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Pat Shurmur

(Opening statement)- “As you know we have two compensatory picks left in the seventh and then we have roughly 15 free agents that were going to sign. The organization of all that upstairs we just went through it and Tom (Heckert) is finishing directing our scouts and coaches as we go through that process so that’s why Tom isn’t here. In the interest of time we felt like it would be good to come down and at least give you some insight to the guys that we’ve drafted to this point.”

“You saw we took Travis Benjamin. You’ve gone through it I’m sure. He is an extremely fast guy. We feel like his best football is ahead of him. He is very explosive when he gets the ball in his hands. I think he can score touchdowns for us. He impressed us with his toughness, we feel good about him. Michael Johnson, the linebacker, he’s one of those linebackers that has position flexibility. He can play both outside spots and he’s played some snaps in the middle so we feel good about him joining that group. And then Ryan Miller the big tackle from Colorado. He’s got a tackle body but he actually played most of the year this year at right guard. A 6-7 guy, we became impressed with him as well, a big physical guy, I think he talked about being physical in his comments with you. We were impressed by him and we think he’s got some flexibility to either play inside, outside, right side, left side so we went with him. And then Billy Winn, the defensive lineman, we were glad that he was still there. We had a high grade on him. Some teams may have had some medical concerns, which we went through and we were okay with so we feel good about him as a defensive lineman. He’s a very productive guy. And then Emmanuel Acho, again an outside linebacker. This guy is a terrific kid, he really is, terrific player. He’s very eager, he was one of those guys when I had him on the phone you could feel like he was going to jump on a flight today and get here. We feel like we’ve addressed some needs. We’ve picked players that we like for reasons that we like them and we feel like we’ve gotten better. Although it’s not over. We’ve got two more picks and a bunch of free agents to sign.”

Pat Shurmur

(On if it’s a vote of confidence to the wide receivers because they didn’t trade one until today)- “There are reasons we feel good about the receivers we have here. There’s reason for it and we can go into each guy specifically, but then as we were addressing needs through the draft we felt good about picking Travis Benjamin. We felt like he could be an explosive guy so that’s why we did that.”

Mike Holmgren

(On how Brandon Weeden fits both right away and long term)- “First of all, yes I would be happy to do that. But first of all I just want to compliment Tom Heckert, our scouts, our personnel grouping and of course our coaches and Pat. They work beautifully together in the lead up to the draft. I think one of the beauties of our place and how we do this is that we do have a lot of meetings together. That funnels in and then Pat and Tom and I had a series of meetings for the last three months in developing a strategy for this draft. Part of that strategy was to look very, very hard at picking a quarterback. I think we all liked Brandon as a player, I think everybody did in the league. The one caveat there, I guess, would be his age. Once we talked through that and got over that hurdle so to speak then he became very attractive to us. We had made a mention of the philosophy we’re going to have here every year in looking at quarterbacks. I’ve said that any number of times, Pat has said it, Tom has said it. And the exciting part of this is that we took him in the first round. There were some things that transpired in that first round as always does as you’re going through the draft. So instead of waiting and rolling the dice just a little bit perhaps and seeing another way to go there we said, ‘Lets not run the risk and take Brandon at the 22nd pick.’ We’re very excited to have him. You saw, you got a little taste of it when he was in here of how he’s different than all the other quarterbacks that were drafted ahead of him or behind him is that his age and his maturity and what he brings immediately to the table. Now, you couple that with his skill level, which is pretty obvious on film and he has the potential I think to play well sooner because of that than other quarterbacks in the draft so he became very attractive to us. I know there are all sorts of side stories swirling around that. I think both Pat and I addressed that yesterday. In fairness to everyone that will probably be an ongoing thing but right now we have our team, we have our quarterbacks in place and that’s how we’re planning to go forward.”

Mike Holmgren

(On Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden being foundational picks to help the franchise move toward winning consistently)- “Certainly, the choice of Trent was really something. Rarely, we hope it never happens again, that you pick number four. You don’t want to be up there, really. But we were up there so it was very, very important on whom we chose there. That’s why we had targeted Trent. We didn’t want to lose him and I guess my conversations with Pat and Tom in particular were if you even think someone is going to hop over there, if you even think someone is going to jump us then what are we going to do to prevent that from happening and get up in there. We had that conversation many, many times how far are we willing to go to do this. Tom did a masterful job of setting that thing up. Again, we addressed it yesterday but in contrary to what was written and what was said, we had to compete for that. We weren’t the lone ranger in that deal, we had to compete. I thought it was an excellent trade because we got the player who’s going to be, Lord willing, stay healthy and all those great things, a really fine player for us for a long time. Yes, to answer your question, Trent I would set the table with Trent first of all in how important a great runner is, you guys all know that, every team is better when you have that kind of a running back. That’s our hope anyway.”

Mike Holmgren

(On comparing Richardson to Shaun Alexander)- “I hope he does what Shaun did for us, that would be nice. But they are really quite different backs. I love Shaun, if I could adopt Shaun I would, but he wouldn’t block anybody, nobody and I still love him. He was one of the great runners I’ve ever seen, Shaun Alexander. As a running back, fabulous runner, but the difference is Trent is an excellent pass receiver, not just a willing blocker but a very, very good blocker so when Pat’s calling the game and we’re running our offense you don’t have to be thinking, ‘Okay now how do we protect him in the passing game?’ You don’t have to do that so that’s different. But, again I have great affection for Shaun Alexander and what he did for Seattle and what he did for me. This young man, different player, and there is no reason he can’t do the same for us here.”

Mike Holmgren

(On how you weigh being aggressive in the draft and how important it was to have that philosophy in the first round)- “If it works it was my idea, if it doesn’t then Heckert pushed me into it (joking). What I do in that situation and you’ve seen this upstairs, I think. I sit here and Pat’s here and Tom’s over there and as we approach things at the end we have these conversations, now we’ve had months of meetings. Hours and hours on how we are going to approach this and then when it gets down to the nitty gritty there’s always a couple of things we have to talk about. My job as I see it is too play Devil’s advocate just a little bit to make sure that they’re committed and they get what they want. Tom and Pat are talking and I say, ‘Are you guys sure?’ Once they say they’re sure, we go ahead and do it. I don’t care how aggressive we are. If we get the players that we wanted then that’s a great job, they’ve done a great job. I think these two did a great job during the draft.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if they have the talent now to compete at an elite level)- “I said this after the season and anyone that cares to listen in the building, I have talked to them and Pat and I have talked to this many times, we would all like to see a big jump this year. That is our hope and we think that is possible and we think that it is reasonable. Who knows for sure on the draft and you really don’t analyze the draft for three years on how the draft went. You guys know in the last two drafts we are playing a lot of players from those two drafts and they are playing pretty well. There is no reason to think that these kids won’t come in and do the same job. So our team, foundationally, is getting better. Now we have to be able to score points. That was a problem for us last year. I think we have addressed that a little bit. Are we ready to jump into elite status? I don’t know what that means necessarily, but I am anticipating a good jump in our level of play, yeah.”

Mike Holmgren

(On when he gave the green light to draft Brandon Weeden)- “I have said this and I believe it, you know I believe it, that the quarterback play is so important to any team. In this business, your team is probably as good as how your quarterback plays and the play of that position. Having said that, I have said that I also like the young man that has played for us, I have great affection for him. I think he proved some things last year. He is a very tough guy, he got beat up. He didn’t have the runner that we thought we were going to have. There were some things out of his control that made it very difficult, but he hung in there, I thought. I like him a lot. But it is our job then to see how we can make the team better and when we evaluated the quarterbacks, we evaluated all of the quarterbacks, how could we perhaps improve the position or at least see another guy come in and maybe be the man? We talked about a number of quarterbacks. We talked about (Robert) Griffin, we talked about (Andrew) Luck. We talked to Indianapolis. I talked to those guys at the Combine and we talked to them at the owners meetings and who knows crazy things happen in this business. And then Weeden comes up, the difference being he was older. You kind of go, ‘Well that is different.’ But, he is in the discussions. At the first blush he was kind of like that. Then as we started willing it down to what was reasonable and what was possible, he became more of a factor.”

Mike Holmgren

(On how difficult it is bringing in a rookie quarterback)- “I am going to let Pat hit that one. I don’t think it is easy, it is never easy. You look historically in the league. I always say, the only guy that shot lights out early was (Dan) Marino. Some of you may know someone else because you are a lot older than I am. But, I think Marino was the guy that sticks out because you talk to John Elway, Joe Montana, the guys I know, they all had these little growing pains. But, as far as coming in for [Pat], why don’t you touch on that?”

Pat Shurmur

“I think that the quarterback’s path to being a starter, if that’s what we’re talking about and leading the team to victories, I think it’s, like coach says, it’s all different. I remember in Philadelphia we had Doug Pederson for eight weeks before Donovan (McNabb) started. Most recently when we went to St. Louis and brought in Sam Bradford, he competed through the offseason and became the starter day one. We were a couple plays away from winning the division, on a team, at that time wasn’t all that explosive on offense either. I think that it is different. I think what is going to give a young man a chance to do that, like Brandon Weeden, if that’s the case, is even though it wasn’t football, he learned a lot playing in baseball about the league and being a pro and those types of things. I think he has crossed a lot of bridges that will give him an advantage if it happens quickly. But, I still think you bring him in, you work with him, you see what happens and then the overriding decision in all of this is that when we play our first game we put our best players out there. I think that’s what we’ll see.”

Pat Shurmur

(On if they feel set at cornerback)- “We looked at each pick and there was a cornerback discussion each time we chose in this draft. We are going to look to improve our team throughout. Unless we pick a corner here in the last two picks. Then we will just continue to develop the guys that we have, work with the guys we have and who knows what will happen beyond that. There are trades that happen. There are things that happen after the draft, once you see what your team is like. Then as we compete through the OTA’s, we will see how they all work together. If we have to make moves, we will make moves to make the team better.”

