Cleveland Browns
Transcript from news conference with Browns President Mike Holmgren, GM Tom Heckert
by Nate Ulrich on January 5, 2012
in Cleveland Browns,Mike Holmgren,NFL,Tom Heckert
President Mike Holmgren and General Manager Tom Heckert held a news conference today to review the 2011 season and discuss the state of the Browns, who finished with a record of 4-12. Here is a transcript from the news conference:
Mike Holmgren
(Opening Statement)- "Before we get rolling here, we have a presentation to make. We would like to present this gameball to Jim Donovan. I've learned a lot since I've been here, and one of the things I know is that this man here is very important to us and to all of you. He has been going through it and he is a tough guy and he epitomizes what we want our players to be. We want to present this gameball with gratitude from the Cleveland Browns for the 2011 season.
"In keeping with what we have tried to do the whole time, which is to be as honest with you as possible, and we know you have a lot of questions. Understand this up front, however, I know you talked to Pat (Shurmur) on Tuesday and there are some things that we just don't have answers for yet, just know that. We are in the process right now of evaluating the team, coaches, scouts, all that kind of stuff and I think Pat alluded to a number of these things. Then of course, there are rules about talking about specific players, certainly players in the league and other specific things like that. I ask you to understand that if we come back with an answer like, ‘Listen, we can't go there right now.’ At some point, it will be very obvious about what we are going to do and we'll try to keep you posted on what is going on. Having said that, I know you have a lot of questions and we have a lot of questions moving forward as an organization that we are trying to fix, as you might expect. We'll have a good day today. I watched some of Pat's press conference and I think he did a nice job and I think you guys were really good with him as well, considering we are all disappointed in the record of the team this year. Having said that, we do recognize, as an organization, some really good things that happened, things you can build on and things that give us hope. I trust it will give you hope as well."
Mike Holmgren
(On if Colt McCoy is the franchise quarterback)- "I think he can be, he could be. I'm not ready to say that yet. You know what we did this season. He played and he did some very fine things and then he played young at times, not unlike his first year where he had four or five games or whatever. Was I pleased? Yeah, in a lot of the stuff he did. My opinion of Colt has not changed. I think he has a lot of intangibles. Ultimately though, as with not only the quarterback position but with every position, you are kind of judged on, and probably the quarterback more than anybody, on how well your team did. I'm not ready to anoint Colt yet. Have I changed my mind? No. Do I love him? Yes, I do. But I love Seneca Wallace and we have three good quarterbacks on our team right now. Having said that, heck, we don't know what is going to happen and I had that conversation with Colt as well."
Mike Holmgren
(On his philosophy of wanting to know who the starting quarterback is rather than having a quarterback competition)- "I think in a perfect world that is better, I believe that. Now, sometimes situations dictate where you might have to have a little bit more of an even competition. Last year, as you know, and I'm not saying anything you guys don't already know, Colt had established himself a little bit the year before. We needed to find out about him, we needed to find, as Tom (Withers) mentioned finding that person sets the table for a lot of stuff. This season, we all knew the job was his and then he played. Going in now, I don't think having a competition going into the last preseason game is going to happen. I think the decision is made, whatever the decision is, it has to be made before you divvy up the reps in the third preseason game and all that kind of stuff. I never believed that worked very well and I still don't. A competition will take place, absolutely. It's going to take place, but the decision I think will probably come in time to let the guy play a little bit, let him get familiar with it and go with it."
Mike Holmgren
(On if they have to get better at the quarterback position to do anything)- "It's hard to judge off this season because our offense, by anyone's standards, was not good enough. It just wasn't good enough. I think in our analysis as to why that happened, we are going to look at a lot of things. The quarterback is a big piece of it, there is no question about that, but he has to throw it to somebody and he has to be protected a little bit. It's all that kind of stuff that goes in to it. We are committed to fixing this and the quarterback is part of the situation, but it's only one part on the offensive side of the ball."
Mike Holmgren
(On if it puts him in a tough spot if McCoy does not improve in 2012)- "I'm not in tough spots anymore, I used to be in tough spots (joking). Granted, I have a responsibility here and I take it very seriously. I believe in the players that we have. It's going to come down, one way or the other, to whomever is playing quarterback for us we are going to coach the heck out of him. I expect him to play well, I expect him to get help and no, it doesn't put me in a tough spot."
Mike Holmgren
(On if he feels they need to bring in another quarterback to enter the competition)- "We will probably bring in a quarterback every year and this year will be no different. I'm assuming, and Tom can address that in a while, but we are not going to tell you who we are going to draft and all those kinds of things or free agency. Typically, we will go into camp with four, we have three and we'll bring someone in, yeah."
Tom Heckert
(On signing a veteran quarterback in free agency)- "That's probably not the way we are going to go but you never know. It's still early and we have two months before that happens. We'll look at everybody. There are a few guys that have played in the league that have started who will be free agents. We are looking at them and we'll have to wait and see how that goes."
