Browns

Browns CB Denzel Ward said he was hopeful for the team to retain DC Jim Schwartz, who ultimately was not selected as the team’s next head coach after Cleveland hired Todd Monken. Schwartz wound up resigning on Friday. 

“I’m not sure what was true or was not true, so I’m not going to speculate,” Ward said, via PFT. “I’m just going to wait to see how everything plays out and look forward to, hopefully we’re still keeping him.”

Chargers

Chargers DC Chris O’Leary said taking the position was a “no-brainer” for him.

“From players calling me and reaching out to the staff, to the personnel department, those relationships that are really genuine and meaningful to me, that made it a no brainer,” O’Leary said, via Chargers Wire.

O’Leary said the process moved extremely quickly once he heard from HC John Harbaugh and made the transition seamless.

“It was just the calls and texts from those guys that really solidified for me, ‘Man, I’m making the right decision,’” O’Leary said. “People can say what they want about levels and all that but leaving a place you pour your heart and soul into and you have special relationships with the kids and the staff, it’s hard. So when I took this job, that was the most challenging part, it was leaving there. But hearing those calls, it was guys I had a similar conversation with a year ago. There was no hesitation, no second guessing and it made it really special.”

Patriots

Patriots HC Mike Vrabel highly praised first-year ILBs coach Zak Kuhr, saying he’s fully taken advantage of his opportunity as a position coach. 

“Zak has been fantastic,” Vrabel said, via Chad Graff of The Athletic. “I think that, much like players when given opportunities, coaches sometimes have the same thing. When they get more opportunity, they take advantage of it, and then turn that into something else.”

Vrabel mentioned that Kuhr has proven to be a good teacher and communicator. 

“He’s a good teacher, good communicator,” Vrabel said. “He’s really helped us.”

Kuhr said his approach is “game plan specific,” but he always keeps a backup plan in case things go wrong. 

“To me, it’s always game plan specific,” Kuhr said. “But then I always have an oh s— plan. Like, everything we planned for isn’t working, or we’re not seeing anything we thought we were going to see, so we can rely on this.”