Mike Holmgren

(On the future of Colt McCoy and the possibility of a competition at quarterback)- “I think Pat and I would answer that the same way. We now have four quarterbacks and they are going to compete, that is how I see that. That is the way it’s always going to be. Who can determine the future? In this business, you line them up, you give it your best shot and then we have to choose. We have to choose somebody to play. Right now, we have four quarterbacks on the roster and they are going to compete for the position.”

Pat Shurmur

(On draft picks starting right away)- “I think that what you do is, you pick them, you bring them in, you work with them and then you confirm what you thought and then you move forward. I think there are always some surprises. Who would have predicted that Jason Pinkston would have played every snap, picked where he was a year ago? That is why you pick the guys you like, that you think can make your club at the positions you pick them at. Now that we have chosen these guys, and there is reasons why, once we get them here and work with them, that is probably a much better question now, after we go through some of the practice time here in the spring.”

Pat Shurmur

(On Weeden making the receivers better)- “An outstanding quarterback brings synergy to the whole team. Just like the addition of a running back helps the quarterback. If a quarterback that throws the ball accurately, on time, makes the receivers looks good. Receivers that make circus catches or make the hard catches make the quarterback look good. When the quarterback has a little bit more time to throw it, because the line is doing their job, it makes everything look good. I think that it is all connected, I really do. I think that it is hard on offense to talk about one specifically not connected to the other. I do know this, when you have outstanding quarterback play, all the players on offense and all of the people in this room, we all look good.”

Mike Holmgren

“As an add on to that too, Pat, I think that what will make the receivers look good is the running back. He will make everybody look better. The receivers, what will make them look good, is if they catch the ball better than they caught it last year. We dropped way too many balls and that wasn’t the quarterbacks fault. I don’t care if bring back Otto Graham, the receivers have to catch the ball. They will be better, for a lot of reasons. That’s why no one is in a panic about how the draft went as far as how our receivers went. We will not drop the ball like we dropped it last year. We will have a running game to go with our passing game. Those things by themselves it will be better.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if there is a sense of mission accomplished about finding the franchise quarterback)- “I won’t feel real good about it until it happens, I suppose. But we will keep looking and we are looking. We really like our quarterbacks, I like them all. This young man is an impressive guy.”

Mike Holmgren

(On a quarterback going from a career long starter to a backup)- “I would think that could be a difficult situation except if it is ever going to work, it will work if that happens, because Colt McCoy is a special young man. I have always said that. Of course he wants to play, they all want to play. Again, nothing has been done yet, we don’t know how it is going to sort itself out. But, if that were to be the case, at some point, I think we have the best chance of making that work because of who the people are, who the players are. It is never easy, everyone wants to play. But, you only have one ball and only one guy can play at a time.”

Mike Holmgren

(On players choosing sides in the locker room)- “That is something that you have to work to not have happen. Again, I think knowing the personalities, if ever I’ve seen that happen, it’s usually because it’s created by the two principals. If I am any judge at all about these young guys, that won’t be the reason. It shouldn’t be a reason. You aren’t going to have half for one guy and half for another guy or half for Seneca (Wallace) or half for whoever. It shouldn’t happen. It usually happens if the players themselves kind of lead the charge on that and that is not going to happen.”

Pat Shurmur

(On what he sees in Weeden)- “When you look at quarterbacks, you look at their attributes, as you eluted to. First of all you sit back and you say, ‘This guy is has won a heck of a lot of games as the quarterback at Oklahoma State.’ Then you look back and say, ‘This guy has completed 72 percent of his balls.’ Then you say, ‘Okay, why did that happen?’ Then you look at the decision making and the timing and the accuracy and all of the things that he did, just on tape. Then, after the tape that’s when it starts to get talked about, about our trips to Stillwater, our trips to the Combine. Then you get to really know the guy. With all the background that Tom and his guys have already done. We have that information. We can read about all this, we can watch him on tape and then we as coaches weigh in, ‘Hey, we like this guy. This guy reminds me of that guy. We think the reason he is going to be good is because of this.’ You put all of that together and based on the information at hand, you pull the trigger on it. Then you try to translate it to this league of course.”

Mike Holmgren

“I saw the same thing. I would factor one more thing in and that is who they played. They play good people, highly competitive. The best in college football, so he saw a lot of speed, he had to go against really fine defensive players. It was a very intensely competitive, noisy stadiums, all of that stuff that went into where he played. I like his maturity. Again, time will tell but he is a little bit older and it shows. Not only on film, but in how he handles himself and how he deals with questions and how he conducts himself.”

Mike Holmgren

(On missing a mentoring role on the sidelines)- “I will let Pat have the second part of this, but I will say that, that is a little bit of an overstatement. I never, and we are all different, he is different than I was, we are all different. That mentoring thing, I’ll talk to the quarterback. I don’t want this other quarterback talking to the quarterback. Now, some of them like to do that and often times I’d have to tell the mentor, ‘Shut up, go over there,’ because I am coaching the player. Now, what they do in meetings and when they go out for a beer or when they have a hamburger or whatever it is, mentor them there. But, when it comes to football, I am going to be the guy he looks to. I think it is a little overrated. Now for experiencing things on the football field or things that the other guy has seen maybe, but for as far as how I want things done and how I want you to play and how I want you to react, listen to me. He can be your friend and all of that’s great. That is if the guy wants to mentor. A lot of those guys mentor the wrong way, they want to play. So listen to me. It’s a little overrated in my opinion.”

Mike Holmgren

(On looking back on the trade with Atlanta in last year’s draft)- “If you remember, I kind of banged Tom on that last year because I really liked the player I thought we were going to get with the pick. But, he said I can make this deal and it is a monumental deal. We spent a couple days talking about it and I just wanted him to make sure. I was just playing my role a little bit. He convinced me and he knew why he wanted to do it and it was a great, great deal for us. He did a nice job. We haven’t been together very long, but he has great connections in the league. People like him, his cohorts in other places. He can get deals done and he can do this. They trust him. He is good at it. It worked out for us.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if there is a greater sense of urgency because this is his third year)- “It’s funny you should say that Tom (Withers) because I thought it was just the opposite. First off, I have tremendous trust in Tom and in Pat, and while we had all those meetings that I was kind of watching it, smiling and enjoying it as much as anything else. If I’m going to suggest something or push it’s going to happen long before this weekend. A discussion as an example, I won’t tell you exactly what it was about, but this is typical of what might happen. I said Tom, ‘Do you want to do this?’ He said I don’t think I do. I think it’s too much or too strong or whatever. Then I said well we may have to. Then he goes well if we have to then you have to tell me because I won’t do it. I said okay, then I might have to tell you. Fine. But that’s a healthy way to go about it, no one’s strangling anybody or pushing anybody and we’ve talked about that. Pat is kind of the peace maker in the group, but we all have our moments. It’s real healthy and I trust him a lot.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if it is unlikely that they will trade McCoy)- “You know what, I can’t answer that right now. I think both Pat and I have tried for a couple of days to kind of first of all clear up some of the things that were written that weren’t true at all. Now Colt’s at home, he’s coming back for his workout. He’s going to be at workouts next week, so I’m not going to speculate on anything. We’re going to see what happens here moving forward. ”

Pat Shurmur

(On if he spoke to McCoy)- “I have a couple of times. As far as I’m concerned, it’s like yesterday, it’s a non-story in my opinion. Colt and I spoke, he’s looking forward to coming back here, getting himself ready to compete to be a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. I guess because I know what we talked about, I guess I’m a little surprised about all the questions quite frankly.”

Mike Holmgren

(On having four quarterbacks)- “Well you take four quarterbacks to camp, we always do. We’ll have a decision to make at some point probably when we cut down to 53. Traditionally, I always kept three some teams kept two. You want to be strong, you want to have the best guys, give them a chance to compete, all those kind of things. Really, the questions on the quarterbacks, and I know it’s an important deal, but we are nowhere ready at all to answer most of these questions. It just isn’t there yet.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if you draft a 28 year old in the first round with the expectation that he is the starter)- “No, I think we have high expectations for him, but is he being handed anything? No. We’re not going to give anybody, and we told him that, he knows that.”

Mike Holmgren

(On what differentiated Trent Richardson from the other top picks like Morris Claiborne and Just Blackmon)- “I liked (Justin) Blackmon a lot. I thought he was a great player. The young cornerback, (Morris) Claiborne was a great player. Personality wise I liked them all. They were special young men. Honest to goodness, I’d like to grab them all. I think the number one thing was we needed to get a player, that we felt we could establish the run in this league and in this city with the weather and all that kind of stuff. The other thing was I think the gap between Trent (Richardson) and the other running backs even though there were other good running backs, the gap was larger at running back than it was at some of the other positions. We were going to get a great football player at four. We had these discussions prior to the other day and then once we decided on Trent like I said, that’s when the trade stuff, we said what do we have to do, how much are we willing to do. Then, at that point we had all agreed that that was the guy we wanted.”

Pat Shurmur

(On how fast Travis Benjamin is and if they needed to add speed to the roster)- “He’s extremely fast. I think he talked about running a 4.26 at some point. We got him clocked down there around 4.3. He can beat anybody in here. He can go, he can really go. We got some intimate knowledge of him. Mark Whipple was with him in Miami. He talked about how this guy has got a great future. He hasn’t really been exposed to the kind of coaching he’s going to get in this league. He felt like this was a tremendous kid. Now, we got to know him and he is a hard guy not too like. I can’t wait for you to get to meet him. You’re going to feel the same way about him that you did about meeting Brandon and of course Trent. There is a lot there. He is extremely fast and when you put speed on the field it changes things just like when you put a running back that could really go. We felt like he was going to add that element to our receiving corps.”

Mike Holmgren

“He’s different than the guys we have. Not just from speed. He’s smaller and quicker. He’s a different receiver. We have bigger guys, not slow guys, but they’re bigger.”

Pat Shurmur

(On Benjamin competing for the No. 1 spot)- “We’re going to put him in the mix and see what he can do. Now, we know as a receiver there are times when you’re a role player and you can play a lot of snaps. I don’t like to put less than two out there but you can have two, three and four receivers on the field at any time. We feel like we want to get him in here and see what he can do. Then use his skill and ability to our advantage. We feel like we could use him out on the field on special teams as well, which you need to get from guys that are role players.”