Tom Heckert
(On the chances of drafting a quarterback in the first round)- "It’s the same thing, it's really early. We don't even know who is coming out yet. We'll evaluate everyone and we do that every year. I know Pat was asked that question the other day and it doesn't matter who we have at each position because we are going to look at those players. You never know, so we'll study them all."
Tom Heckert
(On if he feels a sense of urgency to accelerate the process by bringing in a player through free agency)- "We've never been against free agency. We haven't done a whole lot, but the first year we had a bunch of guys in here. We had trades, we had free agents. Last year we actually signed some free agents, it's not like we didn't do anything. We brought in guys. We are never against it, 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. We have no problem doing that if there is someone there that can help us."
Mike Holmgren
(On how much stock he puts in a quarterback that sets team records in only his second career start)- "That’s a little unusual. You are referencing the young man (Matt Flynn) with the Packers? I think when you go into your second start and you break the records that have been held by Bart Starr, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers in your second start then that is a little unusual, I would think. Again, we can't comment on players that are existing in the league right now, but I want to touch just a little bit if I could on the question about free agency. Tom said it very well, we have a philosophy on how to build the team. Our record was poor and the natural reaction is to say, ‘Goodness gracious, we have to go crazy and bring this guy in, bring that guy in, spend millions of dollars and all of that.’ If that was the right thing to do in our opinion to build a foundation for the long term, we will do that. Really, that is not our philosophy on how to build this for the long term. It might help you win a few more games in the following year. You see teams do that every year. It happened this last year and you see teams do that every year. Does it automatically guarantee anything? Absolutely not. You have to make a decision, how are you going to build the team? What are you going to do? Sometimes it's not the most popular way to go, sometimes you scratch you head, but I have a lot of faith in this man right here (Tom Heckert). He is good at what he does. We have a good coach and we have a good coaching staff and we have good young players and we have a way that we think will work. It's not necessarily the quick fix and I know that can be a frustration at times. If we think that it's going to help us in the long term, we are not opposed to do anything, but generally speaking, we are going to stay the course here."
Mike Holmgren
(On if he’s worked with quarterbacks that have been at the level McCoy was at this year and who have gone on to tremendous success)- “Sure, it you usually happens that way. Very, very few guys, in my years in the league, have come in a shot lights out, very few. If you’re in the process of being a young quarterback playing for a team that’s still building, particularly on offense, it’s doubly hard. Usually it’s like this, I’m not surprised, I’m not shocked. Like I said, our record was disappointing because we were in a lot of ball games. I mean goodness gracious, we had chances to have a better record and it didn’t happen for this reason or that reason. Like I said, I’m not discouraged. I’m a little ticked off, but I’m not discouraged.”
Mike Holmgren
(On what McCoy’s ceiling is)- “It’s hard to say. You can’t say that about anybody, I don’t think. Tom can answer this better than anybody, we talked about it yesterday. You see guys with all the credentials, the greatest thing, can’t miss, slam dunk and it doesn’t happen. Why? Who can answer that? But, it happens, you’ve seen it. Those of you that have covered football for a long time, heck, it happens every year. There’s no tried and true formula for this. As long as the young man, the athlete, has what it takes inside, the work ethic, all those things, the measurables that you need to have to give yourself a chance to be good, you’ve got a chance to be good. Then, of course, you have to be lucky with injury and all that kind of stuff to get there. But, it’s hard to put ceilings and talk about how good a player can be.”
Mike Holmgren
(On explaining that it’s not business as usual to the fans because of their record, similarities to 1999 and not being able to stop the run)- “First of all, our fans are phenomenal. The Cleveland Browns fans are going to be fans of the Browns forever and ever. They can be upset, as they should be and frustrated, but just know that so are we. The difference is we’re not going to look at our record this year and in some respects in my last press conference I talked a little about it. In regards to what you thought about my decision a year ago, I made it. Now, I’ve made another decision and here we are and it’s Pat’s first year. The way I’m looking at that it is we had to have a huge turnover on the roster, new coaching staff, new system, all the stuff we went into the offseason so there were some difficulties there for a new group, but this is the first year. I think it’s a little unfair to this group to say it’s the same. They’ve only been here one year, not even a full year actually, the players, some of them. The difference is we’re now not going to say, ‘Geez, we’re 4-12 again, the same as in 1999, let’s blow everything up, go sign somebody here without a team around him perhaps that can support him. Let’s try and do it that way because we’ve got to do something different.’ The difference is we’re going to stay the course, we’re going to do it a certain way. I have an owner who supports us that way, he’s been a man of his word with me, he wants to do this. I’m going to do it this way and that’s the difference. Now, the growing pains are difficult, I understand that. But, I think our defense took a big step last year. We had trouble at times with the run. You can probably point to a couple games, Texans and Baltimore a couple times where they just gashed us, but other than that we did a decent job verse the run. Total defense, we were very competitive. Offensively, not so much. Special teams, I saw crazy things happen I have never seen before in my life. We know what we have to fix it, but we’re not going to blow it up and start all over, that’s the difference.”
