CLEVELandMILIDH Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 Browns President Mike Holmgren and General Manager Tom Heckert held a press conference this afternoon to talk about the NFL Draft. This transcript is provided courtesy the Cleveland Browns. Mike Holmgren (On if his feelings have changed towards Jimmy Clausen)- “I’m glad you asked that. Jim, when he came in we talked about that little statement. Prior to any draft, I’ll say any number of things for any number of reasons. It was important, I think, that he and I talk about that in case he misunderstood or in case he wanted to know exactly what I was trying to do. We did that, we had a very good conversation. He is a fine young guy and he is a good football player. I would not read too much into that ‘statement.’ He and I had a good talk and he had a good visit here.” Mike Holmgren (On what he thinks of Clausen and why)- “I like him. He is a good football player. He can play the position. I think during the course of the year, as we found out, he was playing hurt for a good portion of the year. That tells you something about a player, certainly. I always like to meet any of the players up front, close and personal. It helps me with part of the evaluation process. His interview time with us, I thought, went really well. He is what he is, what you see on film. He is a fine player.” Mike Holmgren (On why he made that statement about Clausen)- “I’m not going to tell you why I made the statement. Let me just say, I will say things, this won’t be the last time, or the last draft where I will say something and people go, ‘Oooh. Why did he say that?’ I said it. I had my reasons and I have to leave it at that.” Mike Holmgren (On Clausen’s character)- “I think the process that we all go through and Tom can talk to this after I mention it. There’s a lot of stuff floating out there. Every team has to make their own decisions about each young man. If you just went on what had been written about a player or what this guy said about a player, you are making a huge mistake. You have to really decide that for yourself. All I will say is that his interview time with me was great and I think I got that feeling from the coaches.” David I. Andersen/The Plain Dealer (from video)Browns GM Tom Heckert answers questions from the media. • Video: Tony Grossi, Mary Kay Cabot discuss the Cleveland Browns' pre-draft press conference • Video: Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren, GM Tom Heckert talk about the draft • Browns President Mike Holmgren likes QB Jimmy Clausen despite earlier remarks • Cleveland Browns GM Tom Heckert says Browns have talked to St. Louis about trading up to No. 1 to get QB Sam BradfordTom Heckert “I think that’s exactly right. There’s stuff being said about all of these guys. You just have to find out for yourself, what you believe. You talk to the kid and you talk to coaches and other players and you make your own decisions. I think that’s what we do with all players.” Mike Holmgren (On if they have to draft a quarterback high)- “I stated in years past I’ve always liked to do that. Whether you take a quarterback high or whether you take a quarterback late and then develop him. As we look at this and trying to analyze the draft. There are no guarantees that way in this draft. I am backtracking slightly, but it could happen. I think what I said before is that I would like to do that each year. I would still like to do it, but I am not sure it’s going to happen quite honestly. I think as we look at it, there are some people that we like very much but we don’t think we’re in a position to get them. I think they are going to be gone. You couple that with the fact that there are other needs on the football team. I don’t think we are in panic mode at the quarterback position right now this year. We can play the game. We have to be smart on how we do that. That’s a long answer, but the quarterback situation is going to be very interesting in this year’s draft. I guess I am saying, I am backtracking a little bit, while I would like to do it, I am not sure we will do it this year.” Tom Heckert (On if they have talked to the Rams about trading for their number one pick)- “We actually played a little phone tag, but we’ve talked to them throughout the process. We have actually been at workouts with the Rams’ people and kind of mentioned stuff to them, but just talk. We’ve talked to all the teams ahead of us and most of the teams immediately behind us. We have talked to all of them.” Mike Holmgren (On if Sam Bradford is that much ahead of the rest of the quarterback class)- “One man’s opinion, I think he is. I think he is, but you can get varying opinions. My old quarterback Trent Dilfer really disagrees with me on this. In my opinion, he had a marvelous workout. We were all at his workout, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What you want in a particular player at a particular position is different. From my point of view, he’s the whole package and whoever gets him is going to be a good team.” Tom Heckert (On drafting an offensive or defensive lineman but also not reaching on a player)- “There’s a chance of that happening. We actually just got out a meeting where we were talking about some of this stuff. I think there’s a chance that you are going to have to make a decision, but then again you