Pat Shurmur

(On the importance of speed)- “I think we wanted to make our team better and when you evaluate and grade players, of course, the bigger, stronger, faster guys get higher grades. If they have one or two of those elements then that’s when you start making your decisions. We feel like we picked very fine players. We’re excited about all of them. This is day three of this so lets not let our enthusiasm drop here now. We’ve got to keep it going for a half a round here. We feel really good about the players we added and some of the guys that we drafted have excellent speed for their positions they play.”

Mike Holmgren

(On how long the conversation went with Indianapolis for the No. 1 pick)- “Probably about five minutes. Actually I had two conversations. I had a conversation with Mr. (Jim) Irsay and also with their new general manager. I believe I was in the swimming pool at the owners meetings and I had a drink in my hand, on the second one (joking). It wasn’t very long.”

Pat Shurmur

(On evaluating Travis Benjamin who had an inconsistent Jacory Harris as his quarterback)- “We factored that in, when we evaluated him as a receiver. You can see enough, obviously there is enough throwing going on in college football where you can see what a receiver is going to bring to the table. He did some things that were very impressive to us. He can really run and when he gets down the field he can really track the ball, which I think is one of his real strong suits and that is a good thing.”

Mike Holmgren

(On if Scott Fujita possible punishment factored into taking two linebackers)- “Not as far as we were concerned. I think both Pat and I have talked to Scott, not recently, but I think Scott has been real honest and up front all the way. He has been dealing with the league. We will find out when we find out.”

Mike Holmgren

(On his reaction to the Greg Williams tape)- “I heard it. The whole thing bothered me, not just the tape, but the whole idea bothered me. This is a very rough game at times, without specifically getting into that sort of thing. At the league meeting at one of our sessions that we were in most teams got up and spoke to that, and New Orleans was in the room, it went around the room and we talked about our feelings about that. My comment was that in all the years I coached I don’t believe we ever did that. I wasn’t in the defensive room most of the time so I don’t know for sure. The idea of targeting somebody, specifically like that and having money put into a pot for that reason, that’s wrong. There is no place for that in this sport. It bothered me and I hope it never comes up again.”

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(On if he prefers the left side or the right side)- “Obviously if you go to Cleveland, Joe Thomas is the left tackle, so probably right now a little more right tackle. Honestly, I’m pretty comfortable with both, like you said I’ve played both in my career, so I’m comfortable doing either. I know Cleveland has probably the best left tackle in the game, so I understand my role in regards to that.”

(On if he knows Alex Mack)- “Yeah, I played with him. My first two years at Cal were his last two. I’ve stayed in contact with him throughout the process and talked to him a little bit. I’m sure I’ll get the full scouting report on Cleveland. It’s definitely going to be good to have a former teammate there. It’s always good when you know someone going into a new situation.”

(On his older brother Geoff Schwartz who was drafted in 2008)- “I got really lucky having an older brother who has been through the process already. Coming out of high school, I kind of knew what to expect as far as recruiting. Obviously now going into the NFL, I have a pretty good understanding of what to expect. He’s been there and done that, and I can learn a little bit off of his mistakes. It’s a really good thing to have that there. We talk pretty much every day about all sorts of things. Obviously, we talk about football and how he likes it and what the challenges are going to be. It has definitely given me a little bit of a leg up that all the guys aren’t necessarily fortunate enough to have.”

(On possibly starting with new teammates Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden)- “Obviously the franchise just looks to get better in any way that it can. I’m not in the war room or anything, so I’m not sure how those talks went down. Cleveland is just doing their best to get better with everything they can do and the draft is obviously part of that process. You can tell that the team has gotten more talent and gotten better as the years have progressed these last couple of years. It is definitely an exciting time coming to an up and coming team, a team with a lot of talent that is going to be competing for the next few years and all the years to come.”

(On if he had a feeling the Browns would select him and where he is watching the draft)- “I’m watching from my house in Los Angeles. I know through the whole process I’ve talked to them a decent bit. I had a good understanding and I think they liked me. I never tried to put too much stock into that. You get told a lot of different stories about teams that showed guys a lot of interest and nothing really comes of that. But I have a good relationship with them like I said, we talked a pretty good amount through the entire process. I’m definitely excited with it, it’s not completely new. I’ve met all the coaches, all that kind of stuff before. I’m just looking forward to it.”

(On his familiarity with Weeden and Richardson)- “I don’t know them personally, but as fan of college football, you can’t not know those names, you can’t not see them on TV. I know Trent is the best running back coming out this year. He has been a monster ever since he got to Alabama. We all know the Brandon Weeden story, about the success he has had at Oklahoma State, lifting them up and pushing them into the national championship conversation. Those are two tremendously successful college players and that is the reason Cleveland brought them around for the NFL.”

(On how much of an adjustment it is moving from left tackle to right tackle)- “It’s not too much, all of the techniques are the same. It is just a different side of the body and a different leg is back. In terms of the techniques and the style of your play, it is basically all the same.”

(On if his performance at the Senior Bowl drove up his stock)- “I think so. I don’t know how much teams and coaches put into Senior Bowl performances, but I definitely think it made them go back and look at my senior film. They were able to go through and see how I did against some decent players in college. I definitely think it did help me, how much I can’t really say, it is hard to know. It was a good experience for me and I am glad where I ended up.”

(On being called a ‘dumpy’ player by scouts and what he thinks about comments like that)- “I try not to put too much stock into that, I think my family puts more into that than I do. I played over 50 games in college. I have had two really good coaches that have been in the NFL before. I do feel really prepared to come in and compete right away and start if I get the opportunity to. I feel like a top guy being able to come in and start from day one because of my college choice and the coaches I have had there. It will be exciting and I am looking forward to it.”

(On scouts saying he was a slugger inside)- “Whatever they say, I try not to look into that too much. I know the type of player that I am. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win. It isn’t a beauty contest. Football is definitely not a beauty contest. You are going out there to try and win the down. However you have to do that, sometimes it’s not going to look the best, but as long as you come out successful, all that really matters is the production.”

(On if he had to fight through back problems)– “Not really. I got surgery after my junior year on that to clean it up. It was something I dealt with a little bit junior year, but I put a pretty high premium on being on the field. Obviously, you’re no use to your teammates or the coaching staff if you’re not on the field. I got it cleaned up after the season and it’s been great ever since.”

(On who his two position coaches at Cal were who had NFL experience)– “It was Steve Marshall and Jim Michalczik.”

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Trent Richardson

(On his reaction to becoming a Cleveland Brown)- “Just to let you know how I’m feeling, I haven’t been able to sleep. I am just so excited to be here. I love the feeling. All of the great running backs that have come from here, to try to follow in their footsteps and make a name for myself is going to be big.”

Trent Richardson

(On being in Cleveland)- “Just being here is an honor and a pleasure. To be a part of this tradition that they have here with these great running backs that they have had here and to try to make a name for myself is going to be big. I have a lot of respect to earn and I have a lot to prove. It is going to be a challenge for me and more of a big opportunity for me, especially around this community.”

Brandon Weeden

(On his reaction to being drafted by the Browns)- “It’s a honor. This is obviously a great organization. I am sure Trent can attest to this, to hear your name called on that night is pretty special. I think it really is. It is a dream come true for all of us and to be a part of a great organization like this is truly an honor. I think he can tell you, we’re ready to start playing football. We have been doing all of this others stuff, traveling and doing other stuff, we are ready to line up and play some football. It’s a lot of fun.”

Brandon Weeden

(On how excited he is to have Richardson as his running back)- “Very, obviously, I have followed his career at Alabama. I told people last week, he is the best player in the country last year in college football. He is very, very dynamic. As a quarterback it is comforting, you can turn around and hand the ball to a guy like this. One it can make a quarterback look really good at times and he’ll make your offense really go.”

Trent Richardson

(On if they knew each other prior to being drafted)- “Like he said, we followed each other. We really didn’t come in contact with each other, but once we did meet each other, we actually trained together down in Arizona. We just hit it off and just gelled down there in Arizona. When it came down to it, we are happy to be teammates.”

Trent Richardson

(On why he enjoys pass blocking)- “Pass blocking is just fun for me because growing up I was always the shortest. All of my brothers were bigger than me so I had to do something and make sure they stopped beating up on me all of the time. Pass blocking, it just comes natural to me and that it the fastest way to put yourself on the bench, if you do not know how to block nobody and I want to be an every down back. When it comes down to it, if they need me on third down to block somebody or second down to block somebody and even on fourth down to be in the game for special teams, whatever it takes. If they want me to be the PP (punt protector), I am going to be the PP. I don’t want to leave the field and I want to be one of those guys that is always going to have his name remembered in the National Football League.”

Trent Richardson

(On playing in a pro-style offense with Nick Saban)- “I think it is going to help me a lot, especially with the knowledge that I have learned and gained from being around a pro-style offense. Coach (Jim) McElwain does a real good job of getting us in good position to score touchdowns or to contribute to the team as far as getting first downs. With the offense running back coach we have had, he has been a hard-nosed dude that is not going to take nothing from nobody. He is going to make sure he gets the full potential he can out of you. Coach Saban, that is what he does too and I don’t expect anything less from the coaches here.”

Brandon Weeden

(On if he ever thought he would be a first round pick in the NFL)- “I always hoped that was the direction I would go. It really wasn’t until 2006 when I realized that I was going to go back and pursue football in the first place. I was still naïve enough to think that I could pitch in the big leagues and I found out real quick that it wasn’t going to happen. To answer your question, I would say no, not necessarily. My junior year I continued to get better as a quarterback and I always dreamed of being in the exact same position I am today. Like I said, I am blessed. I think, and Trent will say the same thing, it’s an honor to be in this position.”

Brandon Weeden

(On how hard he could throw a baseball)- “I topped out at 97 (mph). I would pitch anywhere from 91-97. It didn’t matter, you could throw 107 and they’re still going to hit it. I threw hard, I was blessed with a strong arm, but those guys you see pitching every night, they have all three pitches that are really, really good and I didn’t.”