Mike Holmgren
(On the organization last year saying they believed in their wide receivers and what went wrong there)- “When you’re talk about your players, natural speaking, I think if you talk to anybody, any organization, any press conference, you’re going to be more positive than negative, I think most people do that. Do we think we have a pretty good group of wide receivers? Yeah. Did we drop too many passes? Absolutely. But, I think we see some things that you can build on. As an example, take a young man like Greg Little, he hadn’t played much football, this year he played. Did he make some mistakes? Yes. Did he catch a lot of passes? Yes. Do you see something in him that you can build on for the future? I believe you do and you can kind of go through things like that. Do we have to make the pile bigger there and do we have to try and upgrade and make that stronger? I would say there isn’t an offensive area that we won’t look hard at and try and do that to so the receivers fall into that category as well.”
Tom Heckert
(On the top two or three areas of real need for the team)- “I think coach just hit on it, we think we have a pretty good defense, we really do. We think that’s only going to get better with the young guys playing more and we think we have a chance to be really good on defense. Obviously on offense, and just like coach said, we need to upgrade all over the place. We want guys that score touchdowns, we’ve got to protect better. We are looking at all the positions.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if Peyton Hillis will be back on the team next year)- “That’s one of those things we are not going to talk specifics about, our players, certainly contractually. I will say this about Peyton, I think you saw a little taste of it at the end of the season as well, but that was a tough one for a new head coach. You come in and you think you have a lot of things to worry about, but one of them isn’t who’s going to be my starting halfback. Then, Peyton gets hurt, then (Montario) Hardesty gets hurt and now that thing becomes an area where it’s a little unstable. (Chris) Ogbonnaya came in and did a nice job for us, but really it went from a position of strength, and then injury kind of decimated that position. As far as the future with any of our potential free agents, we’re not going to comment on that today.”
Mike Holmgren
(On evaluating Pat Shurmur and all the unprecedented things that occurred during the season and those being self-inflicted)- “Usually they are, even though rarely did I make a mistake when I was coaching (joking). We’re evaluating the players and the coaches and I think Pat started with himself. He looked at what he did, he said it the other day and that’s what you do. Part of it is being a first-time head coach, being in that situation for the first time where you’re juggling a lot of balls on the sideline and you’re doing all that stuff, that’s part of it. The second thing is our youth and inexperience sometimes led to it, particularly with our quarterback. Colt, there were some decisions in there because he’s young and every young quarterback has made some of those decisions. All those types of things absolutely will be improved next year. Game management, clock management, whatever it is, whatever you choose to decide was a problem. We should be better next year, I expect to be better next year, we’re going to talk about those things, fix them as best we can. When I was an assistant coach for coach (Bill) Walsh and then back in college, coach (LaVell) Edwards, and I’ve had the privilege of working for really fine coaches. But, as an assistant coach you sit there and you go, ‘Why is he doing that, I wouldn’t do that.’ It’s the assistant coaches’ prerogative to kind of moan about the head coach. My staff did it for me even though I never found out who (joking), but that’s just the way it is. Then, you say, ‘I can do that, I can be a head coach.’ Most assistants say that at some time, then you get your chance and then you realize that there’s a little bit more to this than calling the plays as a coordinator, coaching a position or whatever. There’s a whole bunch to it and there is a learning curve, but I know this about the man who’s coaching this football team, that he is good. He is smart and he will do what he has to do in a very unselfish way to get the team going in the right direction. If that means hiring a coordinator or giving up the play calling, whatever that means and I’m not telling you right now how that’s all going to go down, but I’m just saying Pat is very willing to do whatever it takes. Now, that in itself is a healthy, good sign to me.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if he wished he had hired an offensive coordinator at the start of this past season)- “If you remember we interviewed a couple guys and that’s the way we wanted to go, that’s the way we were trying to go, and then what I told him as the process went on. ‘If you don’t get the guy you want, do it yourself.’ We had a fairly veteran staff on offense, ‘Use your staff to kind of fill in where you need to fill in,’ so he actually took my suggestion. Now, we’ve gone through the year so now we have learned a lot about what it takes, particularly with this group of young people, and right now we’re going to look at hiring an offensive coordinator. Now, the rest of it I don’t know quite how that’s going to fall out, but that’s what happened last year. We started out, a couple guys got jobs that we wanted. Instead of settling, we just said, ‘We’ll do it this way,’ and see how this works and it proved to be a difficult thing, really.”
Tom Heckert
(On if it is safe to safe they will build around their current quarterbacks or if they will bring in a new quarterback through free agency or the draft)- “I hate to keep saying it, but it is way early. We have a lot of evaluations to do and we’re going to get the best players we can at any positions. That’s the truth. If we do it at a certain position early in the draft then that guy is going to be the guy for us, probably. We have a lot of time to think about what we want to do in the draft and free agency, but if we think a guy will help us, we’ll go ahead and do it.”