have to wait and see what happens ahead of us. We are prepared either way, but if there is a guy there that we think is a legitimate offensive or defensive lineman, we would definitely entertain that.” Tom Heckert (On his draft philosophy with a top-10 pick with need versus best player available)- “I’ll let you know, I’ve never been picking at seven so I am not really sure about that. No, I think it’s the same thing, as long as you stick with the philosophy of taking the best available player I think you can’t go wrong. I’ve said that a million times, but it’s the truth. That can be looked at a bunch of different ways. If you have two guys at almost the same grade, you are going to go for the position of need. That’s just logical and that’s what we will do. You never want to reach for a player that’s so far away from the guys you have rated at that position. That just doesn’t make any sense at all.” Mike Holmgren (On when a quarterback visits is he interviewing for a job)- “I think that the young men that we have talked to absolutely are interviewing for the job. That was my sense. First of all, it is a very exciting time in their life now. All of these kids that we have brought in their life could dramatically change next week professionally. I think they have been coaches up a little bit at times, but I think there are absolutely excited to be part of this process. They want to put their best foot forward. There’s no reason not to come in and just give it your best shot. When we explain to them the idea of what we are about now and where we think we can go and how we are doing this to get there, to the man they have gotten pretty excited about it. I have liked the reaction. That’s part of the interview process. I better like the reaction. It’s important that I like the reaction otherwise we probably won’t go there.” Tom Heckert “To add one thing to that, if you talk to all the guys we brought in, I think, they do think they are the number one guy. I think they all express that to us, they were kind of saying this is why we think we are the best quarterback in this draft. Like what coach said, if they don’t do that we are probably going to be a little taken back by that because we want them to be that. We want them to feel that. I think all the guys we did bring in, they all felt that they were the guy, which is great.” Tom Heckert (On Bradford not visiting)- “To be perfectly honest with you, he had teams in front of us where he was all set up and he has personal workouts and all that. It really was more of a time thing when we talked to his agent. We feel very comfortable with Sam. We went down there and we worked him out. It’s wasn’t an issue where we thought we had to being Sam in here.” Tom Heckert (On Bradford’s agent maybe not wanting him to come to Cleveland)- “Not at all. It was more that he had a bunch of different things going on with the other teams ahead of us. To be honest with you, he kind of put us on the backburner just because of that situation.” Mike Holmgren (On what he looks for in a quarterback)- “Over the years I have kind of tried to break it down. First of all, their ability to pass the ball, just the physical ability of passing the ball. If they can’t do that more often than not I don’t even get to step two. Then if they can do that, I want to see their football intelligence, some of the intangibles. Is he coachable? Just a feeling for the young man. Is a bright eyed? Does he exhibit some leadership qualities and things like that. The third thing is getting back more into the physical part of it, his movement ability. I’m not talking about running, necessarily, but his movement in the pocket. The ability maybe to get a first down if you have to, those types of things. If I go much beyond that then all of a sudden, this is me, I found that you are accumulating a lot of information, a lot of facts and figures that kind of muddies the waters just a little bit. That’s the first step and the next step is I like to see them in person, up close. You see film, you see how he plays and you see all that kind of stuff. I like to get up close and watch him deliver the ball and watch him do those things. My way is kind of simple over the years with how I have looked at it.” Mike Holmgren (On if he could take a quarterback that hasn’t visited with)- “Absolutely, yes. I’ll tell you why Tony (Grossi), these guys have done a marvelous job of analyzing film and setting the board up and knowing the players. I trust Tom’s judgment implicitly so absolutely we could do that.” Tom Heckert (On if trading for Bradford is the perfect scenario for the Browns)- “No, if we don’t do that, that’s going to make our draft any less productive. We are going to get a good football player. We have no doubts about that. That’s part of the deal. We could move up there. We could move for somebody else. We could move back. There are a zillion different scenarios that we talk about all the time. I don’t think that is going to make or break our draft.” Mike Holmgren “I will say this, I don’t want to pull the rug out from everybody in our first draft here. He’s a coveted young man. To be able to go up and change somebody’s mind ahead of us, you would have to mortgage the ranch. You remember when coach (Mike) Ditka did that will 11 picks or whatever and then he went and played golf. Absolutely we love