BEREA, Ohio -- Mike Pettine has talked about "Playing like a Brown" since he was hired as the Browns head coach on Jan. 23.
Pettine has been trying to change the culture of losing that has resulted in having three different head coaches in the past three seasons and has permeated the Browns franchise dating back to 1999.
It appears the Browns players have bought into what Pettine is selling and the results have shown early on. The Browns had a signature win under Pettine in the fifth game of the season when they blasted Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers 31-10 at FirstEnergy Stadium. Prior to the game, Roethlisberger owned an 18-1 career record against the Browns.
He left Cleveland 18-2.
Brian Hoyer said the players bought into Pettine from the moment he was hired.
"Maybe some people are surprised, but we're not surprising ourselves," Hoyer said. "I think we tried to change this culture from the very moment Coach Pettine got here. Going back to the first minicamp before the draft, you could tell people were, 'Let's see what this guy has to say. Let's go all in with it and where it takes us.' It just has continued to grow and grow and grow."
Hoyer said Pettine demanded respect from the day he became the Browns head coach.
"I think we have a great group of leaders and veteran guys," Hoyer said. "I remember, going back to when the coaches were hired, just talking to certain guys. Obviously, Mike Pettine wasn't a big-name hire, but maybe us playing against him last year as an offense, we had respect for him.
"He demands respect," he said. "He walks in the room and people listen to what he has to say. Like I said, when you look around this locker room you have a lot of talented guys who just want to win. You have really no other choice. You either can fight the system, and you're really just hurting yourself and the team, or everyone can buy into together and go all in the same direction."
Pettine came up through the coaching ranks the long way from the bottom up. He was a high school coach and worked his way up the ranks to his current role.
"I wouldn't put it just on me," Pettine said. "I think it's just the staff in general because I think they feel our passion, how important football is to us. We wanted to build that environment where guys wake up in the morning they can't wait to come to work. That's important because we're all in it together.
"It's not a military model," he said. "We're all in there with these guys. They see it's important to us and it's important to them. We're just, I think, very thankful, as a staff, that we've had the success that we've had because that just further cements the buy-in. These guys just kind of gave themselves to us in the spring -- a bunch of no-name coaches, very different schemes from what they were doing, and they bought in. Just the success that we're having, like I said, will just further cement that."
Besides the coaching staff being what Pettine described as 'a bunch of no-name coaches' the Browns have a lot of players that could fit into the category of 'no-name' players.
The Browns had 21 of the 53 players on their active roster come to the NFL as undrafted free agent rookies. That's nearly 40 percent of the roster coming to the NFL without being drafted.
Sure, several became big names elsewhere and came to the Browns as free agents such as Miles Austin, Desmond Bryant and Andrew Hawkins. However, the stigma of being undrafted out of college sticks with many of the players throughout their careers as they're always trying to prove themselves.
Hoyer leads the list of key contributors on the 2014 version of the Browns who were not drafted coming out of college. Others include Tashaun Gipson, Ray Agnew, Isaiah Crowell, Billy Cundiff, Taylor Gabriel and K'Waun Williams.
ESPN Stats and Info had an interesting statistic after six weeks that "The Browns have had more snaps from undrafted players (1,106) at offensive skill positions (QB/RB/WR/TE) than any other team in the NFL."
"I think, our situation, we had a lot of talented guys and you look around the room -- 'Why shouldn't, why can't we win?" Hoyer said. "What's the problem? This is what we have. This is our coach. This is his philosophy. These are our schemes. Let's just go both feet in, into the deep end of the pool and see where it takes us.' I think we're seeing the dividends of that."
The Browns have their highly drafted first-round players defensively in Donte Whitner, Barkevious Mingo, Justin Gilbert, Joe Haden and Phil Taylor and offensively in Joe Thomas, Alex Mack and Johnny Manziel. However, many of the undrafted free agents are contributing more than the top draft picks are in 2014.
Pettine said he thinks the players believe in each other.
"I think in a lot of ways. I just think there's belief," Pettine said. "They believe in each other. They believe in what we're doing. As I said earlier, this is a tight team. We could not have done what we've done to date without it being a tight group. There aren't a lot of clicks in the locker room. These guys are...like I said, they do stuff out of the building. We talk about being a team, and they embody that word."
Haden said he has felt the Browns had the makings of something special for a while.
"Inside, we knew what this team had and we just needed to show it on the field for an entire game, not just bits and pieces," Haden said. "It feels good to be a part of this team because I already know what we have in this locker room, and everybody just keeps fighting and being locked in the entire game. It's special."
The players believe that the sum of the parts is better than individual effort.
"What's so great about this group of guys is we don't care who gets the credit," Hoyer said. "We just want to win the game. I think good teams find different ways to win games. Whether it's winning on the last play of the game with a field goal, a touchdown pass, the defense coming out and really shutting their offense out or us hitting a few big plays here or there."