Tom Heckert
(On if they’re going to lock up D’Qwell Jackson with a long term deal)- “It’s the same thing, we’ve talked about it before, we’d like to have all our good players back. We have numerous free agents and we like a lot of them so we’re going to try our best to get most of these done, but time will tell on that.”
Tom Heckert
(On if he could go through his checklist of his evaluation of McCoy)- “We’re still doing that. We have to obviously go back and watch the things and how they happened and we’re in the process of doing that right now. We’re going to meet with the coaches tomorrow about a lot of these things just to add to the evaluation process. But, I think he played in a lot of games, he’s a young quarterback and we think he’s got enough talent to be a player for us, but has he made mistakes like coach said? Yes. Can he get better? We think he will get better so that’s why we’re doing this.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if Pat Shurmur is on the hot seat for next year or if this is at least a three year deal)- “I want to emphasize this again, we’re building it in a certain way. I have the utmost confidence in Pat to get this done. No one is on the hot seat. We understand as long as Tom and I, we understand what we’re trying to do, understand what happened on the field, we have a good coach and we have a good coaching staff. You don’t get to where you want to get to by blowing it up every two or three years. You don’t do that. You work through the bumps together, you hang in there, you get smarter, you get better players, you learn more about one another, but you also know you’ve got to trust the people that run it. Between Pat, Tom and me, we’re going to hang in there together and we’re going to get this done, we will get it done. I believe that’s the way it works.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if offensive coaches might be reluctant to giving up play-calling duties)- “I think that’s a good point. For me, it was very, very important. I really enjoyed that part of it and when I talked to Pat and hired Pat, he liked doing it too. Now, he hadn’t done it very long, he’d done it for a couple of years in St. Louis, but that’s fun. That’s kind of fun during a game to do that. I was often called a control freak, unfairly (joking), but I liked having control over how we played every game and the play caller has that control. What I’m saying about being unselfish and doing what has to be done in the coaches opinion, to get the best guy in here sometimes those guys come in and say, ‘Hey, I want to call the plays.’ If you have it in your mind, no, then you might miss on somebody who is a good coach so I think Pat has a very open mind to this and to me, that’s really a healthy way to look at this and that tells me something about Pat Shurmur as well.”
Mike Holmgren
(On things he liked that Shurmur did this year)- “I think his perseverance and his ability to handle adversity was tested. I thought he kind of emerged, a few scars, but for a first-year head coach he went through some stuff that I know I didn’t have to go through my first year. I was trying to think back on that a little bit, it’s never easy your first year, but there was some stuff that went on that was a little unusual. In my dealings with Pat after the season, does he need to take a vacation? Absolutely. Is he the same guy I hired? Yes and he’s going to come back stronger and, like I said, he’s a real honest guy. 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.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if there’s anything wrong with Shurmur’s offensive system)- “No. I think we’re going to have meetings this offseason and tweak a few things and I’m going to be involved in that a little bit. I’m not going to bang on the table, as I’ve said, but I’m going to be involved in that a little bit. It takes some time to get the offensive pieces functioning exactly right. You saw it a little bit this year when you watched the games. I saw it, but I wasn’t shocked by it. It’s like I said, you’re a little disappointed that play didn’t work, why didn’t it work? We ran the route too shallow or it was too deep or this happened or this happened, there are reasons. It’s been my experience, it’s certainly been my experience with my quarterbacks when I was coaching with, (Joe) Montana was already well into the system, but guys that were into the first time, Steve Young, (Brett) Favre, (Matt) Hasselbeck, Jeff Kemp when we had him for a while, Steve Bono who I had for a little bit, they’re struggling, struggling, struggling and all of a sudden the light goes on. Things slow down, they’re comfortable with it and timing is better. That’s the way it works. The things that frustrated you and frustrated me this year we’ll just clean up. You’ll see fewer and fewer of those things and as it gets cleaned up it just gets better. It’s a good system, it’s a proven system, now it’s up to this man (Heckert) to get us some more good guys and off we go.”
Mike Holmgren
(On what other than money goes into the decision if they bring Hillis back or not)- “Again, please respect our decision here, we’re not going talk a lot about those things today. That’s one of our players that is a free agent and we’re not going to talk about it today.”
