Jacques Cesaire - Head Coach, browns Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-08-08 | Full transcript (primary source).
On August 8, 2026, Jacques Cesaire, the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, held a press conference to discuss the team's progress during training camp. During the session, he highlighted the impressive performance of players like Mason and Jared, emphasizing their leadership and development within the team.
Transcript
Cesaire: Hey, how you doing? Right. I started with the guy that was just standing up here. Yeah, Mason's having an incredible camp so far. I mean, I've never seen him look this fast. He's twitchy. He understands the defense finally, like just fully as understood and embraces the defense. So I'm excited for what he can do this year for us.
Cesaire: Yeah, you know, when I first met Jared, that's the first thing he told me. He was like, hey, I just want to be a leader. I want to bring guys up with me, you know, intentionally just elevate the guy next to me. And then he hit the ground running with that. You know, he came in the room, automatically meshed with the guys. And it was like, you know, him and Alex have a thing, you know, him and Turtle have a thing. So it's cool to see a guy that just walks into a room and acts like he's already been there for years. And you can see it in the play. When he's out there, you know, he's going to talk his junk. And then he gets everybody riled up. He gets the defense riled up. He's talking junk to the offense. And it gets them going. And so all that stuff, that leadership profile that we all know that this team needs defensively is really showing out right now.
Cesaire: Yeah, I mean, it's good because, you know, when you're coming in, when you're young in the NFL, you try to kind of find your voice. Sorry, my voice is a little hoarse right now. But when you're young, you're trying to kind of find your voice, right? And you're trying to kind of find your place on the team, you know, amongst your peers and things like that. And he's done a good job of just being himself, first of all, being a leader, but allowing other people to be themselves and go out and do the same thing. So it's been cool to see just, like, the synergy between everybody, offense, defense, and special teams.
Cesaire: I don't want them to be the loudest. I just want them to play sudden, violent, and fast. And if you have to talk junk to do that, cool, do that. If you want to be quiet, you know, Mason doesn't say anything. Right? But he's sudden, violent, and fast every play. So I want my guys to be themselves because that's who we got. That's who we're bringing in. I'm not trying to make them robots or be someone else. Right? So that's Jared's personality. Cool. You can do that. Work hard. Right? Do the things that we're asking you to do. Execute. Stay focused. If you can do all that and talk junk, go right ahead.
Cesaire: Yeah, it's like a two-part thing, right? We can give him something. He can give us something. You know, he is extremely strong, lengthy. He's violent. He's fast, really fast. And so we can help him, you know, get into a proper stance, get that width that we want in that wide nine, you know, defensive front and just let him go. You know, in LA, I think he was more of a stand-up, you know, two-point linebacker that read a little bit more, which slows you down a little bit, you know, in my opinion. And we just want him going as fast as he can. And the more he does that, as many times, and it's hard, right? There's a cost to doing business. You know, there's a little startup cost when you get a guy that's been a linebacker his whole career. And now you're telling him to put his hand in the dirt and go out there and play. But he's been fully embraced it, and, you know, if he messes up, he's like, hey, let's do that again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. This is a guy that really, really wants to buy in and do it right and do it our way.
Cesaire: That's the first part of leadership right there, right? Is the guy that is the big name on your defense, one of the big names on your defense, he's doing it exactly how you want him to do it and giving a ton of effort while he's doing it. And so, you know, what he gives us and what we give him, it's kind of like a perfect marriage right now.
Cesaire: Yeah, everybody's been great. You know, we've got some new guys just, you know, come into the program. And same thing just like Jared, you know, they've had to buy in really fast, right? We play a defense a certain type of way here, right? It's fast, it's violent, it's sudden, it's precise, right? It's not just running up the field. There's things that we have to do every single play versus every single blocking stream and protection. And so, those guys have really bought into what we're trying to do and, you know, we're asking them to run as fast as they can, rush as much as they can, you know, close on the ball and then when the ball gets thrown, run to the ball. That's it. You know, if they do that to start, we'll fix all the other stuff. And they've been doing that. So, I'm really pleased with all those guys so far.
Cesaire: The engine of the defense simply means this. We promised, we made a deal with the entire organization that when the ball is thrown, we're going to sprint to the ball. Okay. We're going to be the first on the scene to deliver the blow on whoever catches the ball or is trying to run the ball. That's the first thing of the engine. The second part of the engine is we get to establish violence. Okay. We're the first line of defense. So, we get to establish the violence, the mentality of the entire defense. And so, those guys take a lot of pride in it. We talk about it every single day. We preach it every single day. We practice it every single day. And so, we take pride in the defense trusting us with that title.
