Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken, like his peers across the league, is not fond of seeing his quarterback turn the ball over.
That is especially true during 7-on-7 drills, where the quarterback is not facing a pass rush and simply has to complete what should be a routine pass. Monken was agast when it happened last week during OTAs, calling it “embarrassing,” and he certainly did not like seeing it happen three times again on Wednesday.
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Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg, however? He’s all for it!
While all three of today’s interceptions – one each from Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, and Dillon Gabriel – were not all the fault of the quarterbacks, as each bounced off the hands of the intended receivers.
But the defensive players displaying the awareness to track the ball and make the interception had Rutenberg fired up when he met with the media following the day’s practice (quotes via a team-provided transcript):
“The ball is oxygen. Like you need oxygen to live, so the ball is our oxygen. We need it for our football lives. So anytime that ball is in the air or someone’s running with it, we’re attacking it. If it’s on the ground, we’re scooping it, and we are scoring with it. It just has to do with our mindset, which is our livelihood. It’s our oxygen.”
And even though it may rub his boss the wrong way (Rutenberg made sure to say he wants to “keep the head coach happy,”) Rutenberg still enjoys seeing the hard work put in by his players paying off, so he will continue to celebrate when his side of the ball makes a play:
“Like anything any of us do as a team, in our opinion, this is the greatest team sport in the world. We get this opportunity for 11 of us on a defense, a team, and a coaching staff to work together and to do some really hard stuff. So when we do some really hard stuff, and it works out in our favor, let’s celebrate and have a blast. Let’s show how much we love each other by how much we celebrate. That’s just going to build our camaraderie, and we’re going to have a great time doing it, because adversity is promised. So when good things happen, let’s celebrate it.”
It is only practice, and the defense is going up against one of the worst quarterback rooms in the NFL, but it is still nice to see the defense bringing the energy, starting with Rutenberg. He is in a bit of a tough spot as the defense will have to carry the team this fall until the offense gets itself in gear, and he is replacing popular defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who took his playbook and went home after being passed over for the head coach position.
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But the early returns have been good, and that is without standouts like Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward on the field for the voluntary workouts.
Once he gets the full defense together and running at full speed, Rutenberg and the rest of the defense should be breathing deep on the type of oxygen that a high-powered defense needs to survive.