Mike Holmgren
(On how far away they are from winning the Super Bowl)- “It’s one of those things like trying to find a ceiling on a player, how good can a player be? I can only tell you based on my experience in Green Bay it took us five years, but we found the quarterback in the first year, although he played young as well. In Seattle, we’re in the Super Bowl in seven years, we didn’t find the quarterback until year three. I was involved in Super Bowls in five years from when I started with a particular team, but every place is different. I expect to be a much improved football team next year, that’s my expectation level, record wise, everything. Then, three teams in our division are in the playoffs for pete’s sake so we know it’s a tough division. When we get into the playoffs then you can make a better judgment on a timetable to get to the Super Bowl. What you want to do is develop a team that’s a playoff caliber team, that’s really what you want to do and then getting to the Super Bowl you need the ball bouncing your way, get a couple calls from the officials. I’m having a flashback moment (joking), but that kind of thing and then you get a chance to get into the Super Bowl.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if he would be willing to deviate from his plan to get a quarterback)- “I’ll answer and have Tom follow me on this and he already said it. We believe you build a team through a smart, solid draft and I think in his first two years of doing this you can see it. Now, we’re going into our third year, third draft, we have a number of draft choices so we have some ammunition in the draft if you want to play around a little bit. But, also key free agents, we’ll go after them if we think we need to do that and that’s a judgment based on our meetings and what we’re going to do.”
Tom Heckert
“We don’t want to go out and sign 10 free agents, but if there’s a guy that we like and hopefully there is, we’ll definitely go after him. I think free agency is an area where you can get one or two players at positions that can help and if there are guys at certain positions, we’ll definitely go after.”
Mike Holmgren
(On the Browns being 3-21 in the AFC North the last four years and what they have to do to close the gap within the division)- “I thought this year, and I might get killed for this, but I’m going to say it anyways. I thought this year we were much more competitive against those teams. They are fine football teams and they’ve been good for a long time. In both of our Pittsburgh games, we were involved in those games without being able to really score a lot of points, but we were competitive. Both Cincinnati games, I thought we were competitive. One of the Baltimore games, I thought we were in it and it could have gone one way or the other. The other one, they got us pretty good, I thought. I thought we closed the gap a little bit this year. Now, the record is what it is. Again, I’ll reference our time in Green Bay. When I got to Green Bay, not unlike the Pittsburgh-Cleveland rivalry, the Bear-Packer rivalry was big, it still is. I think Green Bay’s record against Chicago in the previous 20 games was 1-19 or whatever it was. It was emphasized to me that people would be very upset if I didn’t make that competitive situation and I’m happy to say while we were there we flipped it so it was like 14-2 in favor of the Packers. Can it be done? Yes. Does it have to be done? Yeah, if we’re going to get to the playoffs and do the things we want to do, it starts in our division and those guys are good. It’s a tough, good division. I think we closed it a little bit this year, hopefully, now we’ve got to do it even better and win some of those games. The close games we were in this year, it’s a shame because we could have won a couple of them. I thought we had a chance.”
Tom Heckert
(On judging college quarterbacks because college teams play funky offenses)- “It’s difficult, but it is the way it is. Like you said, everybody you see, especially in the Southeastern Conference, and really almost everybody except in the Big Ten, is playing widespread and even them too with Michigan doing it, so it’s just something you have to evaluate. We can see them drop back, it’s not run and shoot type stuff. It’s just mostly shotgun and four wide receivers. Cam Newton did it and obviously he had a big year. He was in the same type of system you’re talking about. It obviously can be done but you really don’t have any other choices. That’s what you’re seeing now in college football, that type of offense. It’s not just the quarterback, you’re looking at the offensive line and you don’t see them run block. It’s just a different deal and you don’t see corners playing press coverage because they’re so spread out. It’s just something we have to deal with.”
Tom Heckert
(On how hard it is for a college quarterback to adapt to an NFL offense)- “I think Cam (Newton) was the same way, the call from the sideline is 15 and that’s a play. They don’t have to verbalize a play in the huddle. It’s a brand new deal for them. Obviously you’ve got to get somebody that’s smart and can adapt to it. I think it’s part of what’s happening in college football. You have to do the best job you can when you’re interviewing guys, which we did last year. We talked to Cam last year and it’s a major deal, but obviously they got it done in Carolina so it can happen.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if they can change their offense to adapt to these guys)- “I don’t think you want to do that. We’ve seen it this year with Denver and Tim Tebow is playing there. He’s a remarkable young man. If he was going to play, they had to change their whole offensive thing. I haven’t studied their film or anything like that, but they had to change. You don’t see teams in our league going to that system, that most teams run in college, and I don’t think you ever would. I don’t think it will ever go that way. In 25 years we’ll know, but I don’t think it will go that way. You have to do what Tom said. When you’re evaluating the players if he’s going to play quarterback for you, maybe he can run and all of that stuff, but you have to be able to throw the ball. You’re evaluating that part of him, physically, and how he can do that in our league. Now Cam Newton as an example came in and he can really pass the ball very, very well and do all that other stuff too. If you can’t do that, it’s pretty hard I think.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if it’s fair for fans to grade progression on wins and losses)- “I think that’s how we all look at it. We were 4-12 this year, if we are 4-12 again next year I wouldn’t be a very happy camper. I think we must improve. It’s the same thing I used to tell all my coaches all the time, you’ve got young guys and there are all these reasons, but ultimately you are responsible for the guys that you coach. The head coach, fair or unfair, is going to be judged on his record. That’s just the way this is. Am I committed to Pat? Yeah. We are going to see this through. I expect us to have a better record next year.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if you need a bigger statured player at the quarterback position like Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco to survive the AFC North)- “It certainly helps, those guys are both big guys. They’re bigger than most everybody else in the league. I haven’t talked to any of those guys, but I’m not sure that they were drafted for that reason. I’m not sure they looked at the division and said, ‘We need this giant guy.’ They were drafted because they were good players who were big players. In a perfect world, yeah, but there’s not many guys like Ben Roethlisberger around, that big, that mobile. He’s a very, very good player. You have your players and you coach your players to the best of your ability. Physically, our guys are big enough to get this done. Physically, they are big enough to get this done. Do they take a little bit more wear and tear because of their size? Probably, but there aren’t many guys like those two you mentioned.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if Brad Childress was on the radar last year as an offensive coordinator candidate and if he is on the radar this year)- “We didn’t interview Brad last year. What we’re going to do this year, I’m not going to talk about yet. We are going to look at offensive coordinators, but we didn’t talk to Brad last year about that.”
