“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.”
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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