the player, as do a lot of people, but in the real world we are probably going to go in a different direction there.” Tom Heckert (On the wide receiver group in the draft)- “To be honest with you, it’s not a great group. I wouldn’t say a normal group, but it it’s not a great group. We talked about it, we would love to have a receiver. Now the same thing goes with all the positions. We are not going to force somebody just to get a receiver in here. Like everything you have to wait and see what happens during the draft. To answer your question, it’s not a great group.” Mike Holmgren (On Clausen’s ability to pass)- “It’s good. He shows wonderful skill in that area.” Mike Holmgren (On Clausen’s football intelligence)- “I think he has good football intelligence. He makes good decisions on the field. In the last couple years he has had to run a lot out of the pocket. When you are evaluating those things on film, sometimes you have to decide have they been coached to do that or not. For an example, Colt McCoy, when I talked to him [about] part of their teaching process, it was one of my questions. You run around a lot and make a lot of throws that way and he said I was taught this way. There’s information that I wouldn’t have had normally so that helps. But yes, Jim moves well in it.” Mike Holmgren (On if Clausen fits his qualifications for a quarterback)- “Absolutely.” Mike Holmgren (On drafting defense early after trading for many defensive players in the offseason)- “That’s an interesting thing. That’s, I’m not going to say the raging debate in the building, but Eric (Mangini) of course has a way of looking at things as you know. I think we were 31st on defense last year and I think we were 31st on offense. It’s like, I have two thumbs and there are five holes in the dike. How are we going to do this? That’s where you get into the discussion about not reaching for immediate help. Let’s get the best player. We know we are going to get a player that will help us be a better football team. Is there an area that needs more help or sooner help than others? Probably. As the board sets up now for us we have a chance to get a really fine football player on either side of the football. Now which way we go, I think you have to tune in Thursday night on primetime.” Mike Holmgren (On what position needs the most help on defense)- “I would say because of what we have done in free agency, I think the pile is a little bit bigger at linebacker. After that I think we have a chance to get a player that can come in and start. That’s my feeling. We have more linebacker types in the building right now. When you are having that type of discussion or thinking about that, you have to toss in the offensive side of the football in there too.” Mike Holmgren (On having many picks)- “You get a little greedy and we have really good picks. You try and anticipate who is going to be available at our second pick. If you covet somebody that you think might be gone then we have some ammunition, as Tom said, to move around, move up and do some things. That will be the chess match going on in the draft because we do have those three picks in the third round.” Mike Holmgren (On when he gets involved and says what he thinks)- “I think I will probably say that with each pick, in a nice way of course. Tom has set up the board. He knows the players. He has directed our personnel meetings. He knows the players better than anybody. It’s been my experience, in any organization I have been in, when you get the decision makers together and all of a sudden it’s presented and it makes sense, and it does when you listen to him talk, that’s how we are going to do it. I don’t anticipate, Tony (Grossi), having to hop in there too much.” Tom Heckert (On trading down for lesser talent)- “Obviously, every pick you drop down it’s a lesser player than you had on your board. If you drop from seven to 10 you hope your guy is still there but if he’s not that’s the way you do it. We have about 24 guys right now in the first round which obviously we have first round grades on. We think they are good players. There’s probably going to be five or six guys that are going to be drafted in the first round that we don’t have in the first round. We could go all the way down and there’s still a guy that we have a first round grade on. The way we would move down is if we thought we could still get a top, top guy for the value of what we get in the trade down. We aren’t going to trade down just to trade down to answer your question.” Tom Heckert (On C.J. Spiller)- “He is a kid with great speed. He’s got return ability. He is a really good receiver out of the backfield. I think he is going to play and be a good player. For us obviously he would do similar things he did in college.” Tom Heckert (On if the Browns could draft Spiller seventh overall)- “You never know.” Mike Holmgren (On Shaun Rogers)- “I made a statement when I found out about it. We kind of have to stick with that, Pat (McManamon), right now. We are going to let the process work itself out before I make any different type of statement. I talked to Shaun. I will tell you that. I did talk to Shaun. How he appeared to everybody on television and after the thing, it was too bad. He felt bad about it. It was not an intentional thing. All of the things that you have written and read about, he