BEREA, Ohio — Browns special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone, who’s under fire from fans and media for the poor special teams play this season, has felt nothing but support from the organization.
Ventrone lost his primary return specialist DeAndre Carter to a knee injury in training camp, and has had rookies Isaiah Bond and Gage Larvadain returning punt. On kickoff returns, Malachi Corley and Dylan Sampson have been handling the chore.
During last Sunday’s 26-8 loss to the 49ers, Corley fielded a kickoff at the 5 and ran out of bounds in the third quarter to back the Browns up to their own end zone instead of starting at the 40. They punted from their own 6, and the defense forced a three-and-out, but Larvadain muffed the punt, and the 49ers recovered and cashed in with a TD.
To make matters worse, the game began with a 66-yard punt return that led to a TD.
Afterwards, fans and some media called for Ventrone to be fired.
“I truly believe that I have the support,” Ventrone said. “It feels like I have the support of the Head Coach, the GM and ownership. I mean, AB (Andrew Berry), Kev (Kevin), Jimmy (Haslam) and JW (Johnson), like, those guys have been very supportive. I think they definitely understand that we’ve lost guys in training camp.
“Winston (Reid), Bookie (Nathaniel Watson), you know, you lose D.C. (DeAndre Carter) early in the year, so then you have to piece the unit together. You’re adding guys late, guys that haven’t had as many reps to your unit. So, it’s like, yeah, I have no concerns about whether they understand. Yeah, I think they understand.”
The punt return was the seventh long return allowed by the Browns this season, including three for TDs. They’re 28th in the NFL in both punt and kick coverage, and 30th and 22nd in kickoff and punt returns, respectively.
“A lot of things factor into it,” Ventrone said. “Just the continuity within the group that having, like, a mixed bag of a lot of young players paired with some veterans that haven’t had as much experience doing it. There’s something to be said about just being able to be comfortable playing in the kicking game. I just remember, like, when we had our best units when I played here in 2009 and ’10, we obviously had a really good returner (Josh Cribbs), but we had a group of core players that had played together and were very comfortable, like me, Blake (Costanzo), (Jason) Trusnick, Nick (Sorenson). Like, we had Kaluka (Maiava).
“We had a group that was, like, very just … we just played well together. You just play off of each other. And I think we’re just trying to get to that level, you know, because of how we’re built. And you have a lot of young guys that are playing out there. I don’t know any other way than to just keep pushing these guys to work. Just keep working at it. And the more reps we get, the better that we’re gonna get, now and on down the road. But I believe in the guys we have, and I think that we continue to just keep working and get better.”
Are they missing an enforcer on teams, a guy like Ventrone was here back in the day, or current Falcon Mike Ford Jr. was here more recently?
“I don’t know if we have a guy that is like that right now,” Ventrone said. “We have some veterans that are playing in like a phase or two that will be vocal at times. But, yeah, I would say, yeah, we probably don’t have that one guy like that right now.”
What happened on the Corley mistake?
Ventrone explained what happened with Corley fielding the ball at the 5 and running out of bounds.
“So, what you can do in that situation, I think that the ball had enough momentum on it that it was going to just go out of bounds anyway,” he said. “But we tell our guys that if it’s close and say the ball is rolling near the sideline, establish your foot out of bounds and then you can contact the ball, and the ball would go to the 40. I would say he’s new to the position, hasn’t had a ton of experience back there. I think with experience that he’ll continue to improve and get better. Obviously, it was unfortunate with the drive start there, but I’m confident that these guys are going to continue to work and push through it.”
He noted that “we cover it every week. We have situational stuff we do every Friday. We’re always talking about the rules, especially with the new kickoff format. There’s a lot of things that play into that, and our guys have been educated on all those things. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re applying them into the game.”
Can someone else besides Larvadain return punts?
“I think that for right now, what our roster looks like, I think Gage is our best option,” Ventrone said. “We have a lot of faith in him to get it right. And look, he understands that there’s a lot of pressure at that position and we’ve got to be able to answer the bell and he’ll put the work in, he’ll put the time in to be able to do so.”
He noted that Larvadain is a “young player, his first time really doing it consistently and being the main guy. There was significant wind there. Not making an excuse for the kid, but significant wind playing away from the Dawg Pound. You know, he’s made that catch a million times, so just gotta be able to finish it and focus and finish on the catch.”
What about the Moore 66-yard return?
“Yeah. If you go back and watch the clip, we have seven guys right at the point of attack,” Ventrone said. “We need to just make a tackle.”
He noted that his players understand that.
“They know their responsibilities and what they’re asked to do,” he said. “We just need to execute at a higher level.”
On containing No. 1 punt returner Chimere Dike of the Titans
Ventrone coached Titans punt returner Chimere Dike at the Senior Bowl and loved him.
A fourth-round pick out of the Florida, Dike leads the NFL with a 21.2 yard punt return average, and returned two for TDs, including a 90 yarder.
“First off, great kid,” Ventrone said. “Really enjoyed coaching him that week at the Senior Bowl. Really, really good skill set, fast, good ball skills, good ball security. Very good vision. Has the ability to run every type of return out there. So, we will have to do a good job.”
Is he the best in the league?
“He’s definitely one of the best,” Ventrone said. “It’d be hard to say Marcus Jones (of the Patriots) isn’t right there. Jones has done it for multiple years. There’s a lot of talented returners in the league right now, probably more than I can remember, honestly. Usually you can say, ‘hey, this guy’s the best guy.’ Those guys, (KaVontae) Turpin…I mean, there’s a bunch of guys that are out there right now.”
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