Cleveland Head Coach Kevin Stefanski on the Texans: "Really good football team. At the top of their standings in their division. I know three-way tie, but good football team. I think Coach (DeMeco) Ryans is doing an awesome job down there. Really huge challenge on all three sides of ball, good players."
Cleveland LB Anthony Anthony Walker on the Texans: "Very well coached, very fundamentally sound. Defense flying around. Yeah, they're a really good team."
Stefanski on the Texans Defense: "I know Coach Ryans is heavily involved with that side of the ball. Matt Burke, their defensive coordinator. Great coach, bunch of coaches that I know, really good coaching staff that he put together down there. Defensively, run a very similar system to ours. It's an attack front out of a four-down lineup most of the time and they really get off the ball and they are very good up front. I mean really, really good. Those edge players, the defensive tackles, outstanding. They can run at really all three levels of the defense. Good corners, smart safeties and they've been very ball aware. So, got to be about our business."
Cleveland QB Joe Flacco on Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans and the defense: "I think they're a really well-coached team and they got guys that play aggressive and you see this defense pop up around the league. The last couple of years in New York, I was with Robert Saleh and he was in San Francisco with 'Meco and you know. So, you see the guys that coach this defense and you can tell that they have these guys ready to play their defense in this kind of way. Their front does a really good job and their back end plays aggressive. And I think the key to those guys, to that style, is that front disrupting everything and allowing that back end to play that aggressive style because they're going to trust that they're going to stop the run and get to the quarterback. So, I think they do those things well."
Stefanski on the Texans offense: "Offensively, they're doing a really nice job under Coach (Bobby) Slowik. They're not giving the ball away. That's really where you start. They're leading the league as a team in turnover margin and they're taking good care of it on offense. Really good playmakers, really all over the board. They have a very good understanding of that scheme. I think they've done a nice job there in their run game and their pass game and all the things that they're doing in that scheme."
Stefanski on Texans QB Case Keenum: "Case comes in last week, starts and wins. That's what he does. He's played a lot of football games in his career, started a lot of football games in his career, has won. So we know the type of talent that he has as well. he played a ton of football in college, so he had a ton of experience coming in. He's played in multiple systems since before we had him and since so has a very good understanding of offensive football, defensive football, son of a coach. So Case knows the X's and O's really well, has always been a playmaker throughout his entire career, but a really good football player, a guy that we have to study this week, just like every week, getting ready for multiple quarterbacks."
Cleveland Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz on Keenum: "Case Keenum's been around for a long time. Has all the experience in the league, obviously. He was here. He led the Vikings to an NFC Championship game. I was in Philly when we played them. A true vet that has seen everything. Very accurate passer. He does it a little bit different than C.J. Stroud. Case Keenum's a winner. We're going to have to play our very best against him."
Flacco on Keenum: "Everywhere Case has been, he's done a great job of coming in and winning games for football teams. So, it's going to be a challenge either way."
Walker on Keenum: "Case did a great job for us here, has always done a great job in the NFL as a quarterback. So, he's going to test us. Obviously, he's going to make throws. He's going to get them in the right sets at all times, make the picture clean for him. So we got to make it dirty for him. And that's our job as linebackers to kind of control the middle of the field. I think that's one consistent thing that they do, is take the middle of the field, no matter who's at quarterback."
Cleveland CB Greg Newsome, II on Keenum: "I've been with Case as well out here and Case is an unbelievable talent as well. He gets tagged as a backup quarterback, but I feel like he could start for a lot of franchises as well. Just how smart and reliable he is as a quarterback as well."
Stefanski on Texans QB C.J. Stroud: "I think C.J. Stroud's having as good a year as there is. That position for rookies, doesn't not look like a rookie. The way he plays, the decision making, the physical talent is off the charts."
Schwartz on Stroud: "I've been very, very impressed with him as a rookie player. He doesn't look like a rookie out there. He was playing at a really high level. He made accurate throws. He used his legs. Had great command of what they were doing offensively. Recognized coverages. Recognized blitzes."
Newsome, II on Stroud: "Unbelievable. He's not just the best rookie quarterback, he's one of the best quarterbacks already in his early NFL career, obviously wishing and praying for him. Concussions are a big deal, so hopefully he gets back out there because we'd love to compete against him."
Newsome, II on Texans WR Nico Collins: "Obviously, getting him back will help their offense a lot. Being a big body guy, I think he's top in the NFL in broken tackles, so definitely a viable threat for us."