made a mistake. Clearly, he made a mistake, but we will deal with those decisions at some point in the future.” Tom Heckert (On the need for a safety and comparing Eric Berry and Earl Thomas)- “The second part I’m not going to answer. They are both very good player. They both can cover. They both can tackle. They both can run. That part of it, they are both really good players. They really are. The first part of that, obviously safety is a position of need. Where that position falls in the whole process, obviously we talked about the situation before. Mike, mine and Eric’s, the positions and how you rank them on your football team that’s probably not a top, top one. That’s not saying if there’s a great player there, you don’t take him.” Tom Heckert (On if Berry and Thomas are a safety or corner)- “I think both those guys are safeties that can play in the slot. To line up at true corner, that’s probably a little bit of a stretch. Somebody may try it and if he doesn’t work out, you know he can play safety. They both have cover skills. I don’t know if there are actual corner cover skills, but they both can cover.” Mike Holmgren (On adding a running back because Jerome Harrison is unproven)- “That’s something we talked about today. In those situations I would just reiterate the fact that you have to be careful about reaching. What you said, I think Jerome proved a lot in the latter part of the season, but we do have to make that pile a little bigger. There is no question about that. We have to be smart with this because that sense of urgency I hope we can eliminate some of that when we get into the draft itself so you don’t make a mistake and reach too far.” Tom Heckert “I will say, Peyton Hillis will help us out in that situation. That was one of the reasons why we added him into the deal.” (On if the draft has gotten to be a bit much with all the info because he likes to keep things simple)- “I think so Tom (Withers). I kind of agree with that. Now, I would get a lot of push back from a lot of people because I have binders and stuff you wouldn’t believe on my desk. It’s all good stuff. To phone up the fourth cousin of the assistant trainer to find out if the guy in fifth grade you know, please stop. Look at it on film first of all. Is he a good football player? Find out if he is a good guy. Find out what is the fit for our team. Those things I think are very important to the decision making process. I think, just like in a game – paralysis by analysis. Absolutely that happens. You get in there, should we take him? Should we take him? Should we take him? Their head is ringing and all of that. You try to eliminate the emotion, do your homework and make the pick when it comes.” Mike Holmgren (On the new draft format)- “The biggest thing is what is going to be on the dinner menu Thursday night. If you go too heavy and the draft is at 7:30 you might screw up how you think a little bit. I prefer it the other way, but we all understand why it is going this way now. It’s primetime, the fans love it. Like I said, I’ll be in there in and out. Tom really has to do all the heavy lifting.” Tom Heckert (On if he has time for more trades now)- “I will say this, there’s probably going to be at least more phone calls because if you are picking at the top of the second round normally you start talking to teams either in front of you to move up or behind you. You can’t call all 32 teams with one pick before you. You don’t have enough time. That will probably change. If you are picking at the top of the second, we will probably talk to everybody before that pick is taken. That probably is the biggest difference. Now whether more trades are going to be made because of that, like Mike said, with all of the over analyzing it may be worse because you have more time to think about it so you aren’t going to do it. I guess we will have to wait and see how that works out.” Mike Holmgren “The thing starts at 7:30 and a normally first round historically has taken what three hours? Whatever it takes, a long time. Now, the first round is over at midnight and all of a sudden you start phoning people, everyone is rummy. You better have your ducks in order prior to that. It won’t be the normal way of doing it. It will be a little different I think. The same thing will happen, you will make the calls, but when they make the calls and how you make those decisions will be kind of interesting. It will be different for everybody.” Tom Heckert (On if there is any position he wouldn’t draft early on)- “It depends on how good they are, really. Like we talked about, if we have guys graded at the same grades there’s probably a position you where you would go a different position from a safety most likely. If you are talking about a great player then that muddles the waters a little bit.” Tom Heckert (On his proudest pick with Philadelphia)- “I don’t know, that’s a good question. I can probably thing of the bad ones easier. Probably (Brian) Westbrook.” Tom Heckert (On what he learned from his draft mistakes)- “I think the biggest one is probably the need thing. Reaching for need. We did it a couple times, and not to say we didn't think the guy was a good player, but as it turned out there were better players that we should have taken at different positions. It was more of a need pick. Everybody talks about not doing it, but when