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Twenty questions with three branches of Browns
Ten days before the draft, two of the Browns’ big bosses (and one of their best players) were playing 20 questions, speaking in multiple venues, not just the press conference.
Let’s run through some of them.
1, Is the draft board set?
General manager Ray Farmer: “We call it the Ouija magic. At some point you get in there and manipulate a couple of spots. I don’t know if it’s 100 percent set. But it’s really close.”
2, How much has the stacking changed between January and now?
Farmer: “It hasn’t changed much. It really comes down to the film. The character grades may shift a little. You may feel a little better about what a guy is physically. But inevitably how he played football is how he’s graded.”
3, Can the Browns find a franchise quarterback in this draft? What is a franchise quarterback?
Farmer: “I would say a franchise quarterback is a guy who transcends all the people around him. Take a guy out of the scheme he’s playing in and drop him on another team. Guess what. He’s still going to be really, really, really good. He finds a way to be ultra-successful.
“Those guys are rare ... beyond rare. At any point of time, I would tell you there are five, maybe six of those guys in the NFL. There’s not a lot.”
4, Is Farmer couching his language to suggest there is no franchise QB in this class, and is he maybe visualizing a Russell Wilson-style solution?
Farmer: “The more you can minimize the role of a quarterback, the better off your team is. If the quarterback only has to throw 10 times a game and you’re still winning games, I would say that’s a good thing.”
(Note: The comment made us think ... On Dec. 10, 2009, Brady Quinn went 6-of-19 for 90 yards in a 13-6 win over Pittsburgh. Mike Holmgren came away saying it was silly to think a team could keep winning like that.)
5, Farmer leaves no doubt he might draft two quarterbacks. The question becomes ... would he draft three?
Farmer: “Do you take one? Do you take two? Do you take three? (Chuckling) I don’t think we can go past three.
“You want the best football players at critical positions. If I said, ‘I like these two quarterbacks, and I took these two, and then I’m sitting there in the fifth, sixth or seventh round and there’s another guy on the board with a better grade (than players available at other positions) that I really liked, why would I not take advantage of overstocking what could be the most critical position on the field?”
6, Where does Brian Hoyer stand in his recovery from knee surgery, relative to why veterans Vince Young and Tyler Thigpen have been brought in for this week’s minicamp?
Head coach Mike Pettine: “Brian has really just been cleared to do some individual work, potentially some seven on seven work. And then (we have) Alex (Tanney). It’s difficult to go into a camp with really essentially one and a half at that position.”
7, How comfortable is the GM with Hoyer as the starter?
Farmer: “I’m comfortable with Brian. He’s talented. I think he can play in this league. He would respect and understand that my job is to try to find people that can be better than him, whether they’re better than him now or not.”
8, What must Hoyer prove?
Farmer: “If Brian Hoyer can win us games, then that’s what we want.”
9, How busy has Pettine been helping evaluate draftable QB prospects?
Pettine: “This quarterback tour has been outstanding for me personally as to being around (QBs coach) Dowell (Loggains) and (OC) Kyle (Shanahan).
“I think too many coaches from one side of the ball that became head coaches don’t take that next step into that uncharted territory.
“(Defensive coordinator) Jim O’Neil has warned me a couple times after hearing me talk. ‘Wow, you’re spending way too much time around the offense.”
10, Any key reasons Vince Young is here?
Pettine: “Dowell had a comfort level from working with Vince at Tennessee.” (Loggains was 28 years old when he was hired into a low-level coaching job with the Titans in 2008. Young was in his third year with the Titans at the time.)
“Vince has had success in this league. I think he was 31-17 as a starter. You bring that type of résumé here, it certainly can’t hurt.” (Young’s actual record is 31-19, including 4-4 in 2010, his last year with the Titans, coinciding with Loggains’ first year with a promotion to QBs coach).
11, How does Farmer’s first job as an NFL GM compare with his past roles as pro personnel director and assistant GM?
Farmer: “I’ve had a history of being the devil’s advocate. It’s not about being the devil’s advocate any more. It’s about testing conviction. It’s about finding the right answers to the test.”
12, How are Pettine and Farmer getting on?
Pettine: “Ray and I really see eye to eye. From the beginning it was very clear that he and I are very much on the same page. We have an ‘old soul,’ football-wise ... old-school beliefs, but at the same time understanding the game changes with the times.”
13, How is Pettine’s staff holding up in a draft cycle two weeks longer than normal?
Pettine: “We had the 30 guys in for draft visits. It’s wearing on them.”
14, How daunting is it to be a rookie GM?
Farmer: “I do have the advantage of having several really, really, really good friends who are general managers. People I’m really close with who have shared some ideas on what I should be focused on.”
15, Farmer says he thinks he knows the four or five players who will be picked ahead of the Browns turn at No. 4. How specific is his plan when he’s on the clock?
Farmer: “People want you to plan out the whole thing, but I can tell you right now, who you take at 4 can change who you take at 26, can change who you take at 35, and so on and so forth. It’s never an exact science. It’s a lottery.
“As close as I think I am at 5, something could change. Go one spot ... go two to No. 6. Go two to No. 8. Go to 10. Go to 12. It doesn’t matter where you go, you don’t know who those picks are until it’s in front of you. It makes it interesting to say the least.”
(We don’t know whether it was some sort of subconscious slip, but Farmer did say “as close as I think I am at 5.” Of course, he sits at 4, today.)
16, Is there a QB head and shoulders above the rest in this draft class?
Farmer: “I don’t know if there’s one truly, truly, truly above the rest.”
(Bonus questions and answers from Joe Haden, who popped up on the Browns’ AM flagship, WKNR, this morning).
17, Haden says he likes Farmer, Pettine and owner Jimmy Haslam, but admits they have a big job on their hands. Just where does the “team culture” stand heading into Pettine’s first minicamp?
Haden: “The culture is not good. We obviously have a losing culture ... it’s not as positive as it needs to be. We need to go into games with a dominating mentality. I want to have a culture where ... we win. That’s what we do.”
18, Did the culture go flat during the 2013 season?
Haden: “I don’t know when it did, but at some point it changed.” (He went on to mention the game at Cincinnati.)
19, The players’ reaction to last week’s announcement the opener is at Pittsburgh?
Haden: “I was so hyped. If we want to turn it around, we have an opportunity to do it immediately. Everybody was so hyped when I came into workouts the next day.”
20, Any thoughts about Johnny Football?
Haden: “Man, I like Johnny Manziel. He has passion ... he doesn’t act like a typical QB. He has a swagger to him.”
Read more:
http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140428/Blogs/140429170#ixzz30EGw5tyH
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