Cesaire: Well, I'm not big on pressures. I'd rather get the sack. But it's simple. You got four guys equal one. You got two guys in the middle, two big guys in the middle. They're pushing the pocket. You got two guys on the edge. They're squeezing the pocket as fast as they can. We want to assault the pocket as many times as we can. And, you know, we make deals in there with each other. Hey, we will do this every single snap. Okay. We're not asking, you know, guys to hold double teams and anchor and hold blocks for other people to make plays. We're saying that you're here because you can make a play. That's what we want from our defensive line. And so, they take a lot of pride in it. And that's what we do every single day.
Cesaire: Yeah, it's been really cool. You know, Alex, you know, we talked to one of the first guys here about leadership. And I've always considered Alex a leader. Some leaders are quiet. Some leaders are vocal, right? But he's done a good job of just, you know, picking his spots when to be that leader. The biggest way he's been a leader is just doing things right. You know, he shows up to practice every day. He's, you know, he's what we look at as the example of what we want out of this front. And that's a guy that we're relying on, that we trust is going to, you know, be one of the main producers on our team this year.
Cesaire: Yeah, probably one of the, you know, I said this today in the room, probably one of the smartest guys I've ever been around. He just understands football, you know? He understands formations and what the offense is trying to do. And so, he's trying to help everybody out as much as he can. And he gets down and he starts rolling. So, it's been really cool to see that maturation of him, you know. Last year, I think you guys all remember, you know, he came in, you know, he was feeling a little sick and things like that. The one thing I saw from that kid, though, was, you know, he got sick in practice that day, and he got right back in and started playing. Then he came in in great shape, I mean, tremendous shape, and just had an awesome season, you know. Truth be told, you know, a lot of those sacks, he should have had, you know. A lot of those sacks that went to other people should have been his. Not on the strength of, like, you know, he got there too slow or he helped the sack. No, he got the sack. Somehow, they gave it to the other person. So, you know, this is a guy that he knows exactly what's going on and he's letting everybody know. It's like having a second Michael linebacker out there, you know. It's really good for us.
Cesaire: Yeah, the most egregious one was in the Raiders game. We joke about it all the time. You know, he came out the field. I was like, man, you got three right now. And then we looked afterwards and said .5. I was like, I don't even know what to tell you right now. So, he doesn't even care though. He really does not care. He just wants the team to win. That's it, you know. And that's another form of leadership right there. No, a guy that does everything right, works his butt off, comes in every day, you know. He's very vocal in the meeting room, and just goes out there and proves it on the practice field.
Cesaire: Yeah, well, I mean, for me, you know, Tyreke Sapp is a name that comes up that has really just, I mean, he's grown so fast. I mean, from where he started to where he is right now, I'm extremely proud of him. You know, Aiden has been Aiden as usual, you know. Just a guy, just a ball of energy that can go in. A Swiss Army Knife type guy that he can play inside or outside. He has enough speed to do both. And you guys are going to love snacks, okay. And so, T-Bell, you know, we just got him. And, you know, the guy just comes in and he just works. And I'm really excited to see what these guys do next Saturday. You know, we're tuning him up right now for all of that. And I just can't wait. I'm excited, you know, football's back.
Cesaire: Yeah, that's a great question. So that drill right there, we call it quick and violent hands. All right, we want those guys to get off as fast as they can, make first contact, get hands on their man, knock him back, run their feet. All right, so they've got to get two steps in the ground before the offensive linemen get their second step on the ground. So the competition is there right now with that thought process that, like, hey, we've got to change the line of scrimmage, right? We've got to reset the line of scrimmage. And so we make it a competition with each other. Who's going to get off first, right? We're going to trample the run on the way to the quarterback. So if you're not coming off the ball, that's an opportunity. Like, you're not going to get a sack. So we make that a competition. And the guys get fired up about it. I know the fans love it. And you're getting good quality work. You're getting handwork. You're getting footwork and also competition with each other. So the guys love it. I love it. And you go down there, you're going to see a bunch of grown men working their tails off for this organization.
Cesaire: Well, first of all, it's never about them. It's always about us. Okay. What are we doing and what are we going to do? Okay. No disrespect to anybody out there. But we try and focus on us and what we have to do. Fine-tuning that as much as we can and then we go from there.