Browns: 5 takeaways from Za'Darius Smith's OTA media availability (2024)

“Just woke up one morning, man, and thought I was ready for a change. I said that now that I’m 30, you know, I want to go with a new look. I’ve been talking to my parents, you know, my mom and my kids, and they were like agreeing with me, so I’m glad I did it. I look better, look younger, look slimmer, so I’m happy about it for sure.”

“Ah man, they didn’t know who I was, but a lot of people had jokes, you know, but, it’s all love, man. Like I said, this is a brotherhood. You know, you can come in how you want to and be yourself here, so just happy to do that, man, and just excited about the new haircut.”

“The culture, the chemistry with this team, man, everything. The brotherhood, man, the team camaraderie. I had a chance to go other places, but I felt like I didn’t want that, man. I felt like we didn’t get to where we wanted to last year, man. And we got something that we need to finish here. Hopefully we can get that done this year.”

“I mean, for one, I’m not a sorry football player. And for two, you know, I’ve been a lot of places, man, and made a name for myself. Being wanted, I’m not gonna say that is a thing, but for me to come back, you know, like I said, I had other options to go Miami (Dolphins), Washington (Commanders). I could have went anywhere, but I wanted to come back here because I see something in this team that a lot of people just don’t see, man, for being in the locker room, and I was talking about the team camaraderie, man. If we keep that close and keep the togetherness, man, we can go far this year, hopefully.”

“I like him, man. Younger cat, man coming in, got manners, man. And he’s wanting to learn. For real, he’s the first one in the meeting rooms before we get in there, so that’s a big thing. But I also told him today that we didn’t have any snacks, so for sure he got to make that happen tomorrow for us.”