you get in there and you don't have it set up beforehand, you start making irrational decisions or make a player better than he is because of that position. You stay with your board and not come in and say this guy is a four but we wouldn't mind taking him in the second. You move him up there and in the back of your mind you are doing it just because of a need, that's where you get into trouble.” Mike Holmgren (On rating Colt McCoy)- “Excellent. Very impressive young man. Very impressive guy. Clearly cares, very productive.” Mike Holmgren (On McCoy’s arm strength)- “On the arm strength, all the quarterbacks we talked to are a little bit different. I've had the privilege of coaching a guy who threw it as hard as anybody in Brett (Favre) and then a guy who always said didn't have the rocket arm but may be the best quarterback who ever lived in Joe Montana. I've had a real positive experience with arm strength. Arm strength to me, if the person can get the ball to you on time and all that kind of stuff, while you have to be able to pass the ball, having a rocket for an arm isn't the number one thing. Colt falls somewhere in the middle, I would guess that, but he is really an impressive young guy. He is.” Mike Holmgren (On if his height bothers him)- “No.” Mike Holmgren (On players with character issues)- “Well, character, just generally speaking for this football team, is going to be looked at, it's going to be important. I believe in high character athletes, as does Tom and as does Eric. I'm not just talking about Dez (Bryant), I'm talking about everyone, that's part of the evaluation process, certainly. Having said that, you have young people that stuff happens to them. How you evaluate that and how you dig in there and find out what really happened, that's very important. I don't think right now we're not taking anyone off the board. They are all up there and they are up there based on what kind of football players we think they are and some time closer to the draft we'll probably have those types of discussions. If someone gets down just a little bit because of something that happened we didn't like.” Tom Heckert (On if they cancelled their visit with Dez Bryant)- “That is not true.” Mike Holmgren (On balancing playmakers versus having ‘all choir boys’)- “I've always kind of had issue with anybody who writes about it, talks about it, the league, whatever, that talks about character and throws everyone in a big pot. Here is the pot of character issue guys. When you were to take 10 guys out of that pot and they'd be really, really quite different. It has been my experience with character issues to me, on the teams I've had, that I had great players, and I think I mentioned this to you in another press conference. I had a great player we drafted number one that had a physical issue. But he was a great person, he was very unselfish, his teammates liked him but he had this demon that he was having trouble dealing with. It happened to be alcohol. He was labeled as a character issue and I would argue the point with anybody who cared to talk with me about it, that it was not a character issue. He has a problem that has affected him and I was never going to throw him into the scrap heap. I told people that and I got criticized for it. Then we had other players who were fine football players but were actually poison in the locker room. You didn't want young people following them, they were bad for your team, bad for your program, yet they didn't have the obvious things that people sometimes point to. That to me was the character problem. Those are the character guys. Now you can't have those guys on your team. You cannot have that type of player on your team, that shows the wrong type of leadership. They'll hurt you all the time. The other guys I'll take a chance with and I'll try and work with, not only to deal with their problem, but because they are the right type of guy who just happens to, there is just something else out there that is bugging them. So I take issue, that's kind of a long answer. Character is usually important, but Tony (Grossi) there are some guys that are different. I am willing to with those guys work with them until all of a sudden they tell me, through their actions, that hey listen, this is never going to work, it can't work, and then all of a sudden you have to do something.” Mike Holmgren (On where Bryant falls)- “I don't know him well enough yet and I wouldn't begin to say that about anybody in this year’s draft.” Tom Heckert (On how important it is to get an impact player in the first round)- “Very important. If you are drafting a guy at number seven he better be able to play and he better be a good guy and he better be a leader, he better be all that stuff. That's what we are looking for. When you are picking a guy in the top 10, you are expecting a guy to be a player and be a guy that's going to be on your team for hopefully 15 years. That's what we expect.” Tom Heckert (On if they expect the player to start)- “Yes, we hope so. That's why we are drafting him. If we are drafting a kid at seven there is a pretty good chance he'll be starting for us.” Mike Holmgren (On if he interviews quarterbacks like Jon Gruden)- “Jon is like my son. I did not see the show. I'm sure he'll send me a copy of it, but I plan to phone him and talk to him about it. There isn't