Brandon Weeden

(On the difference between throwing a baseball and a football)- “Completely different motion. One, the baseball is really light and it is more of a long motion. You are putting a lot more strain on your arm. Throwing the football is more compact. The ball is heavier. The arm speed is completely different. There are a lot of guys who have wear and tear from throwing a baseball, but you very seldom do you ever see a guy who has arm issues throwing the football. It is just a different motion. For example, every offseason I would a throw a football before I even picked up a baseball to kind of get my arm in shape without putting all of the stress on it and kind of strengthened my arm to get it going before spring training. It’s two totally different motions, but I always had a football in my hand in the offseason.”

Brandon Weeden

(On why he decided to pursue baseball first)- “I think the opportunity. My senior year, I was one of the better players coming out of Oklahoma state. I was throwing hard and being projected, and obviously to have the opportunity to be the first pick of the New York Yankees with the opportunity to go back to school and they paid for it. I think that is just too much as an 18 year old kid to pass up. Like I said, I wouldn’t change my decision. I don’t regret anything I have ever done. I think everything happens for a reason. I was talking to a guy on the plane this morning and I said, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ It was kind of funny how things work out and I am blessed to be where I am at right now.”

Brandon Weeden

(On his confidence in being an effective red zone quarterback)- “I think down in the red zone, taking care of the football is first and foremost. I think it’s being accurate. Giving your guys a chance to make a play, but don’t force balls to turn the ball over. Especially in this league where defenses are good, the game is faster, the field gets condensed, obviously. You’ve just got to be smart with the football. I think that is one thing at Oklahoma State we took a lot of pride in and Coach (Todd) Monken, our offensive coordinator, he came from the NFL. He stressed it whereas before it wasn’t really like that. Fortunately, coming into this situation, it is fresh on my mind. It is important taking care of the football down there.”

Trent Richardson

(On if Nick Saban gave him any insight on Cleveland and Browns fans)- “He said, ‘You are going to love the community and the fans are going to be a lot similar to Alabama fans and they love the town and they are waiting for the football team to hit off.’ And he told me you are just going to love being around the atmosphere. It is going to be a lot like home when you are talking about college football. He said, ‘It is probably the closest place you are going to get to where the atmosphere is like college football.’ That is what I am used to and that is what I love. That is why I love to play this game, just the atmosphere and just being around everybody.”

Trent Richardson

(On his experience playing in cold weather)- “It gets pretty cold in Alabama in October. I haven’t had it that much. It has snowed up there twice since I have been up there. Like I said, football is football no matter what goes. Cold, hot, you still have got to put on your pads. You still have to put on your helmet and you still have to hit somebody, somebody’s got to hit you. Somebody’s got to score touchdowns and somebody has got to kick a field goal. Football is football no matter where I go. I just have got to make sure I get in shape for it and make sure I can be that player that is going to be able to play in that cold weather. When it comes down to it, this league that we are in here is not a league where a running back is not needed. You need a running back in this league here. When you look back at the old school teams that have won a lot of Super Bowls, you have a good running game with you.”

Brandon Weeden

(On challenges they face with trying to turn the offense around)- “Obviously, this organization felt really comfortable with us as players and I think that is exciting for both of us. I am speaking for both of us here, again. Yeah there is a lot of pressure that goes along with being a quarterback and running back in the NFL. They were so close last year. There were games that where they were close and came up a few points short. That is just the nature of NFL football. I think it is going to be a fun ride. I’ll tell you what, it’s exciting. Like I said earlier, we are ready to get to work and get to know all of the guys, we ran into a few of them down there in the cafeteria, and get to know the guys and get the ball rolling. We are excited about it.”

Brandon Weeden

(On he was teased at Oklahoma State about his age)- “Of course. Obviously, it was there, but I have been consistent in my message the entire time. It is a unique situation. Obviously, the (Chris) Weinke comparison and all that, I feel like we are two totally different guys, but it’s there. I think the more I talked it and the more conversations I had with this organization, they felt comfortable with it not being an issue. I have been saying that all along. My baseball background, what I’ve been through, the adversity I’ve been through, it really prepares me for what I am about to go through. I think being 28 years old is an advantage for me. I use it as an advantage because my body is still fresh. I still have a lot of football left in my tank. I never really saw any negatives because I have to answer the question all of the time. I really see it as a positive and I think it’s really going to help in the locker room. I think it’s going to help me prepare on a daily basis to become the best player I can become.”

Brandon Weeden

(On what his turning point was when he decided to switch to football)- “Basically, I was playing in California in the (Class A) High Desert (Mavericks) and it was the worst experience of my life. The wind blew out about 55 miles per hour every night and I gave up three broken-bat home runs. My ERA was like something astronomical, something like a 5.60 or something not good. I said, ‘You know what? It’s not going to happen. I am not going to make it.’ So I came home. My now-wife, I told her I said, ‘I am thinking about going back and playing college football.’ She was like, ‘Are you crazy?’ and I said, ‘No, absolutely not. Let’s do it.’ It was that ‘06 season. I knew that I didn’t want to be a guy who spent 10 years in the minor leagues. I wanted to give it a shot and if it didn’t work out, I knew this is what I wanted to do. That ’06 season was just enough. I gave up a broken-bat home run, I almost got hit with the barrel, and the ball went over the fence so I was like, ‘That’s for the birds.’”

Brandon Weeden

(On his labrum injury and if he had surgery)- “I have never had a surgery. I have never even broken a bone, knock on wood. I have been very fortunate. Like I said earlier, throwing a baseball is completely different. I went through tendinitis and went through a dead-arm phase. That is just part of throwing 200 innings in a year. It’s tough to do that and stay healthy for the entire time. I never had any surgeries. The tendinitis was there, the labrum stuff. I had doctors at the combine say, ‘If we did a MRI of 100 shoulders from pitchers in the major leagues, you’re going to find a little bit of something, but there is nothing serious.’ It was very, very minute. I have never had surgery. I have thrown thousands and thousands and thousands of footballs at Oklahoma State with zero pain. I can actually sleep at night and it didn’t hurt. I feel good.”

Trent Richardson

(On if he knew he was the Browns guy when they traded up and how did it felt to get that call)- “When I saw them trade up I kind of sensed it. That feeling right then when I got that phone call, it was a big relief because I have been through some stuff and my family has been through some stuff. Now my little girls don’t have to go through the struggles that I have been through growing up, like growing up and having to see their dad and their mom work two or three jobs like I did. My mom is a cancer patient and she fights that every day and she is a strong woman. My mom has done a lot as far as taking in kids that are not hers and getting custody of them, my cousins, and she keeps us all together. She keeps our family strong and she is still disciplining us today. That’s a real mom for you. She was a mom and a dad to us and she is still like that to us today. When it came down to it, I saw my mom and said ‘Mom, we are going to be in Ohio.’ When I told her about the trade, she was like, ‘Are you sure we are going to be there.’ She is making sure because we don’t want to get out hopes up too high because somebody else could have been taken with the third pick. From right then, in my head, before I left here, they said that, ‘You are our guy.’ In my head I was like, ‘They really want me and believe in me and I have got to make sure that I go do something to be an outstanding player. And make sure I am myself at the same time and make sure I can be that guy they can always depend on to put the team on my back when it comes down to it in the trenches.”

Trent Richardson

(On being compared to Emmitt Smith and their relationship)- “Being from the same hometown and from the same school, you have no choice. He was a Gator and I was a Gator in high school. The first thing, when people say something about Pensacola it is, ‘Oh you got Emmitt Smith from there.’ ‘Oh yeah we do.’ He represents us good when it comes to playing football and our relationship is pretty strong. He always tells me that anything I need, like conversation wise or any advice to, ‘Make sure you come and talk to me and make sure you use me as best you can.’ That dude, he is tremendous when it comes to knowing this game of football and just building a relationship with people.”

Trent Richardson

(On what advice Emmitt Smith has gave him)- “He is always telling me, ‘Just be you and just stay humble. Don’t worry about all of the bad and all of the clutter. Don’t let that get into your head.’ He always told me, ‘I am the leading rusher and records are meant to be broken so come get me.’”

Trent Richardson

(On if he can have an immediate impact as a rookie)- “Most definitely. That is the plan and that is the standard I am going to set. When it comes down to it, this town and this community, they expect the same thing and I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t expect the same thing. I am here to try and better the team. We want to win, everybody wants to win. This opportunity that they gave me, I really have to say thanks, because this has always been a dream for me. Coming from where I came from, people don’t make it out of age 18. I really want to thank them and try to repay them back and just try to play good football for them.”

Trent Richardson

(On being compared to Ray Rice, Maurice Jones-Drew and Emmitt Smith)- “You hear comparisons and no, I am not near one of those guys. Those guys did a lot of great things in life, especially with the football in their hand. I can be one of those guys who you can mention my name with that type of back or be the Emmitt Smith type of back or the Marshall Faulk or all of those great guys. Even the great Jim Brown when it comes down to it. There is only one thing you can take to the grave with you and that is your last name. How your name is remembered, that’s on you. That is going to be on my, how I have my name remembered. Not by a coach telling me that you are going to be a great player. That is not going to help my name be remembered in the books. What I do on that field, that is going to be on me. How hard I work, that’s going to be on me. When it comes down to it, I have two little girls who have to eat and who have to have smiles on their face. I can’t let any man take meals from my little girls.”

Brandon Weeden

(On stepping in and playing right away and if he can quicken the learning curve)- “We have got to get started first. I am going to come in and compete and that’s one thing I take a lot of pride in is competing and I am going to do everything in my power to win football games. That is one thing we did a lot of at Oklahoma State as they did at Alabama. It is all about winning games. It doesn’t matter what level you are at, it’s all about winning football games. Whatever my role is to do that, that is the direction I am going to go and I am going to bust my tail to go that direction. I think playing quarterback in this league is demanding. Obviously, you have got to spend a lot of time and learn. I am going to be learning a whole new system, but it is something that I have a passion for and I will do everything in my power to help this team win football games.”