Mike Holmgren
(On his philosophy for trading draft picks)- “Philosophically, we went through this last year. (Heckert) did all the shenanigans to get all these draft picks last year if you remember. He and I had long discussions about that and for the only reason to make sure he was committed. I could never get him to budge an inch. That’s what he wanted to do and it was the right thing to do. We positioned ourselves to have draft picks to fill in holes to really keep building the team and the depth of the team. Philosophically, no we would like to use our picks. That will not prevent my car salesman friend here from wheeling and dealing during the draft (joking). It’s a possibility, anything’s a possibility. Philosophically, we need the picks to keep filling in the roster.”
Tom Heckert
“That was one of the reasons why we made the trade was to get more players. We knew we were in a situation where we needed to get better football players. The more picks you have, the better chance you have to do that. You never say never, but we like our picks right now. We have nine right now and hopefully we get some compensatory picks. We’d like to add nine good football players.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if it worth making a phone call to see what it would take to get Andrew Luck)- “We can’t talk about him.”
Tom Heckert
(On the sense of pressure that comes with having the number four pick, a pick in the 20s and a pick in the 30s)- “I don’t know if its pressure, I like it though. In fact, if I could have all these picks every year it would be great. We obviously have to hit them, but that’s every year. We have to hit on our draft picks. If that’s our philosophy, we better hit on them because we are going to get players that way. We’re sitting at four right now, it’s going to be tough to screw that one up, I think. We should be able to get a good player there. The other picks, it all depends who’s there and all that stuff, but we are excited about it. We really are. Obviously we are well into the draft process and there are good players in the draft.”
Mike Holmgren
“That was exactly the situation I was in my first year in Green Bay, exactly the same if I remember it correctly. We had four and 20-something. Ron Wolf called me in and said, ‘I’m thinking of trading our number one for this guy (Brett) Favre.’ I don’t know what I don’t know, but you’re trading our number one pick? He goes, ‘Think about it.’ So, he did that with the second number one. The fourth pick we took Terrell Buckley. Ron was obviously very good at this. Tom did a nice job last year of setting this thing up this year, and at the same time, getting young people to play for us this year. They played a lot of snaps, rookies, young people playing. That’s good.”
Mike Holmgren
(On his quarterbacks being 5-11 and 6-0 and if they take into consideration that other elite quarterbacks in the league are 6-4, 6-5)- “We take it into consideration. There are a lot of people in this room that wish they were taller, I’m sure. Maybe, maybe not. You’ve got the guys you’ve got and you’re playing with them. If you have a quarterback that isn’t 6-4, he has to show you the ability to get seams, move and see. If you can’t do that you can’t play. Most guys that height have learned to do that. Steve Young certainly learned to do that. (Drew) Brees has certainly learned to do that. Would you like to draft a guy a little taller? Absolutely. The other thing that happens is over the years that I’ve been doing this is you see quarterbacks who are tall guys but because of their action, they’re stride and however they deliver the ball, they become shorter guys. Not everyone is like Roethlisberger or (Tom) Brady. They stand tall, they deliver the ball tall, all that kind of stuff. We look at it, I think every position, not just the quarterback, but every position you kind of have a guideline of what you’d like. How big the linebackers need to be, how fast, you have built in this system, whatever your system is. I will say this, and I’m asking you for a little step of faith here, our offensive system allows a player who is not 6-4, 240 pounds to be good. It does.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if McCoy has shown those attributes regarding vision and mobility)- "Absolutely, Colt can do that. Seneca can do that, the guys we have can do that. You've seen it. That is what's good about this system. Of course, it's the system that I grew up with, but I've seen it. That means a lot of parts have to be working as well."
Tom Heckert
"I think (Aaron) Rodgers is 6-2 1/2 tops. He is not 6-4 either and he is pretty good.”
