be able to do that.”

(On who is the best deep threat now)- “I think Mohamed has shown his ability to get open deep. Some of those deep routes are built different ways. Sometimes they can be straight nine routes. Other times, they can be over routes, deep overs, and different guys run the different patterns, some better than others. Sometimes with press man coverage it’s about how well you release and then can you stack the DB, regardless of what your timed speed is or anything like that. It’s more that process then the other.”

(On if they looked at Massaquoi as a deep threat when drafting him)- “Yes, you do. It’s funny, sometimes you’ll be in draft meetings and they’ll say, ‘Wow, he can really run, really get deep.’ I say, ‘Okay, what’s the downside?’ ‘He’s inconsistent catching the ball.’ It’s like okay, well that’s great that he’s open, but if he can’t catch it, what are you going to do with that? Yes, you want them to be able to get deep and then convert.”

(On how having a former NFL official on the staff is working)- “It is good. The nice thing with him is it’s not just the game day stuff, but after the game, being able to talk to him about the different situations that game up. The officials that we have here, a lot of these guys work in the Big Ten. He coaches them during practice. They’re really working to try to give us the best look from that perspective that they can. It’s a great asset to have, just the ability to talk to someone who knows the ins and outs of the rules. You’re going to hit on some. You’re going to not hit on some. Some you have to take a chance on. If they’re scoring plays you weigh those challenges more then, ‘Okay, it’s second-and-eight and the spot’s not very good. It would be third-and-three instead of third-and-five. It’s in the middle of the first quarter.’ You may feel like you’re going to get it, but it’s not really worth the risk as that point.”

(On if he thinks he will save some timeouts by having a former NFL official on staff)- “He understands the nuances of the rules. He understands the interpretations of the rules. He understands what things are typically going to get overturned, what things aren’t. There may be some times where I’ll look at it and go, ‘This seems obvious.’ He’ll say, ‘Look, you can throw it is you want to, but you’re probably not going to hit here.’ He’s done it. He’s seen it. He’s coach’s guys on the replays. He was as supervisor there. He worked every big game you can work.”

(On if it will be harder for Massaquoi to get open now that Edwards is gone)- “There are times, Tony (Grossi), where you’re going to get double-covered. Cover five a lot of times, it’s a split safety defense, man-to-man. There’s help over both halves of the field. If they’re up there pressed, you have to be able to do some things that top the route to move the DB who’s underneath you. It’s the same thing in cover one. It just depends on what the coverage is, what your route is, what your adjustment is and what the other complementary receivers are doing as well. With zone coverages, spacing is really important. Are you stretching the zone vertically? Are you stretching horizontally? Are you in the right spots? All that stuff is key. How well you run the ball, and that changes, it’s hard to double-cover as much if you’re doing a good job running the football. Those all play into each other.”

(On if he thinks Massaquoi will get more attention from opposing defenses because of the game he had last week)- “I’m going to see how they approach it and how they evaluate what they want to stop and what they want to do, where their pressure packages are going to be. I’d love to find out exactly how they’re going to do it.”