BEREA, OHIO – MAY 08: Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg of the Cleveland Browns directs a drill throughout a rookie minicamp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on Might 08, 2026 in Berea, Ohio. (Photograph by Nick Cammett/Diamond Pictures through Getty Pictures) | Diamond Pictures/Getty Pictures
Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken, like his friends throughout the league, will not be keen on seeing his quarterback flip the ball over.
That’s very true throughout 7-on-7 drills, the place the quarterback will not be going through a go rush and easily has to finish what ought to be a routine go. Monken was agast when it occurred final week throughout OTAs, calling it “embarrassing,” and he definitely didn’t like seeing it occur 3 times once more on Wednesday.
Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg, nevertheless? He’s all for it!
Whereas all three of immediately’s interceptions – one every from Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson, and Dillon Gabriel – weren’t all of the fault of the quarterbacks, as every bounced off the palms of the supposed receivers.
I requested #Browns DC Mike Rutenberg in regards to the defensive efforts thus far into OTAs, which have included quite a lot of interceptions."The ball's oxygen. You need oxygen to live. So the ball is our oxygen. We need it for our football lives." pic.twitter.com/MSRQHH6pGk
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) Might 27, 2026
However the defensive gamers displaying the attention to trace the ball and make the interception had Rutenberg fired up when he met with the media following the day’s apply (quotes through a team-provided transcript):
“The ball is oxygen. Like you need oxygen to live, so the ball is our oxygen. We need it for our football lives. So anytime that ball is in the air or someone’s running with it, we’re attacking it. If it’s on the ground, we’re scooping it, and we are scoring with it. It just has to do with our mindset, which is our livelihood. It’s our oxygen.”
And regardless that it might rub his boss the unsuitable method (Rutenberg made positive to say he desires to “keep the head coach happy,”) Rutenberg nonetheless enjoys seeing the exhausting work put in by his gamers paying off, so he’ll proceed to rejoice when his facet of the ball makes a play:
“Like anything any of us do as a team, in our opinion, this is the greatest team sport in the world. We get this opportunity for 11 of us on a defense, a team, and a coaching staff to work together and to do some really hard stuff. So when we do some really hard stuff, and it works out in our favor, let’s celebrate and have a blast. Let’s show how much we love each other by how much we celebrate. That’s just going to build our camaraderie, and we’re going to have a great time doing it, because adversity is promised. So when good things happen, let’s celebrate it.”
It is just apply, and the protection goes up in opposition to one of many worst quarterback rooms within the NFL, however it’s nonetheless good to see the protection bringing the power, beginning with Rutenberg. He’s in a little bit of a troublesome spot because the protection should carry the workforce this fall till the offense will get itself in gear, and he’s changing in style defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who took his playbook and went dwelling after being handed over for the top coach place.
However the early returns have been good, and that’s with out standouts like Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward on the sector for the voluntary exercises.
As soon as he will get the total protection collectively and operating at full pace, Rutenberg and the remainder of the protection ought to be respiration deep on the kind of oxygen {that a} high-powered protection must survive.
