After two prominent Browns players spoke up following the team’s latest loss, Browns coach Hue Jackson felt compelled to talk to them about keeping team business within the team.
On a conference call with reporters Monday, Jackson said it’s “not Terrelle [Pryor’s] job” to talk about the offensive line’s struggles. After a 24-9 loss to the Steelers that included rookie quarterback Cody Kessler suffering his second concussion of the season and Browns quarterbacks getting sacked eight times, Pryor said he “hated” that “every time our quarterback drops back” he seems to get hit.
“They can’t keep getting hit like that, and if I want to voice my opinion, I’m going to voice my opinion now, because it’s going on too much,” Pryor said, per Cleveland.com. “I don’t care if you’ve got to hold these dudes. Hold them and take the damn penalty and stop getting our quarterbacks hit. I hate that.”
Asked what could be done about it at this point of the season, Pryor said: “We’ll have to talk to our management and that’s a question for them, but we can’t keep getting these guys hit. I’m tired of our guys getting hit. I’m nobody to complain because I don’t run it, but it’s personal to me because I care for those guys and I don’t like seeing them get hit like that. Point blank, period. Somebody’s got to say it.
“It’s dangerous. They’re getting hit every play.”
Jackson said he and Pryor spoke about focusing “on ourselves and supporting each other. That is what good teams do, and that is what we are going to work to become.
“After the game and after the heat of the moment, you are a little frustrated and maybe you say some things that you wish you hadn’t. I understand it is coming from a good place. I know that no one wants to see our quarterback getting hit, but I think everybody has to let me be the judge of that.”
Understandably, Browns Pro Bowl tackle Joe Thomas also wasn’t happy after the game. He called the offseason free agency departures of center Alex Mack and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz “part of our strategy” and said the remaining Browns “have to lie in the bed you’ve made.”
It doesn’t sound like there’s much fun being had inside the Browns’ walls right now.
“Again, I just think all of our players are frustrated,” Jackson said. “Again, they want to win. It is all coming from a good place. There is not a guy in our locker room that does not want to win. When things do not go well, it is very easy to point back to some other things. In order for us to get to where we want to be as an organization and as a good football team, we all are going to learn from every decision that we make, but I think right here in the middle of the season and late in the season where things have not gone as well, it is easy to feel, think and wish that things were different.
“I understand those questions that are going to be asked, and I understand some of the answers that will come from our players, but at the same time, I think what we have to do is just stay positive through it all. It is not easy to do. It is hard to do, but that is how I want our team to handle it, and we are just going to continue to move forward.”
