Q. How was your bye week? How did you spend the time away?
JALEN HURTS: Just took like any other bye week, having some time away from the building a little bit, but also really diving into some things, talking to my coaches and really having great moments with Nick.
Q. Just four games so far. Did that change the process at all?
JALEN HURTS: No. Well, I think this is probably I'd say one of the most efficient bye weeks I've been a part of this year, or my career, excuse me, just being able to share those moments and talk through some things and build.
Q. What do you guys talk about? What made the moments great?
JALEN HURTS: I don't want to get too into it, but just some great moments.
Q. Why do you think that is? Why do you think that those moments revealed themselves now?
JALEN HURTS: I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I think the reality for us, we just have to go out there and play within ourselves and in our identity, who we are, and I think that's something that we've been able to establish, and we just have to do it consistently and trust everyone on the field, and that obviously starts with me and my approach in doing it.
Q. What specifically do you feel like you need to improve on these last 13 games?
JALEN HURTS: I think it starts with me in terms of us playing clean football. You know, I touch the ball every play. There's a ton of responsibility in that, and I love the position because of that and the opportunity to set the pace and set the tempo for everything else on the field. So I'm just excited for that. We're all excited for it.
Q. Some things you've learned and need to work on. How much of a confidence booster is it to have A.J., Devonta and Lane back out there?
JALEN HURTS: It's always good to have your guys out there. I jokingly said it's nice to see some familiar faces out there. We trust everybody that's out there. That's always the mentality that's out there. But you know those guys and what they're able to do.
Q. In your first year starting, you spoke to us about how you really like hard coaching, and I think you said you live with your hardest coach. As you've kind of grown in your career, is that still the type of coaching that you want?
JALEN HURTS: You know, I think you can interpret what hard is. Direct, want to kind of make it as clean as possible. And you have the parameters you have when you're out there on the field, and you want to abide by those parameters and go out there and play clean football. So I think that's why it's so important to communicate, and I think that's exactly what we've had the opportunity to do. Just talking to all of my coaches and really building.
Q. When you look back at the first four games, how much do you think a part of that was still kind of learning Kellen's offense or was it more just the guys that you didn't have over the last three games?
JALEN HURTS: I think it's a bit of both. But honestly, I think they both affect each other. I think it's about living an identity and being who we are and having the mentality of it's about us. It's not about what's been done to them, the opposing team, what they do. It comes down to how we decide to play, and we have to trust in that. We've just gotta trust in that.
Q. It's been a while for you, Jalen, but when Jim Schwartz was here your first year, can you tap back into that, remember what it was like to work with his defense?
JALEN HURTS: I always had really good defense. He's a really good coach. His energy. I know he holds his defense to a high standard. He coaches and he kind of rubs off of himself to others, a good swagger. So a lot of respect for him. Obviously the Browns got great players, a great front seven. They got great defense, led by a great coach.
Q. Going back to A.J., Devonta and Lane working their way back, you guys have talked about finding your identity a lot this season. How important is having those guys to find the identity?
JALEN HURTS: I think it's different. You look at the first four games, it's been different situations, and ultimately it comes down to what you do with what you have and the positions we're in and taking advantage of those things. But like I said, everything is predicated, you know. It's about the play makers, you know, and to have opportunities to make plays, and those guys play a big role in that.
Q. That sounds like maybe you guys honed in on an identity during the bye week. What do you feel like it is? There's a lot of discussion going in about what the identity was going to be.
JALEN HURTS: It's just doing what we do and doing what we've done.
Q. Without being specific, can you talk about how do you go about trying to play more clean football and not turning the ball over?
JALEN HURTS: Coach Sirianni talked about the details today, and I think that's what it comes down to, from timing to communication, everyone being on the same page on the field in terms of what play is called and how we execute that play, defining it, alleviating the gray in anything and saying, hey, this is exactly what we're doing on this with the talent we have and letting the talent take over when it's time to.
Q. How about the slow start to the games? What needs to be done to fix that, and how does that affect your guys' game plan when you're playing from behind?
JALEN HURTS: Yeah, I think it's very important to start fast. It's something that has traditionally been something we've done well, and we haven't been able to do it as well as we wanted to this year. We've had some good drives early, but maybe couldn't finish or had a turnover or all these different things. I think once we get going, we get going. We just have to be able to do that earlier. It's definitely a goal. Everybody is working towards that. We're just going to continue to take it day by day. I think we'll get to a point where we get rolling. It's just about remaining steadfast.
Q. The moments with Nick over the bye week, what prompted that? Somebody might say, okay, it's the bye week, I need to get away, I need to clear my head and then come back fresh. But it sounds like you guys both felt the need to come together and deal with some stuff.
JALEN HURTS: Well, we're the two leaders of the team, and I'm happy and fortunate that we were able to come together in harmony and have the same goal in mind and trying to get this team right. I got a ton of confidence in him, a ton of confidence in what he brings and everything he's been able to accomplish and just continue to press on on that. Everybody goes through different moments. Everybody experiences adversity, but we've experienced different levels of adversity together, and we're excited for what's to come.
Q. You really felt like it was needed, like you needed to kind of have this summit?
JALEN HURTS: I feel like it was something that just happened.
Q. Handle it and how do you think together you've handled it?
JALEN HURTS: What adversity?
Q. Losing some games in the fashion you did.
JALEN HURTS: We all go through those things. We win as a team and we lose as a team. And we're just going to continue to press forward. We're always going to look back and say what could we have done better. You really start losing when you stop learning, and there hasn't been a moment where we've stopped learning. It'll show at some point. Maybe not showing right now or anytime in these past four weeks, but it'll show. It'll show. We just have to settle in, settle in, play our game, at the end of the day, control what we can and keep the main thing the main thing.
Q. I know in the past you and DeSean have had relationship work out together. I know he was very happy when you signed your contract. Obviously not this week, but do you guys as peers or anybody else in the league do you have as a sounding board to say, hey, I'm going through this, I'm going through this?
JALEN HURTS: There's a couple guys around the league from different schools and whatnot and people I've been able to train with throughout my career, but I got a lot of respect for him as a player and be good to go out there and compete.
Q. In the Alabama game, Jalen Milroe, could you see what he wore, could you hear what he said?
JALEN HURTS: I got a text of him wearing the shirt. I don't know what he said, but got a ton of respect for Jalen. Hell of a player. Hell of a player. Another Houston kid coming out of there. Coach Saban went to Houston to go get him, and he's paved himself a great journey at the University of Alabama. So I'm excited for him and hoping that he can finish the year off strong. Got a lot of love and respect for him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports