BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Jacoby Brissett plans to do what he does best.
Answer the call.
Brissett elevates to the Browns starting quarterback after Deshaun Watson settled his disciplinary issues with the NFL on Thursday by accepting an 11-game ban, a $5 million fine and mandatory counseling and treatment.
“That doesn’t change my mindset from the start,” Brissett said Friday morning. “I was prepared to do the job I came here to do, so I guess I got to go do that right?”
Executive vice president of football operations and general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski backed Brissett Thursday afternoon and the team – at least publicly – doesn’t seem interested in bringing in a starter while Watson is out.
“I mean, I got to go out there and prove that every day, right?” Brissett said of the vote of confidence. “I’m just excited for the opportunity. I don’t take it lightly, obviously, and just going to go out there and continue to be the man that I am, the teammate that I am, and I think all of that stuff kind of takes care of itself, for itself and I don’t really need to speak to that.”
With Watson, the Browns are thought to be playoff, if not Super Bowl, contenders. Expectations are suddenly being tames with Brissett set to play the first three months of the season.
“I could care less about that,” Brissett said. [I’m] Here do my job, do the best I can, lead, be the same guy, be a good teammate and then everything else will take care of itself.”
Receiver Amari Cooper, who said Brissett is a “funny dude,” is among those tuning out the doubters.
“[We] Can't really worry about what outsiders say,” Cooper said. “We know Jacoby, we understand what he brings to the table, we see him practice every day, see how hard he works, so we 100 percent believe in him, he wouldn't be back there if we didn't. Again, not really worried about what outsiders say, we're just going to go out there and do our job.”
Brissett’s teammates on both sides of the ball rave about his leadership and people skills.
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is a neighbor of Brissett in the locker room and the linebacker uses the opportunity to seek counsel from the veteran on a regular basis.
“He’s always like one of the elders in the locker room, at least for me,” Owusu-Koramoah said. “He’s sitting right there, I may speak to him about certain things in reference to everyday life in terms of like the balance I’m always talking about. He’s experienced a lot of people and he talks about how similar I may be to this guy he’s met or ‘Hey this is what you could do different’ or ‘Hey when you make a mistake, do this.’ Certain things like that, he’s very detailed in his approach as you could kind of see.”
The 29-year-old Brissett has seen and been through a lot in his career and enjoys sharing his experiences and helping others.
“I think it's more just being genuine,” Brissett said. “Doing things with intent. Meaning what I say, meaning what I do and being the same guy every day. I think players gravitate to that, and like I said I just be myself.”
With the resolution to Watson’s discipline finally in place, the Browns – and Brissett – can move forward, which appears to be a bigger deal to everyone except Brissett.
“I don’t think it’s like we were sitting around waiting for anything,” Brissett said. “We were preparing for whatever and obviously it’s done now, and we’ll go about our business as we have been going.”
This week Stefanski transitioned to Brissett as the No. 1 quarterback, and he began receiving the bulk of the first-team reps in practice, but he won’t play until the third preseason game next week against the Bears. Watson will transition from working with the second team to being a spectator as August 30, when his ban begins, approaches.
The work these two days against the Eagles is proving to be more beneficial for Brissett and the Browns than a preseason game with Stefanski able to focus on repping situational football as opposed to having to go with he flow of a preseason game.
“It's game like,” Brissett said of the joint practices. “You gotta use these reps as valuable as they are. You're going against another team that you didn't really prepare for as much as you would normally, but you're going against another team that doesn't know what we do, how we do it. So it's helping the reaction time, kind of getting in that game feel.”
When September 11 rolls around, Brissett plans to be ready.
Like he always is.
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