Brandon Weeden

(On playing in the wind in Cleveland)- “Have you ever been to Oklahoma? Oklahoma, it is a windy place, but I have heard that he wind swirls in the stadium. What it all comes down to is throwing a tight football. Throwing a tight spiral and not allowing the wind to affect your ball. We played at Texas Tech this year and we had wind gusts of 80 (mph) and there was stuff on the field and it was crazy, but I think it was one of my best throwing games of the year as far as accuracy and throwing the ball where I needed to. As long as you don’t think about it, if you start thinking about it you’re in trouble, just throw the football tight. Throw it where you want to go and it helps to put a little extra mustard on it here and there.”

Trent Richardson

(On what jersey number he wants)- “I can’t wear number three in the league as a running back but you can wear 33. I’m going to let you all see and when it comes out, it comes out. I’m not going to say too much about it but because I probably just gave everything away.”

Trent Richardson

(On if he is conscious of his height when he is on the field because he is 5-9)- “I don’t really think about my height. They have me at 5-9 but they were pushing my head down (jokingly). I just play football, I don’t buy into who is big, who is fast or who is smaller. If you are going to run up to me, I’m going to give you everything I can and I know you are going to give me everything you can. When it comes to being shorter than everyone else, that might be a positive because I can hide behind the blockers and try to squirm through there. I don’t buy into the size thing.”

Trent Richardson

(On playing behind Mark Ingram at Alabama)- “When Mark and I or anyone around our house at Alabama, we don’t call it playing behind anyone. We call it our rotation. We were playing beside each other. We competed every day, no matter what it was. We competed with anything and that made us better. In our room, we always built relationships and we built a family. We weren’t out there hoping one would get hurt so we could go in. No, that’s being selfish and that’s how you mix your blessings. We were out there trying to make sure everyone was playing and eating. When it comes down to it, we want everyone to do the same thing and we want to win. We are here to better each other and make stuff happen. As far as winning a national championships, two out of three years wasn’t bad.”

Brandon Weeden

(On if he has spoken to Colt McCoy)- “I haven’t run into Colt. As far as that other stuff, that’s out of my control. I’m here to compete and that’s a management decision. I’m blessed to be in this position but no, I haven’t run into Colt.”

Trent Richardson

(On his injury in high school)- “In high school during my freshman and sophomore year I didn’t play football due to an injury I had. I had two screws in both my ankles and I didn’t know where my life was going to be. I had my first child when I was a sophomore in high school, so it was going to be either I hung around a wrong crowd, which I wasn’t raised that way, and try to get fast money. Or, I could go make something out of myself and go be a grown man and handle my responsibilities. I stood up to the plate and my little girls are happy now. I’m here today now and if you look around anywhere last year I wasn’t on any college magazine that you could find. That was big coming from where I came from and seen the things that I’ve seen. A guy like me, who almost gave up and fought back due to injuries and becoming a father in high school, that’s big. I was a child trying to raise a child. I’m not telling anyone to go out and have kids early, but that humbled and grounded me and made me realize that you have to do something that can change your kids and your mom’s life. You need to do well for your family.”

Trent Richardson

(On if his mother continues to help him)- “Most definitely. I have a lot of respect for my mom. Matter of fact, whenever I get ready to get my house here my mom will be here to help me with my kids. That lady is strong and she has done a lot for me and my family. When I got to college, to help me, my mom moved to Birmingham so I could be 45 minutes away from my kids. That way, I wouldn’t just see them every one in a while, I could see them every weekend and sometimes every week.”

Trent Richardson

(On if he broke both his ankles)- “No, I tore ligaments in my ankle.”

Trent Richardson

(On how it happened)- “Just running sideline to sideline in a Wing T. I guess I was overdeveloped and hadn’t grown into my bones yet. I was a big kid. I have no problems with them now. I haven’t had any problems since then. Matter of fact, I got faster and stronger too. I’m here today in your face and I’m a Cleveland Brown.”

Trent Richardson

(On if his mother is still taking cancer treatments)- “Yes, most definitely. She is healthy but it’s a long way to go. That’s something we have to monitor and it’s something we have to look after. When it comes down to it, there is nothing like your mom, I don’t care what they say. You can never get that back. I’m going to treat my mom like a queen like she deserves.”

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Tom Heckert

(Opening statement)- “Obviously, we are very excited about the two guys that we got today, and we look forward to the rest of the draft. We are really excited about the two guys we got today.”

Tom Heckert

(On taking Weeden at 22 rather than waiting)- “That is obviously something that we talked about. We had a lot of conversations about this. When you are talking about a quarterback, we just didn’t think that it was worth taking a risk. Maybe something else you say, ‘Well alright if we get him it’s no big deal,’ but with a quarterback we just wanted to make sure we got him. There were some teams that we know were interested behind us, so we just decided to go ahead and pick him.”

Pat Shurmur

(On if there will be an open competition heading into camp)- “We have a new quarterback that is going to be with us. I think that tonight is more or less about Brandon Weeden and less about the competition right now. When we went through the process of evaluating him. We became very fond of him, we all did. From Randy (Lerner) to Mike (Holmgren) to Tom (Heckert) and myself. We came away saying that this is a guy we’d like to have on our team and that’s where we are at right now.”

Tom Heckert

(On Weeden not sitting because he is 28 years old)- “I think that it is anybody that you take and more so the round. We want these guys to play, but how soon depends and Pat (Shurmur) is going to make that decision. If it takes them longer than we think, we aren’t going to throw a guy out there just to throw him out there. Eventually, he is going to be a starter for us we hope, that’s why we drafted him.”

Tom Heckert

(On if they tried trading Colt McCoy this weekend)- “To be honest we haven’t thought about that, we really haven’t. I am not trying to elude it. That will be something that we will talk about tonight and tomorrow.”

Tom Heckert

(On trading picks to get Trent Richardson)- “I know exactly what was offered to Minnesota, so we knew we had to trade to get him if we wanted him. I know that for a fact.”

Pat Shurmur

(On what they loved about Weeden)- “I think number one, he has the attributes you are looking for in a quarterback. He is a winner. He obviously took a non-traditional path to being a college quarterback, but he is a very mature guy. He is an outstanding thrower. He is a good decision maker. He is very accurate. He found a way at Oklahoma State to really compete and win a lot of football games against a lot of the quarterbacks that we’ve been talking about leading up to the draft. We feel like the kid is a winner. I wasn’t concerned about his age. I was impressed with his maturity and the way he handled himself, and obviously as a coach watching his productivity on tape and he is a quarterback who helped to lead his team to a lot of victories.”

Tom Heckert

(On if they have transformed the offense in one night)- “I don’t know if we’ve transformed it, but going back to last year I think we made it a point to emphasize we wanted to be tough. We thought we did that a little bit last year and the year before on our defense. Obviously, taking Trent helps us on offense and being a physical football team. Obviously the quarterback, it remains to be seen how that all works out. I don’t know if we’ve transformed it, but I think we’ve gotten better and I think that is the goal.”

Tom Heckert

(On excitement of drafting Richardson)- “We were pretty fired up. We spent a lot of time sitting and wondering what was going to happen. If something would have happened and didn’t work out, we would have gone with another player and been very happy, but Trent was a guy that we really wanted and I’m glad that it worked out.”

Tom Heckert

(On aggressiveness to get the players that they wanted)- “We weren’t going to do anything stupid. We talked about it the last couple of weeks, what we were willing to give up and we weren’t going to go over a certain point to do it. It worked out. I talked with Rick (Spielman), and obviously I have a really good relationship with Rick. I worked with him in Miami and I’ve known him for a long time, so we talked about what was fair. They were concerned about the same thing, moving down too far and not getting the guy. It worked out well and we are happy about it.”

Tom Heckert

(On drafting Weeden)- “Brandon was by far the best player for us after a couple guys got picked. There wasn’t even an afterthought. After a couple of guys went we knew we were going to take him and we didn’t even think about moving down.”

Tom Heckert

(On turning in the card for Trent Richardson right away)- “We were excited. We knew. We took the kid and we traded for him so we were just going to announce it. That’s why.”

Tom Heckert

(On what they like about Richardson)- “Like we talked about before, he can do all three things. He can run the ball, catch the ball and he can block. He is a tough, tough kid. You see that on tape. He is very good football player, he’s a great kid and he adds toughness to our team.”

Pat Shurmur

(On Richardson)- “He is a guy that has faced adversity, worked his way through it and excelled. I find that to be a quality that as much as we project them to be good players in the league, they are going to face adversity. For us to be able to quantity that they have the ability to overcome it, I think that helps me like them more.”

Tom Heckert

(On if the decision would have been tougher if Kendall Wright wasn’t picked at 20)- “We liked Kendall, we really did. Like I said, it is more so it was a quarterback. We liked Kendall and there were a couple of guys that we liked, but a quarterback is a quarterback, which I think that outweighs everything, at least in our opinion.”

Tom Heckert

(On taking Weeden if Wright was still there)- “We didn’t have to make that decision.”

Tom Heckert

(On if there was a debate between Weeden at some point and Ryan Tannehill at some point)- “Not really.”

Tom Heckert

(On if Weeden appealed to them more than Tannehill)- “We all like Weeden and we liked Tannehill too, but we all liked Weeden. You can guess what I am saying, I guess.”

Pat Shurmur

(On what Weeden brings to the team)- “We think he is going to project into being an outstanding NFL quarterback. We were able to see that in the way that he competed in college. As the coach sitting here, if every move we make we can say we are getting better, that is what you have to do. We felt like having him on our team, he was going to make us better and he was going to make the position better. That is why we picked him.”

Pat Shurmur

(On how Weeden is going to help score touchdowns)- “If we don’t hand it to Trent then we are going to have Brandon throw it in there. I don’t mean to make a joke out of it, but he has displayed the ability to get his team in the end zone and win games. We all know the importance of the quarterback position and making sure that we address it to the point where we have the guy that we think is our guy as we move forward. That’s why we want him here.”

Tom Heckert

(On when they knew about trading up to get Richardson)- “I talked to Rick (Spielman) maybe four or five times before today and I talked to him yesterday about it. To be honest with you, some people think trades happen when people make stuff up. There are a lot of guys that we respect each other. I’m not saying that you need to tell all of the truth, but you don’t lie to your friends. When he told me, he had this, I believed him and I came to find out he did. I trusted him so as soon as he told me he had something I beat it.”