a better, smarter young man than Jon Gruden and he understands the position. I would trust his judgment on all of that. I did not see the show. He is a great coach though, but now I'm going to make sure I watch the tape to see what he says.” Mike Holmgren (On clarity in the huddle)- “There is something to be said for clarity in the huddle in an emotional situation. There are young people coming out of college right now that can't communicate who are good quarterbacks. But either their play [book] in college was pretty simple but in our league there is a lot of verbiage. You have to be able to do that. You absolutely have to be able to. It sounds like Jon was bringing to the front, in kind of a funny way, something that really is kind of important. It is very important as a matter of fact.” Mike Holmgren “We were going to the Super Bowl, ok, and we had a left tackle, and I've told this story before. He is a wonderful, wonderful guy, his name was Bruce Wilkerson. He had played for the Raiders for a long time and our left tackle got hurt, and for the last six games we traded and got Bruce. Great guy and it was at the end of his career, he played a long time. He's a left tackle and our center made all the calls. It's hard enough for the left tackle to hear much less react, and they are always trying and it's noisy. Unbeknown to me, Bruce had a stuttering problem and the center would make the call and the tackle would hear it and then the tackle and the guard would communicate with another call. So the center makes the call to Bruce, Bruce gets down there and the guard is waiting for the call. The proper call by the tackle was cow, C-O-W, which meant something made by the line coach. The call was cow, so he's up there and he goes ca-, ca-, ca-, moo. And the guard knew exactly what the call was. I'm just saying here is a guy who had a problem and he overcame the problem and he got it done.” Mike Holmgren (On if there is any player other than Bradford worth trading up for)- “Tom and I talked about this and we'll never say never. He has talked to all the teams ahead of us and we've talked to all those teams. If someone phoned us we'd say absolutely, throw us your best, we'd never say no we are not going to do it. So they are all telling us yes, there is a possibility. But, never say never but we like our picks and we like who we think we can get. It could happen, but we'll have to see.” Tom Heckert (On the impact of a three day draft)- “We have obviously five picks in the first three rounds, so hopefully we pick five good players and then after that obviously your percentage goes down. The way we have it mapped out like Coach (Holmgren) was saying, of who we think will be available, obviously it's a long shot to see if they are going to be there, the guys we have targeted we think can come in here and help us. Whether they can all come in here and start right away that's probably not going to happen. We do think all the picks have a chance to come in here and at least make our team on special teams or nickel guys or whatever. So, if, you know knock on wood you get 10 guys to make your team or seven guys it's obviously going to help you.” Tom Heckert (On if his role has changed from Philadelphia)- “It's really not much of a difference at all.” Tom Heckert (On how much his board has changed and what the deepest position is)- “First part, it really hasn't changed a whole lot. It changes really, not up top, but the more we are watching guys workout and guys that we've had clumped in the sixth round we kind of reorganized those on their workouts and more information and more tape watching. So, it changes a little bit but it really doesn't change a whole heck of a lot. And the deepest, that's a tough question. I think there are some secondary guys, which most of the time they are pretty deep in corners. At safety there are probably more guys at the top than they've been in the past. It's really kind of relative every year. It's about the same it's just the level of the top guys. This year there are obviously some defensive tackles who are going to go really high and that's usually not the case. It's usually defensive ends. That changes a little bit but I think the whole, all the way through the draft you are usually about the same.” Mike Holmgren (On if they will make a trade because of their past history)- “I would say only if it makes sense. Not to do it just to do it. In my case if we traded back or traded up we had specific reasons for doing it and not just because I like the action. And I would say the same thing. We like the five picks. In a perfect world, you have your five picks in the first three rounds, pick five good players they come in and play and contribute and boom, you've done a great job. Not to mention the other guys that we think we can get. I would say this, if there is a special player up there that we have kind of targeted and we think, ok, we run the risk of losing him by staying put, yeah, then you would have to consider it. Those are the things you consider. Just like you consider moving back if you have a little room there and you have four or five players there. I'd be happy with any of them. Any of them. Now all of a sudden you have room to move back. Just to do it for the sake of maintaining historical integrity, no.” Tom Heckert (On who made the trades in