DONE: [TO ALL THE BROWNS]CHRIS ROSE HAVE JUST SAID AN IMPRSSIVE THINGS ABOUT THE BROWNS DUE TO…

“Chris Jones was better than me that day, right?” Teller said. “And now it’s my mindset to be like, ‘Alright, if that’s what he was doing, if I was stapling him in his chest and he was lifting my hands, that’s not gonna happen again.”

“He’s one of the best in the league,” Teller said. “That’s where it’s like, ‘Alright, that’s the guy that I’ve got to beat.’ That’s the mindset of, ‘Alright, this guy’s talented, but so am I.’”
“T.J. came right under my pads and got me down and threw me to the ground and was talking smack,” Teller said, “and I was just like, yeah, that’s not gonna happen again.”
Talking to Teller about his season a year ago makes it clear it’s about process, not results for the 26-year-old fifth round pick out of Virginia Tech.
“Every coach has jargon and every coach that I’ve grown up with is, ‘Hey, work, work, work,’” Teller said. “And it’s not until you get older that you realize that the work is an equalizer.”

Teller, who started out as a defensive lineman in college, knows it’s not easy to match the athleticism many defensive lineman bring. He said there’s a reason he doesn’t play on that side of the ball anymore.

“If I see (left guard) Joel (Bitonio) and (center) JC (Tretter) working that hard, I have to do more, right?” Teller said. “They’re (eight, nine) years in, it’s like, OK, if that’s what they’re doing, what were they doing at year 2, year 3, year 4 that really put them ahead to get them where they are today?”

It was last year when he truly started to understand the process. It’s not coincidental it came when Bill Callahan took over as his offensive line coach. Callahan liked Teller in Washington — he was almost drafted there — and Teller’s agent was working to get Teller a chance to work with Callahan before the Browns hired him.

First meetings we had (with Callahan) were on how to be a pro,” Teller said, “not technique or fundamentals, how to be a pro. Outworkyour competition, all these different things that really come into where my mindset was, but also like, wow, that’s what I need.”

Callahan helped Teller understand he needed to embrace what he was good at. If you’re a big, strong guy with long arms, get on the defender and win at the line, don’t sit back. Use your physical gifts.

Callahan wants Teller to be not just a mauler, but a technical mauler. It’s about making a defender not just worry about what’s happening behind the line of scrimmage but what’s happening on it.

“You’re worried about the backfield, but you’re also worried about that right guard coming to rip your face off,” Teller said. “It’s like, now I gotta worry about that jerk at right guard.”

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