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I found it funny that the water bottles had

DE JA Blue Labels !

Always blue after a Browns Season !

That was not lost on me -- meme worthy.

Vers, that was the one big takeaway... by default. The theme seemed to be "it is what it is, not much to see here (yet)". "It's tough to win in the NFL, we're all accountable." "We can't really get in to that, we've just begun".

I don't say that to be negative. That is to be expected; and really, with today's media, that's the best approach.

I liked Berry's response to Tony when responding to his smart-assed question... "No Tony, we don't have analytics to tell the analytics department when they're doing too much analyzing". They've both learned to pat Tony on his head and move on without getting rattled. They actually had fun with it together and gave him a call-back to mock him later. I wonder if Tony even realized that's what they were doing lol.

They both look relieved to be moving forward. They looked like I felt all day. I chewed the whole thing up and spit it out last night... anger, frustration, etc. Today I felt liberated.

There wasn't much to read between the lines. But the one thing that stood out to me were the conversations about communication. Stefanski piped up and spoke of talks with players today about the subject. I got a strong sense that he assured them things would be better going forward. There is a good possibility Woods was tough to communicate with. That may have been true on many levels... coach to coach, coach to player, coach to group of players. Just a feeling on my part, as there wasn't a lot of substance.


I don't think there is any doubt, however, that Berry is firmly in Stefanski's corner. He was stern, focused and direct when someone threw him a curveball and asked why. That actually prompted what I can only guess was an "awe, shucks" type response from coach, it was undecipherable... they both laughed it off.

That is great news, whether people want to roll their eyes or not. It is a very necessary jumping-off-point if there is a to be a solid chance of turning things around quickly.

Also, they both were vehement in their faith in Deshaun's abilities at quarterback. They pointed out some of the ways it has jumped off the page and I nodded in agreement. On one hand, sure, what else would they say. On the other, the panic has been a bit puzzling. A week ago, everybody was in lockstep with 'the progression', the day after a loss to a football team playing defense about as well as anyone in the league -- the sky is falling.

Excited to see how things unfold. Glad this mess of a season is behind us.

So what are you saying exactly about DW with this? Because when you put it like that, allowing for the rust of live starts, shouldn't he have been balling hard by game 3? or 4? or the last game? I hope he finds whatever is missing before next year. Then, I do want elite DW to show up and take us to the post-season, and I don't want another basement-dwelling year. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little concerned. I think it's because I've never seen him playing elite ball because I never paid attention to him before.

It is. I also think part of that is they know they will sink or swim together. And that is a good thing. Too often we see the finger pointing start when things start to go south.

Well said. I don't want to add anything to it because I would just mess up what you already said.

Good point about finger pointing. We saw that w/previous regimes. In fact, almost every regime we've had since we returned. Berry and Stefanski will have to have a more productive year next year or Haslam will probably pull the plug.

Fate - I haven't seen or heard the Berry/KS presser - I did hear most of Watson's end of season presser.

As you seemed to say in your post - they put on a performance that indicated they are in lock step with each other, they have absolute faith in their direction, the decision to acquire Watson, they are great at working and communicating together.... not sure if it was inferred in the interview, or just you throwing out the line about Joe Woods being hard to communicate with. I'd be disappointed if they gave any such indication regardless of it being true.

And in essence nothing changed right - they said what they were supposed to say. They did what they were suppose to do. What choice do they have? At the same time - there are bright spots and positives you can take out of Stefanski's head coaching and control of the offence ... that hasn't changed. Regarding Watson we saw some things that were special and should provide hope. But none of that changes all the consistent issues KS has had with getting pass happy, with trying to outsmart NFL coaches with his 4th down play calling of low percentage plays. None of that removes the things Watson didn't do well. Basically they've sold us some hope - focus on the bright spots. Focus on the positives. Focus on how well we appear to work as a team. Bottom line none of it means diddly squat - Stefanski will be judged on how he has the team performing next year. Berry will be judged on his draft picks and free agent signings and whether Watson is a franchise/elite QB again. Watson will be judged on his ability to win games and overcome good defenses - because while Pit might be a really good defense, hopefully we didn't pay a guy $1/4 Billion and give a trove of draft picks away just to lose to the good defenses and play like crap when facing adversity.

For me these interviews are marketing, self promotion, spin and window dressing and mean very little in the grand scheme of things.

As far as the Joe Woods thing... as I said, that was my attempt at reading between the lines. It was based on the number of times they mentioned the importance of "communication", and Stefanski mentioning it when talking about his conversations with players yesterday. I'm just doing the math... Browns - Joe = let's reset the communication equation. Still, nothing more than conjecture on my part.

As to the rest. PC's are 90% "none of this means diddly squat" by definition. This one was no different, the next one won't be either.

It was my commentary about Deshaun losing to the Steelers defense. No, we didn't pay him all that money to lose to good defenses. But he will sometimes, likely more times than we would like -- just like every other good QB in the league.

Nah. I've seen where that has gotten me since 1999.

If only the things they've been saying equated to success. One of the people is responsible for bringing in the talent. The other one is responsible for taking that talent and achieving success. So far after the first season it's been a downward trajectory. I think a lot of people have decided to stop listening to how good what they say sounds and have been looking for them to correct what's been wrong. At some point words ring hollow. The entire "I like what they said" thing begins to no longer sounds credible. When you're going into your fourth year sounding like a Carpenters song tile, "We've only just begun", I'm not sure what they thought the first three years were.

I’m not impressed with either Berry or Stefanski and they represent everything that’s wrong with this current leadership.

Two guy’s who’re comfortable with being losers is not what I like to see as a Browns supporter. Where’s the passion and the anger of delivering so much garbage results? Until the Cleveland Browns hire someone with a genuine winning mentality this vanilla show will go on. On top of that will a guy who a respected female judge called a lier and predator be our new leader in the locker room.

What can possibly go wrong with so much good qualities behind that desk.