Philadelphia)- “It was both of us, but it's just like Coach said, exactly right if there is somebody that we really like and we are nervous about. I think we do a really good job of trying to track where people may go. Not actual people but maybe positions and needs, but we do a pretty good job. If we think there is a guy that we really like and he may not make it to us then we really have to think about going up. Like Coach said, if you have three or four guys or five and six guys and you think you can move down to get something then why not do it. Those are things that start to happen as guys come off the board, you start looking up there and say well, the guy that we really like is the last whatever at that position. If we want him we better go up and get him. That's where that stuff comes into play.” Mike Holmgren (On the past number one picks in Cleveland since 1999)- “I remember the first time I saw that, it was about a month ago. A list like that is telling. You would hope that your number one picks are the foundation of your football team and the only decisions that you have to make on those guys is contractually as they approach their unrestricted free agency year. That is the perfect scenario. You know things are going to happen and you might lose a player because of free agency in this day and age. But, no that's not a good list. As you look at the list there are reasons I think and those of you that have follow the team, I'm new, so those of you that have followed this team and lived through all those 10 picks or 10 years of picks, you know the reasons and they are all different reasons. Some of it might just be a new regime coming in and, like I said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I didn't ever like that player that much and you get a trade or whatever. Some of it just didn't work out, some of it is injury. I remember in Seattle I was killed for my first round pick of my second year. It was a young man named Chris McIntosh and the fact was he started as a rookie at right tackle from Wisconsin, big tackle. The next year he broke his neck, couldn't play football anymore. So I really messed up. But it goes on that sheet as this first round pick didn't pan out. Well, so, but getting back to it, that's a bad list. I hope that 10 years from now, I'd hope we look at it and say, I hope some of you make it by the way. I would hope that 10 years from now you'd look and say hey, that's why they are here.” Mike Holmgren (On why things will be better now)- “We’ll see won't we. We believe it'll be better, we have a formula, we look at things a certain way. Tom comes from a hugely successful program and so I've got a lot of faith in him. I think it's going to work just fine.” Mike Holmgren (On if he got draft advice while at the Indians home opener)- “I did as a matter of fact. I got a whole bunch of advice, that was unusual. That was fun, I got to go to the baseball game and I don't get to do that very often. The Indians were very nice and it was fun to go to the game. I had no idea, I got a lot of advice that day.” Mike Holmgren (On the fans expectations for this draft)- “Now I've been here three or four months, I've said this before and I'll say it again. Rarely do I go anywhere without someone either patting me on the back or shaking my hand saying we are with you and we've been Browns fans for whatever it is. They so much want this to work and it seems like there is a renewed spirit every year. If they are frustrated and they've felt like whatever their feelings were after a season, now we are entering a new thing and with the draft, hope springs eternal. You know, here we go again and this time. That's the feeling I get. They are great fans. They are great fans. Not that we'd work any harder than we are working now but I think both Tom and I have talked about this before. It would really be something to get the thing going in the right direction. I'm almost scared of the reaction if we were able to do that because people are so positive about the future with this team. I'm very appreciative of that, I will say that to the folks that I've talked to. I just hope we can live up to the expectations. That's the pressure we feel. We are very excited to be here, the fans are wonderful. The pressure I put on myself in the golden years of my career, is that I do not want to let them down. My hope is we can do the right thing by them.” Mike Holmgren (On having to find his niche as president)- “I can honestly say no. I know what my niche is. We've talked about our niche and who is going to sit where. We have a little map that we made and who gets the red phone and who gets this phone and all that. That's out of it and quite honestly, I've looked at the draft a little more intellectually as an intellectual exercise in the past, for all those years. When we start playing football and practicing and getting ready to actually play the games, now my whole thing used to switch. I suspect that that's when I'm going to have to put the brakes on a little bit when we start practicing Heres a video of what Mary kay and Tony had to say about it, plus thers like a 2 min. video of some of the press conference http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/...ry_kay_cab.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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