Tom Heckert
(On if drafting offensive playmakers will be the heavy focus in the draft)- "We thought we did a good job on defense for the most part last year of getting players. We do have to help our offense, there is no question about it. We have a lot of positions where I think we can get better at. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say we are not. We are going to address the offense, we have to. Whether that's free agency, the draft or both or a little mixture, but we are going to do that at some point."
Tom Heckert
(On updating some of the injured players)- "Brandon Jackson is ready to go. I think he passed his physical so he should be good. That's the other guy we forgot about with the running back situation, we were expecting him to help us. We think he'll be fine. (Eric) Steinbach is getting close, should be a week or two. Marcus (Benard) is doing alright and Titus (Brown) had surgery yesterday."
Tom Heckert
(On Scott Fujita)- "His hand is not completely healed but he's fine."
Mike Holmgren
(On if he was satisfied with the outcome by the league office with the conclusion of the concussion situation)- "I thought they settled on something we had talked about in our meetings. I think it's a good thing to have a trainer up there and have communication from a medical person to the field if necessary. I think it's a good thing, a healthy thing and one more set of eyes gives the doctors more information that they can use in the evaluation process. I'm all for that. I told our players this in the exit discussion we had. We are committed to giving them the best medical treatment possible in this league. The NFL has acknowledged the fact that our medical and training staff are one of the best in football. They have said that. That was part of this evaluation. Did an incident take place? Yeah, but as far as their evaluation, they came in and looked at what we were doing with our people and said, 'You guys are good.' So how do we help them? That's what came of that. I told our players, we are committed to giving you the best treatment so you have confidence, so you have trust in our doctors and in our training staff. As long as we are here, that's the way it's going to be."
Mike Holmgren
(On James Harrison's suspension and if the league should re-evaluate their suspension process)- "I don't think they are going to do that though. I think they have a protocol that they go through on suspensions and fines. We have our hands full doing what we do and that's not an easy job that they have. There is a system in place, we'll live with it."
Tom Heckert
(On what type of wide receiver they will go after)- "It probably depends on who is going to be available. We'd like to think, just like at quarterback, you'd like a big, fast guy that has great hands. That's the ideal situation, but sometimes those guys aren't always available. We do have to address playmakers all around. The running backs, the receivers, but it's all going to depend upon what is available. If there is going to be a guy in free agency that we'd have to look at. If there is a guy when we are picking at four we'd have to look at. It's a little early to tell who is going to be available and at what price or what it's going to cost to get him, but we'll see how that works out."
Tom Heckert
(On if he feels that he has a number one receiver now)- "I think the verdict is still out on Greg (Little). I think Greg is a good football player, I really do. I thought he had a good year. He did have way too many drops and he knows that and we know that. I think he has a good chance to be a really good player. Coach (Holmgren) can speak to his time in Green Bay and Seattle, but in Philadelphia, we had one guy during my entire time there, and that was one year that we had T.O. (Terrell Owens) that was a number one receiver. With everyone else, we spread the ball out quite a bit. We had guys catching 50-60 and those types of things. We didn't have a true number one and we won a lot of football games. We'd like to have three really good receivers whether it's one, two, three however you want to call it, just three good receivers and we'll be in good shape."
Mike Holmgren
"I've always been disappointed in labeling the receivers that way. In basketball, it took me a long time when they started talking about guy being one, two and numbering the players on the court. Our receivers, I never did that. I don't know when it started, but I know it was started by agents. I know that. We are going to call this guy the number one receiver and we are going to call this guy the number two. It was probably based on one year where this guy had a lot of catches and this guy didn't have as many so now he's one and he's two. That's not a good way to go."
Tom Heckert
(On Montario Hardesty and his injuries)- "We like him as a player and obviously, the injuries are what they are. It's crazy when you look at, because we've done a lot of things even before we drafted him because he had some injuries in college, running backs get hurt in this league. It's crazy if you look at the numbers. If you look at the last three years all the guys who were drafted in the first two rounds, they have all been hurt. Guys have missed full seasons, guys have missed 10 games. I guess the answer to your question is we like him, we know we need more than one back. We thought we were in pretty good shape coming into this year with (Peyton) Hillis, Hardesty and Brandon Jackson and they got hurt. It's a position that gets hurt in the NFL so we have to make sure we have enough guys and we're going to try to address that."
Mike Holmgren
(On his preseason expectations for this past season)- "I had hoped we could take a jump in our record to get up near .500. That was my hope. In evaluating the season, I felt with a couple things here and there we could have come close to that. That's the frustration for me. I thought our record could have been better. Now, what does that mean? As was talked about earlier, it's an indicator of progress, a little bit. Really, if you look at this year, it's the first year with this group. Your record is what it is, but I thought we had chances to have a better record. When I look at the record, yeah, I am disappointed, I feel bad. I'm not the lone ranger with this; the coaching staff, Pat, Tom, Randy (Lerner). We all see it the same way, I'm sure the way you see it. Next year, I expect us to be better and you'll be judged by the record."