Tom Heckert

(On if Weeden is the guy at quarterback for the Browns)- “Yes, in our opinion he is. We took the kid at 22nd in the draft, we are hoping he is.”

Pat Shurmur

(On Weeden’s ability to scramble)- “He is a quarterback that executes mostly from the pocket, but he has thrown the ball well on the run. Training in our system, if he runs as a last resort, we expect that he will get down and get yards. If he can’t get yards, throw the ball away or make a throw. We feel like he can do all the things we ask a quarterback to do.”

Pat Shurmur

(On if anything specific about Richardson made an impression)- “I know that coach (Nick) Saban runs a very tough program and he is an outstanding football coach. I worked for Nick, so I am not just saying it, I know it. When you look at him and the way his career was as he came up through high school and battled. He then became the starter, I just felt like he was a guy that it wasn’t always easy for him, nothing in general. He fought through things and excelled and I think that is impressive.”

Pat Shurmur

(On if they needed a more physical quarterback)- “I wouldn’t say more physical, but what you are looking for from your quarterback is that he can execute your offense, he is able to be efficient when he throws the football, he has to be an excellent decision maker, he has to get your team in the end zone and he needs to lead you to victories. All those things being said, we are looking for that guy and we feel like we see those attributes in Brandon.”

Pat Shurmur

(On when physical attributes come into play)- “We are always looking for bigger, stronger, faster guys. If you want me to compare guys who are short to guys that are taller, taller guys can sometimes see a little bit better, which will allow them to do some things. In terms of a physical nature, a quarterback does have to be able to take a little bit of a pounding. They all get hit. In terms of evaluating a quarterback, the toughness is obviously an over righting factor, whether they have it or not. You do like guys that have a little bit of size so that they can take a pounding. I think that is fair to say.”

Pat Shurmur

(On Weeden’s fitting into the West Coast offense)- “When you get your players, you plug them in. You try to do more of the things they do well and less of the things they don’t. I think we evaluated him with the idea that he can do what we do. We will see as we start to work with him, the things that he does well in conjunction with the players he is working with.”

Pat Shurmur

(On thoughts on not taking a position like wide receiver)- “We have players we like throughout the draft and we have a bunch of picks left.”

Tom Heckert

(On moving up in the draft)- “We could have got back into the first, but we felt like we wanted to stay. We feel like we are in good shape right now.”

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(On when he sensed the Browns would select him) – “Just now. You always hear different things. You hear people want to trade up or people want to trade down and you never know. I got a sense that they liked me when I was up there. They got on coach (Gary Brown) about when I knocked him down. They laughed at every bit of that.”

(On his reaction to being drafted by the Browns) – “Oh my God, I can’t really explain it to you. It is bigger than winning my national championship. This means no more hard work for my mom. The feeling I have right now is incredible, I’m on cloud nine. I’m high on life right now.”

(On his confidence that he would be drafted with a high pick) – “I was pretty confident. My game film in the conference I played in speaks for itself. To play in a conference like the SEC, you pound the ball every week and everyone knows you are getting the ball. A lot of people don’t realize when they look at my film, that I could have had (other) 200 yard games other than just against Auburn. I only really played the first half of each game. It was like going back to high school football where I would play every other quarter. I would play the third quarter and I wouldn’t play any of the fourth quarter.”

(On Jim Brown’s comments) – “I don’t have a reaction to that, because I have a lot to play for. The things that he has done in life, and he played in the same town, I have a lot to prove. Whatever he said, I take it with a lot of courage. I don’t listen to anything negative and I want to prove him wrong. If you say ordinary, I’m an ordinary human. As a back, I want to be that special guy. I’m going to make sure they know my name and they will have to compare people to me.”

(On if he can help the team win more) – “It is going to be big as far as making the adjustment. I’m just really trying to make the team better. I can’t predict the future, but that’s going to be my team and I’m going to make sure that we jell together and get everyone to buy into the program. At Alabama, that’s how we played. We bought into the program and we became one of the greatest teams. If everyone buys into the program and we are on the same page and have that leadership, I don’t think we can be touched.”

(On the pressure of joining the Browns) – “The Browns have had great running backs there. With their history, the football there is almost like a college football team. It’s like being at Alabama and Alabama nation is crazy. When it comes to playing football for Cleveland I’m happy and I’m excited. Matter of fact, one of my hometown friends that I kind of grew up with, and my brother played with him, Ahtyba Rubin, plays nose guard there.”

(On helping Colt McCoy) – “Being on that team, Colt can help me too. I’m here to try and make the team better. I still have a lot to prove to earn everyone’s respect. I’m here to help Colt and I’m pretty sure that I‘m going to make him better. I also know Colt is going to do whatever it takes to make me better. We are going to get on the same page. I can’t wait to meet him face to face and get to work with him.”

(On if he thinks he got the Browns attention when he knocked Gary Brown over) – “I’m pretty sure I got their attention when I knocked him down. Matter of fact, he said he got a text that said three minutes into the workout, he was ready to run the drill and he got knocked on his butt.”

(On his injured meniscus) – “I injured that in high school. That was in my freshman and sophomore year. I didn’t play football until my junior year in high school. My meniscus, that is something that you don’t really need. Like I said, that has nothing to do with it. When people talk about a knee injury I say what knee injury. You never see that knee injury (on the field) when it comes down to it.”

(On his receiving abilities out of the backfield) – “As a receiver, I feel like I can get out there on third downs.

When they go five wide, they don’t have to put an extra receiver in, they can just put me out there. I feel like if a linebacker lines up on me they are in a lot of trouble. If they put a cornerback on me and I touch the ball in open space they are going to be in trouble too. As far as helping the team with passing the ball, I can bring a lot of teams up to open the box. I’m used to playing team’s like that, that bring ten up in the box. When it comes down to it, we are going to win and we are going to get better. We are almost there.”

(On if he looks up Emmitt Smith) – “Yes, most definitely. We are similar; He was always going to fight, no matter what. He was never going to give up and he was going to give 110% everywhere he went. I can see a lot of him in me. I can see the potential and the success he had and I’m willing to try and follow in his footsteps.”

(On facing the AFC North players like Ray Lewis and Troy Polamalu) – “I can’t wait. I know it is going to be a big challenge. Those guys are the best and they are on the hardest hitting teams in the league. When it comes down to it, I can’t wait to step up and get in the game.”

(On what it means for the Browns to trade up to select him) – “It means that I’m their guy and they want me. I need to do something to help the team win. I don’t call it pressure, I consider it an opportunity for me to better the team and help the team win more games.”

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(On if his selection by the Browns took him by surprise)- “I was hoping that this would happen. I felt pretty good about it. Being through the draft before (MLB), you just never know so I was just kind of hoping for the best. Fortunately, it happened and I am extremely excited about it.”

(On what his expectations are)- “I haven’t even stepped foot in Cleveland yet so I can’t really answer that question. I am going to come in and compete, that is just my nature. I am going to come in and give it all I have to be the best player I can. I think the Browns feel good about me as a player. Like I said, I am not even there yet and it is still kind of overwhelming. I can promise you one thing, I am going to give it everything I have to make sure that I leave it all on the field and be the best player I can possibly be.”

(On if he thought he would join Trent Richardson in Cleveland after Richardson was drafted)- “Once I saw them trade up I kind of assumed they were going to go for Trent. Obviously, he’s an unbelievable player and very dynamic. I was kind of hoping, you just never know how these things shake out. I was standing by the phone when Mr. (Tom) Heckert called and I got the phone call of a lifetime.”

(On if he has any indication of what the Browns’ plans for him are this year)- “No, we haven’t even touched on it to be honest with you. We haven’t even gotten that far. They have got a draft to worry about and they have a lot of picks to make to make our franchise a lot better. We will get to that later, right now it’s kind of time to enjoy it and tomorrow I’ll come to Cleveland and kind of get the ball rolling.”

(On how he will fit in to the Browns system coming from the system he was in)- “I think if you look at what we did at Oklahoma State, we relied on throwing the football. We put the ball in my hands and I had great playmakers around me which allowed us to do that. I think that is what they saw. I think they saw a guy who can make all of the throws. Regardless of what system you come from or go to, the NFL is such a throwing league that there are a lot of guys who are successful throwing the ball that win a lot of games. Fortunately, that is my strength. I am going to do everything I can to learn this system as fast as I possibly can and get rolling. I was around it a little bit at the Senior Bowl and I got a little bit of a feel for it. I am looking forward to learning it and getting the ball rolling.”

(On if he was surprised that he was selected at No. 22 overall)- “I can’t say that I was surprised, I was hoping. You hear things from different people and there is always speculation. Like I said, I was hoping. I can’t really say I was expecting it or didn’t expect it. Going through the baseball draft you just have to fly by the seat of your pants and wait until the phone rings. I’ll tell you what, when I got that phone call, it was special. It was one of the best moments of my life and obviously a dream come true. I am excited to be a Cleveland Brown.”

(On how today went down and what he did to take his mind off of the draft)- “I was in New York City for the past couple of nights and decided to come back home with some family and friends. I got back into Oklahoma City and spent time with my wife and my parents a little bit. We have a house full of people here tonight. Basically, I just hung around here and ran a couple of errands. It’s hard. When the day is finally here you get kind of restless. I think once the night got rolling, my closest family and friends are here and we were able to share the moment. It was pretty special and this night kind of went just how I hoped.”

(On the expectation that comes with being a first round pick and helping this offense)- “There is already enough pressure playing in the NFL, you can’t put any added pressure. Playing quarterback in the NFL is a tough job, we all know that, but it’s a challenge. Being a competitor, it is something that I am really looking forward to taking that next step and continuing to get better as a player. I am not going to put any extra pressure on myself. I understand the responsibilities that go with it. I can promise you one thing, I am going to do everything in my power to become a better player and win as many games as possible.”

(On if he knows Colt McCoy and what will he say to him when he sees him)- “I don’t know Colt. His last year at Texas was before I was a starter. One of my buddies, Zac Robinson, is really good buddies with him. I have always thought really highly of him, great guy. Its competition and that is what sports is all about. He is obviously a great, great player and it is going to be fun working with him and being right there along with him.”

