BEREA, Ohio − There are few players on the Browns who are closer to Jacoby Brissett on a day-in, day-out basis than Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
The quarterback and the outside linebacker sit next to each other in the team’s locker room in Berea. That has given the second-year pro a chance to observe the man upon whom the controls of the Browns’ offense will rest for the first 11 games of the season.
What Owusu-Koramoah has discovered in that time, though, isn’t just a football player. In Brissett, he has discovered an oracle of sorts.
“I mean, he’s the guy that we look to for that elder wisdom,” Owusu-Koramoah said Friday. “He’s like one of the, what do they call … the shaman. He has the … he has the wisdom that we’re all trying to get. But no, he’s a great guy.”
BROWNS: Trading for Jimmy Garoppolo is short-term fix Browns need
OPINION: Deshaun Watson’s accountability about-face underscores serious problem
Brissett’s role on the Browns was known almost literally from the day he signed with the team. He signed on March 19, one day after they acquired Deshaun Watson in a trade.
From that moment, it was all but assured that Brissett was going to start at least a portion of the Browns’ season at quarterback. It just wasn’t known exactly how much of the season.
Two weeks ago, when Watson’s original suspension was handed down by Sue L. Robinson, it was believed to be six games. On Thursday, after a settlement was reached on the NFL’s appeal of that decision, the Browns − and Brissett − learned it would be 11 games.
For Brissett, it didn’t matter if it was one game, six games or 11 games. It wasn’t going to change who he is on a daily basis.
“I just have to be myself,” Brissett said. “I don’t really kinda try and do anything more or less. More so, I just try and be myself.”
Exactly who is Jacoby Brissett, though? A person outside of the Browns’ facility may see him as just a quarterback who has bounced from New England to Indianapolis to Miami and now Cleveland, often being thrust into situations like the one he’s currently in where he’s suddenly in a starter’s role.
The people inside the facility? They see a Brissett who can bring the perfect balance of football and fun.
“He’s a funny guy,” running back Nick Chubb said. “He’s fun to be around. He’s always so serious, but it’s in a fun, facetious way. He’s a great guy to be around.”
Reviews like Chubb’s are why Brissett has gained a reputation from players around the league for being a great teammate. It’s why, even through the uncertainty that surrounded the quarterback position as everyone awaited the final resolution of the Watson discipline, his teammates rallied around him.
To those teammates, they didn’t see a quarterback who had posted a 14-23 record as a starter in his previous stops, including 2-3 in Miami last year. They saw a quarterback with whom they believe they can still win, no matter what past results or outside opinions may state.
“Can’t really worry about what outsiders say,” receiver Amari 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.”
So, too, is Brissett. It’s a job he’s been able to do more of lately, as the Browns are fully in the transition from Watson to him with the first-unit offense.
Brissett had received essentially no snaps with that group through the offseason and the first three full-squad practices. That changed, slightly, on the fourth day of training camp, when they started to work him in with that group.
However, following last week’s preseason opener in Jacksonville, the transition is fully engaged. It started on Sunday and continued all through the week, with Brissett basically getting all of the No. 1 quarterback reps.
“I think we have a plan and we’re going along with the plan, and I’m continuing to get more and more comfortable with the offense,” Brissett said. “I haven’t played in a game yet, so I think when that time comes it will come and I’ve got to use, which I do, I use these practices, these days as my game. I go out there with the mindset that it is a game I think I’m playing every day.”
That’s even though Brissett isn’t likely to play much more than a few series in a game before the Sept. 11 season opener at Carolina. He didn’t play against the Jaguars − a game Watson started − and won’t play in Sunday’s second preseason game against Philadelphia.
Brissett is expected to make his only preseason appearance in the Aug. 27 finale against Chicago. Yet, he doesn’t believe it’s stunting his ability to settle into the starter’s role.
“I think every day we go out there I’ve grown more and more comfortable,” Brissett said. “Obviously, I didn’t play in the game but just seeing how the game was called, and just talking to the guys on the sideline and stuff like you kind of grow more in confidence in what we’re doing. So I’m just looking for that to continue to build.”
