Browns president Mike Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert met the media Wednesday. They offered a lot of thoughts on the Browns future, but did not break news. They provided few specific details into plans, but offered quite a bit of philosophy and overviews. I wrote about the news conference here, with details about what the pair said about Colt McCoy.
Here are more musings:
--This was a kinder, gentler Holmgren than the last time we saw him. The dedicated, I’m-here-to-win guy showed up, and talked for quite a length of time about quite a variety of topics -- though he did not endorse anyone in the Republican primaries.
--Holmgren started with a nice touch, presenting a game ball to broadcast voice Jim Donovan for the courage and strength he’s shown in coming back from a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia. Nice gesture to an extremely good guy.
--Holmgren said Colt McCoy still can be a franchise quarterback, but he’s not yet. Holmgren said his opinion of McCoy has not changed, that McCoy has a lot of intangibles he likes. He also said he loved McCoy, then added: “But I love Seneca Wallace …” When he says that kind of thing, Sam Rutigliano telling Brian Sipe he loved him after he was intercepted on Red Right 88 comes to mind.
--Heckert said the team probably will not sign a free agent quarterback. Remember that when Matt Flynn visits. Aside: The quarterback draft sure changed when Matt Barkley and Landry Jones decided to stay in school.
--Heckert also said the Browns will sign free agent players, just not a lot. “We were never against it,” he said. “That’s obviously not the way we want to build the football team, but anytime we can add players at any position we’ll do it.” In one way, this is refreshing. The last thing anyone wants is to see the Browns run their team like Daniel Snyder runs the Redskins. And back in the Phil Savage era, money was thrown around like confetti (remember Kevin Shaffer?). There is a place for free agency, but some restraint is not unwise. A guess: The Browns are likely to improve the offensive line via free agency.
--Holmgren (the dueling ‘H’ names get old in a hurry) continually said the record could have easily been near .500, that the Browns were in more games than they won. This may be true. Presumably he means the two Bengals games and the Rams game. Problem is it’s just as easy to turn it around and say that the wins over Jacksonville and Seattle and Miami easily could have been losses. Which is why it’s always best to fall back on the Bill Parcells attitude -- you are your record.
--Thankfully nobody brought up the offseason workout thing, how Pat Shurmur did not have an offseason before his first year. Tight end Benjamin Watson addressed that issue on Channel 19 with Tony Zarrella on Wednesday night. “No excuses,” Watson said. “Everybody had to deal with that, right?”
--The “business as usual” thing did come up. Holmgren again said it’s not business as usual on his watch because the Browns won’t blow up the organization after a losing season. This is well and good, and a welcome change, but most fans probably look on business as usual as the constant losing and inane plays, like handing off to the backup tight end playing fullback in the red zone. That part of things did not change this season.
--There was a little too much propping up of Greg Little for my money.
--Heckert and Holmgren (H&H?) also said they believe in their defense and (Heckert’s words) “we think we have a chance to be really good on defense.” I find a disconnect there when the Browns gave up 147.4 yards per game rushing, 30th in the league. “We had trouble at times with the run,” Holmgren said. “You can probably point to a couple games, Texas and Baltimore a couple times, where they just gashed us. But other than that we did a decent job versus the run.” Fair enough, let’s look. Houston ran for 261 yards, and Baltimore ran for 290 and 162 yards. That’s 731 yards in three games, which means the Browns gave up 1,646 yards in the other 13. Which averages out to 126.7 per game, which would rank 23rd in the league. That’s better, but still not very good.
--Holmgren said he was the one who suggested to Shurmur that he be his own offensive coordinator in his first year. “I told him as the process went on, ‘If you don’t get the guy you want, do it yourself,’” Holmgren said. Interesting. Many said it was Holmgren’s fault the Browns lacked an offensive coordinator when in reality Holmgren was the guy responsible for the idea.
--The two Hs (good to change it up) declined to discuss players on the team who could be free agents. Peyton Hillis, D’Qwell Jackson. Just no comment. That seemed odd.
--The president (quite original eh?) could not be more in Shurmur’s corner, which makes sense given Holmgren hired Shurmur after firing Eric Mangini. He’s gonna torch the guy he chose a year later? Shurmur said Shurmur’s perseverance and ability to handle adversity was strongly tested. He said Shurmur will be better for it. “If you guys haven’t understood that yet, you know he’s wired the right way, you know he cares, you know he’s smart and he’s going to do the right things for this football team. He did a lot of good things in somewhat of a tough situation, at times, I felt,” Holmgren said. Ok, then.
--Heckert on the fourth pick in the draft: “It’s tough to screw that one up.” Forgive him, he’s not been around long enough to remember ‘99 and 2000, when the Browns had the first pick. Or the year they drafted a certain receiver third overall who recently was cut by San Francisco. Or … never mind.
--Nothing about playoff tickets mentioned. Apparently the policy is still in place. Sigh.