(On why he was hoping this scenario would happen)- “Obviously, as a player you want to go as high as possible. When I came to Cleveland, it felt like a good fit. I didn’t know really where I might land or how it was all going to shake out. You just hope to get an opportunity to play in the National Football League and I finally got my opportunity. I am finally going to get my opportunity to do that. I don’t know if you guys know that story of when I was going through the baseball draft, I talked to every single team except for the New York Yankees and they end up taking me with their first pick, so that right there made me kind of suspicious. I didn’t really know how it was all going to pan out. Fortunately it did and I am excited about it.”

(On if there was any clue that he and Richardson would be the first two picks)- “I can’t really say there was. From my end, everything really went great. I meshed with everybody within the organization and really felt comfortable with where they were at and how things went on my end. I can’t really say that I knew. There are too many unknowns, but it all worked out. He is a great player and like I said, I am just chomping at the bit for this opportunity.”

(On what he sees as his ceiling in the NFL)- “I think if you look back at my junior year, we had a good year. I think we continued to get better as a team and myself as a player. I can’t say that I am not still learning the game. I still have to get better. It is a tough league, a tough position. It is still kind of overwhelming and I am really excited about the opportunity. I put a lot of pressure on myself at Oklahoma State to do everything I can to win games and I take a lot of pride in that. I am going to continue to do that.”

(On what is different this time being drafted in the NFL compared to being drafted in MLB)- “In baseball you have to go through the grueling part of the minor leagues, whereas now you’re in the show. It’s the real deal. This opportunity is awesome and it’s extremely exciting.”

(On why his age should not be a concern)- “My body is still fresh. Taking the time off to play baseball and not getting hit as much as a lot of people at Oklahoma State, I stayed healthy. I think I am still continuing to grow and become a better player. You guys know me, it is tough to play 15 years in this league. You have got to continue to work and my body is fresh so I feel like I have got a lot of football left.”

(On if Andy Dalton’s success last season is an inspiration for him)- “Absolutely, and I think that was kind of my approach going in. There are a lot of guys who came in early in their career and played and as a competitor that is what I want to do. Seeing guys like Andy and Cam Newton, these guys come in early and play. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do still. I haven’t even touched down in Cleveland yet, so I have got a lot of work ahead of me. I am just kind of chomping at the bit to get going and see how things shake out.”

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(Opening statement)- “As you saw, we chose Trent Richardson. Unfortunately, we had to make a trade to secure the pick. As we went through the process, we knew that he was our guy. We did what we had to do to secure it. We had good knowledge that there were teams behind us that wanted him as well. We gave up a couple of picks to make sure that we got him and that’s a credit to Tom Heckert and his guys for doing the intel on that. We will talk a bunch about Trent, he is passionate, he is productive, he is durable. He is the kind of runner that we feel is going to help us put an offense together to score the points that we need to win the games that we are going to win. We feel good about him. If you don’t sense the excitement in my voice then you are missing it. I think that he is a terrific player and he is going to be what we think to be a really, really fine addition to the Cleveland Browns team. I think he is going to be one of those players that our fans and our community will be able to watch run the ball for a lot of years, that is what we are excited about.”

(On if everything started at Richardson’s pro day)- “No, I had evaluated him. I worked for Nick Saban for three years, so I knew the program that he played in. It was easy to see. Prior to his pro day there were hours and hours of work done. It was just a way to confirm in my mind that he was going to be our guy. I think Tom (Heckert) felt the same way.”

(On how much this pick helps Colt McCoy)- “An excellent running game and a terrific runner help any quarterback. That is what you want to be able to do, put guys out there that can produce at all positions. We feel like Trent can come in here and do this for us.”

(On Richardson’s strengths)- “He is a terrific runner. He can run with power. He can make you miss when he gets in the open. He can score. I like the fact that when he is asked to pass protect, he will do it aggressively. When you throw him the football, he catches it. Unless I am missing something, that is what runners have to do.”

(On Richardson’s dependability)- “Dependability in a player is very important. The other guys on the team, the coaches, our fans, the people that root for us, they need to know that players are going to show up. I have seen this in this player. We have seen this and we feel like that is what we are getting.”

(On when the Browns knew they had to trade up)- “There was constant conversation going on. We knew a little while ago. We figured that there might have been something that we would have had to do to secure the pick.”

(On Gary Brown getting knocked down by Richardson)- “He did knock Gary out. For those of you that didn’t see it, I am sure that YouTube clip went viral. When we were flying down to work out Trent, I told Gary, ‘Listen, no matter what you do, do not hold the bag.’ Andy Reid taught me that when I was coaching tight ends, don’t hold the bag. Sure as heck, he holds the bag and the first drill he just got jacked. It was an inside joke, it is good that he can beat up his coach, I guess.”

(On when Richardson became the pick over anyone else)- “It is hard to say when exactly that was the case. When you put the draft together, you decide what your needs are, then you decide how you like the players, then you try to find a way to fill those needs. We had a need at running back, we had the pick and we took the best player available at that position. I think that’s a really fine job by Tom and his crew.”

(On how much better Richardson makes the offense)- “Every player you bring from college you need to project some. But, I saw him play running back in a physical style and in an outstanding conference, the SEC, and they won a lot of games. He helped that team win a national championship. In my mind, you saw what you needed to see to project the fact that he is going to be an outstanding player in this league.”

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(On if he wants to keep the fourth overall pick or trade down)- “I think we would like to stay there. Wherever you are picking you think you are going to stay there and then if something else happens that’s the secondary thing. I do think we probably would be able to trade out. I don’t know that for sure but I think so. Right now we hope we stay there and take a good player.”

(On if everyone in the front office is on the same page with the fourth overall selection)- “I know who that four is going to be if we stay there. We are all on the same page. We know we are getting a really good player no matter what happens at three. We know we are getting one of two guys. We don’t know who is going to go at three, but we are extremely happy and excited with whoever is going to be there at four.”

(On if he feels that a team may try to trade up to the number three pick to take one of the players the team wants)- “Like I said, there is more than one guy and they don’t know who we are thinking about taking. It really wouldn’t affect us that much if they did because we are happy with one of a few guys. It wouldn’t be a big deal to us to be honest with you.”

(On Peter King saying Justin Blackmon is his preference with the fourth pick)- “I haven’t spoken to Peter King in years so I have no idea where that came from. Everything you have heard is complete nonsense. It’s just this time of year and I understand that. It’s fun for all you guys. Everybody is on the same page here with who we are considering.”

(On if they laugh at reports like those)- “Yeah, we kind of do and then you guys all ask the questions so I know it’s coming eventually. We understand, everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone is talking about who Minnesota is taking and I have no idea if they like (Matt) Kalil or not. Who knows. Everybody that says stuff they don’t know. I don’t know if they are making it up but it’s their best guess I should say.”

(On if he does studies of what running backs who have been taken high in the draft have done in their careers)- “We have all those studies and it’s the same thing with receivers. With receivers that have gone with top (picks), some have been good and some have been bad. You look at all that stuff but you really can’t. They are all different. These guys are different and you have character and all the other stuff you look into. The guys that we are talking about we don’t have to worry about character. We don’t have to worry about a lot of things, which is great because sometimes you do. Not saying you don’t take a guy that has a couple issues but we don’t have to worry about those situations.”

(On if he would have any hesitations taking a running back with the fourth pick)- “No.”

(On if taking Montario Hardesty in the second round two years ago impacts whether he would take another running back in the first round)- “This draft is not about the fourth pick, it’s about the draft. Montario, we do think he is going to be a lot better this year. We think Brandon Jackson is going to be good. All that stuff plays in to it, but needless to say, you are talking about a really good player. I wouldn’t say it affects who we take but it’s there. It’s true and who we have at the position that does affect what you do.”

(On Ryan Tannehill)- “I do think one thing and we try to keep this to ourselves but, people talk about Ryan Tannehill flying up the draft board after his workout. That is simply not true. With most players, where they are now is the same where they were after the season. He had a good workout, but to be honest with you, I haven’t seen a lot of people have bad workouts. It’s a workout, it’s not a game. So, wherever somebody had him, that’s probably where they still have him. He is a good player and he’s obviously very new to the position having played wide receiver. He is a good football player.”

(On the challenges in evaluating a guy with limited experience)- “Obviously when you look at quarterbacks you like to watch all his throws in college and his are a lot less. That’s just the way it is and it’s not his fault. It just makes it more difficult. I remember the same thing with (Mark) Sanchez. I think Sanchez had five more games than Tannehill. So, it’s just less tape to watch but you are still looking for the same things. You just have less of it to watch.”

(On if there are multiple players he is confident will be available at #22 and #37)- “Yes. Obviously, we have a wish list like everyone else. I can tell you 13 guys I’d love to have in all the picks. That’s probably unrealistic. We do have ammunition though, which is nice. If there is somebody we don’t think is going to get there we can move up and get them. That’s always a plus when you have extra picks.”

(On if he still feels the need to acquire future draft picks during the draft)- “We always like to stay where we’re at, but if we think we can get a similar type of player and get something for it I just don’t understand why not. Why wouldn’t you do that? It has nothing to do with building for the future, I think it’s just smart. The more draft picks you have the better off you are going to be. Everyone knows it’s a crap shoot sometimes. The more chances you have in there the better chances you are going to get a good player. I’ll always feel that way. Now, to trade just to trade, I don’t think we’ve ever done that and I would never do that. I don’t care what our record or depth is or any of that stuff. If there is a good football player we are going to take him, unless someone offers something that makes sense for us.”

(On if having compensatory picks that can’t be traded helps him use regular draft picks for trades)- “I don’t know if I’ve thought about it in that way, but yes, we know we are going to have those picks. You are right. Even if we could use them, we’d still think about moving up if there was a good player. If you can move up in the first, second, third round, just the quality of player you are getting, your hoping you are moving up for a really good player, a starter. Those in the fourth and fifth you are hoping he’s a starter. If you draft a guy in the first three rounds you are saying that the guy is going to start for us at some point, at least in our opinion.”