Mike Holmgren
(On why everyone isn’t on the hot seat)- “Those phrases that have developed in the football culture, I am opposed to it. I don’t agree with it. If you start a season, any season, this last season, any season and one of the things you read is, ‘These coaches are on the hot seat,’ before they play a game. I don’t agree with that. I am philosophically opposed to that. You are judged on what you do. We will have an evaluation process. Everybody is too impatient. When all of a sudden there are nine, 10 or 11 coaching changes in one year, why is that? Then there are franchises that you can look at that have stayed the course, they don’t do it that way. They do not do it that way. They go through the tough spots together. They support whoever is coaching the football team and they make the team better. You watch him grow and as long as he is growing, you stay with him. That’s how you do it, in my opinion. I don’t even like the term. If you want to talk about if there is pressure, not hot seat, if there is a pressure to do well or to do your best or to catch the ball or to block that guy or to tackle that guy or to throw the pass? Absolutely, that’s what this business is all about. Is there pressure on the coach? You always put pressure on yourself. You don’t need anybody else to put pressure on you. The guys that I know in this business, you’ve always done that. To answer your questions, it was a long answer, there is pressure for everybody to do better. There is pressure on Tom in the draft. There is pressure on me to kind of keep everyone together. There is pressure on everybody. That is the nature of this business. If you couldn’t handle it, you are in the wrong business.”
Mike Holmgren
(On his thoughts on a reporter getting an e-mail that a season ticket holder was cancelling their account)- “As far the actual numbers, we are hanging in there with our numbers from a business side. Are you going to be get fans every year that are tired and not want to do it? Yeah. Do you get guys that come onboard to replace those people? Yeah. That’s the way it’s gone since we’ve been here. I’ll stick with what I said before, the people in this area, this state and the Browns Backers all over the country love this football team. I suspect they have been through a lot already, to wait another year or two, they will hang in there. For every e-mail you get that says what you just told me, I meet people on the street or in the market and believe me they have no qualms about coming up and talking to me about the Browns. I get a little different feeling that they are with us. They don’t like it, they are frustrated, they have kind of a suggestion as to how to do it better but they are not leaving. I suspect that our fans are going to be there for us. I think back to the last throw against the Steelers in that game the other night. There was snow and people were yelling and you know what, it was something. It was really something considering the season that we had. I’ve said it before, I don’t think I need to say it again, we’ve kind of laid out how we are trying to build this. I came here to build a football team but I came to this city because of the tradition of this team. It reminded me so much of where I had coached before and the commitment by Randy Lerner, that is why I am here. I suspect that the fans will hang in there with us, keep giving me suggestions, but I want to enjoy this with all those people at the end. I think we will get there, I believe that.”
Mike Holmgren
(On having empty seats at home and the line between building a winner and still appeasing the fan base)- “I think there are a lot of things that we have done to improve our relationship with the fans just from a practical sense. We work very hard on that on the business side of this thing. Until the team proves it on the field, I suspect that there will be some empty seats in the stadium, but like I said our numbers are hanging in there. We didn’t have any blackouts. We want the stadium full. I don’t want to see any little yellow towels being flicked around in there. I’ve gone through this before, I went through it in Seattle. When the team got good, all of a sudden it’s a miracle, the stadium is full, waiting list. That’s how it works, it’s a big part of it. I know this, the fans will stay with us. They will hang in there. They might be frustrated and they might be mad and all of that stuff, but they will stick with this football team. That’s what they’ve done growing up here and that’s what they will do long after we are all gone. That’s the way it is.”
Mike Holmgren
(On if he is hoping for a .500 record next year)- “I am not going to predict a win-loss record.”
Mike Holmgren
(On saying earlier that he was hoping for .500 this past season)- “I am sorry if I confused you on this, what I meant to say was, based on the games that we were in this year, I thought looking back on it that we could have come close to being a .500 football team. There were a number of games where we were close enough to win the game and had a chance. If we had done that then it would have been an improvement. Is that good enough? It’s good enough for an improvement, but it’s not good enough. Our expectations are much higher than that.”
Mike Holmgren
(Closing statement)- “First of all, I want to thank you for all you do. I realize you have a difficult job at times and I trust it’s a whole lot more fun to write stories about games when we win. I want you to really believe the commitment here from both Tom and I. I met with Randy (Lerner) yesterday and he has kept every promise that he has made to me. He cares deeply about what happens here. He is committed to helping us in any way he can as an owner to get this done. I wasn’t given marching orders to say this, but I think it’s important to say. The fans here have been a little long suffering, we talked about it a lot today. We are driven. We put pressure on ourselves to do the right things to get things turned around and going in the right direction. I want our fans to know that. I think the next couple years are very important in determining how this is going to go. Like I said, I am a little upset with our record, but I am not discouraged. There is a lot of hope and a lot of good things and you start with some of our young players, that is where you start on this football team. Thank you and happy new year everybody.”
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....I am sure he will find us some players that will help as soon as he is allowed to do so. 
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