(On if he would still trade down)- “Yes, if we did. There are a certain amount of players where we don’t want to go past that. We think those players are really good and we want one of those players. Yes, that’s a fair assessment.”

(On if he feels he must address the right side of the offensive line early rather than late)- “That’s probably going to be a wait and see type of thing. Depending on what we do, obviously right off the top, it will affect what we do the rest of the way. We have a scenario board. We started it just this week where what you do in the first (#4) will affect what you do at #22. We have all the different (scenarios) if we take this guy, then obviously, if it’s at the same position we are not taking this guy. We have those situations and we are ready for whichever happens. It really depends on what we do early.”

(On how high a priority is the right tackle position)- “I don’t know. It would be great. Obviously, if you can get a really good one, it’s great. Now, if you look in the league, there are a lot teams playing with guys that you’ve never heard of, to be honest with you. We think we have guys who can step in and play. Oniel (Cousins) played a little bit last year and we have (John) Greco who could play there. We do have guys who can play there, we are not saying we don’t. But yes, we are looking for one.”

(On if it can be a priority without spending the first round picks on one)- “I’m not going to answer that. We are looking at that position.”

(On if he views the top three or four picks as starters for this season)- “Yes. That’s always the case. Definitely.”

(On weighing immediate needs versus how good a player at another position might be in the future)- “That’s a tough one. It’s probably easier said. Where we are picking, especially the first pick, it’s probably not going to come down to that, most likely, but it might. When you are sitting there at, let’s say #22, you have to stay close to your board. You are going to make a mistake. You are going to make a mistake if you do that. You can say, ‘Well it’s a need.’ You can draft that need and that guy is not going to be good enough. You can’t stray from what you think about the player just because of a perceived need. You can ask every personnel guy in the league and that’s where the mistakes are made. You think you have to have this guy and you take a guy that’s not good enough and you basically blow that pick, you are still looking for that same position and you don’t pick a good player. To answer your question, yes, in a perfect world, we’d draft a good player at a need position. If it came down to it, it has to be the player over the need.”

(On if that applies to someone like Morris Claiborne with the fourth pick)- “It depends on how we have him rated, which I’m not going to tell you how we have these guys rated. At four, you are going to have guys that are close enough that who knows, but you are probably going to have a chance to get whatever you want.”

(On if he thinks the current wide receiver corps is better than they showed in 2011)- “Obviously Greg Little wasn’t here when we had this conversation. Greg Little is here, he led our team in receptions, he caught a ton of balls and we think he is going to be better. He looks great right now and Mo (Mohamed Massaquoi) has to come back healthy. The rest of it, we’ll have to figure out what happens here in the draft. I think that is a perfect example of where you have to be really, really careful. We want great players at every position, we really do, and that’s our goal. To do something just to do something, and that position has been a little up and down in the league. If there is a good one out there, then hey, go get him.”

(On reports by Peter King that the Browns have the worst skill positioned players in the NFL)- “That’s his opinion, I don’t think so. Can we use help there? No question, but I don’t agree with that. It is what it is. Whatever he says is his opinion.”

(On comparing the players from the 2011 draft to 2012)- “I haven’t really compared them, we kind of do that afterwards. It seems, at least on our board, like less, numbers wise. Before I came down here we were actually doing this deal that I do. I think we probably have 18 guys with first round grades, which doesn’t mean anything. One of those guys will be there at 22. That’s just how it works out, it always does. Obviously, we have 18 guys and someone else is going to have 20 but 10 of them will be different than our guys. When you start to get down to the second round we have third round guys in the second round and fifth round guys in the fourth. Numbers-wise, it’s less for us, but it’s always less than the actual numbers. This year seems to be more. Just on a big board, we don’t move them up on our draft board. We list the guys one through 240, so when you start looking at the 64th pick, you think that’s a second round pick, but he is in our third or fourth round. It’s a little less than I think normally.”

(On if he would trade out of the round if all 18 guys are taken before their 22nd pick)- “In my opinion you try to get out. To be honest with you, that’s sort of what happened last year. It started dwindling and we went up and made sure we got a guy that we had [targeted]. We were getting a little low on guys and actually Jabaal (Sheard) was close in there. If we had lost Phil (Taylor) it might have been Jabaal. Who knows? We felt that Phil was such a better player and they were coming off our board pretty quick that we wanted to get him. If that happens, we can do it either way. If we start getting close and losing some guys then we can move up. It really doesn’t usually happen. Especially at 22, we feel pretty confident that it’s not going to come off exactly how we have it. I know that for a fact because we have guys, and it happens every year with every team, where you read all this stuff about a guy going in the first round and we laugh because we have him in the third round. It’s the same thing and somebody might have him in the first round. It’s a lot of stuff that happens like that. It’s not surprising anymore but I’m sure people say the same thing about us. We’ll take a guy, I know when we drafted T.J. (Ward) a lot of people were like, ‘Wow.’ That happens throughout the league.”

(On how much better Morris Claiborne is than the other defensive backs in the draft and if he still values that position)- “Defensive backs wise, it’s not a great group. There are a couple guys that are really good and he is obviously a really, really good player. You have to have corners. You have to have three legit corners to survive in this league and that’s why corners are such a big deal. He is a really, really good one.”

(On if he feels he has to draft all offensive players with the first three picks)- “In a perfect world, you’d like to take the best player at a need position, but we are not living in a perfect world. To say we are taking three offensive guys with our first three picks, I would not say that. Like I said, in a perfect world yes, but we are not going to do it just to go it. We can’t. There are guys that we hope are there, but if they are not, you just can’t say let’s just go to the next offensive guy and skip over these five really good defensive players. That makes no sense to me.”

(On if Claiborne is comparable to Patrick Peterson)- “They are different, they really are. Peterson was super-fast and Mo is not as fast but he has phenomenal ball skills, so does Patrick. They are both really good. You can nitpick with some things. They are both really good and they make a lot of plays.”

(On how much size matters in terms of wide receivers)- “Zero. It’s how you play. Size doesn’t mean a whole lot. Now if the guy was 5-9 maybe but zero. It has nothing.”

(On how Joe Haden compares to Claiborne and Peterson)- “I think Joe is right up in there with those guys. We think Joe is a really good player. If he can catch the ball this year, for some reason, I don’t know what happened (jokingly). I ride him all the time. After the first year I thought he was going to have another one, but he couldn’t catch this past year. He is right up with those guys.”

(On if there is a tie in player rankings, would they be less likely to take a corner because it isn’t a position of need)- “If it’s a tie, but when you are talking about top guys it’s probably not going to be a tie. There are definitely guys who are one, two, three and four for us. There is not a tie.”

(On the reasoning for working out Matt Kalil)- “Anybody that we are thinking about taking at four, we want to know the most we can about them. We have always done that. You can read into stuff about workouts and bringing guys in. The four is a little different but when you are picking everywhere else you try to bring in guys you like, but you also like to bring in guys you have major questions about or some questions no matter where they are going to be in the draft. When you are talking about the fourth we try to do our homework obviously on everybody.”

(On if they have taken Luck and Griffin out of their mind)- “I am assuming they are going, but, yeah, they are still in our ranks. If one fell, he’d be our guy. If he’s one or two and he’s there at four, he’s going to be our guy.”

(On if all of the players are ranked in order)- “Definitely, there are no ties.”

(On if they are considering two guys and if it’s all based on what Minnesota does)- “There might be five guys we are considering, but we know we are going to get one out of the two guys. Do you know what I’m saying? Our top two guys, we are going to get one of them.”

(On if they are going to get one of the guys they have ranked three or four)- “Yeah, it’s going to be one of our top guys.”

(On trading up for the third pick)- “It’s highly unlikely. I’d never say never.”

(On if he can say how many spots they would be willing to trade back)- “Nope.”

(On how many players they are considering with the fourth pick)- “I can’t tell you that.”

(On if he would be willing to trade out of the top 10)- “I’m not telling you that.”

(On reports that weird things are being discovered about Justin Blackmon which are causing him to slide)- “He is a great kid and a great football player in my mind.”

(On the state of the quarterback situation)- “I don’t think it’s changed much. Colt (McCoy) looks great by the way. We like Colt, we do. I think at any position, well I shouldn’t say any position because left tackle is probably not where we would go, but most other positions, if we find somebody that we think is a really good player and is better than that guy than we are going to do it. That’s all positions, it’s not Colt. We like Colt. We think Colt can play. I know everybody talked about the Washington deal, but it’s not like you are saying Colt is a bad quarterback by doing that. We like Colt.”

(On if they factor in Brandon Weeden’s age when evaluating him)- “You have to, you just have to. Is it a big deal? No, but it’s there. It’s like anything else. You want all your draft picks to play 10 years and if he plays 10 years, he’s going to be 39 years old. It’s a factor. It’s probably better for that position, to be honest with you, than a receiver or corner or something like that at that age. The you would probably be less likely to take them. It’s something that you have to use your head and if you want a guy who is older. The other question is whether you think the guy is a starter or a guy that can start. That’s where some teams are going to say, ‘Do you want a 29 year old backup rookie quarterback?’ Whoever decides to take him, that’s what they are going to have to decide.”

(On if he thinks Weeden is good enough to start)- “I have my opinion on it, but I can’t tell you that. I’ll tell you that when the draft is over Saturday night (joking).”

(On if he will use one of their top three picks on a quarterback)- “That’s a big question mark. I don’t know.”

(On if he can say why they didn’t go after Matt Flynn in free agency)- “No, because he is on another team and I don’t want to get into that right now.”

(On what it says about their current quarterback if they were willing to give up as much as Washington to get the number two pick)- “You just answered your own question, we didn’t go after Matt Flynn. That’s what I am saying. When you are talking about the two guys in this draft, I think that’s a different statement in my opinion, but that’s me.”

(On why it’s different)- “I think it’s obvious. I think those guys are really, really good Pro Bowl type guys. That’s not saying Colt isn’t a really good player.”

(On what he thinks about Weeden as a quarterback)- “I’m not telling you. I’ve got a draft here in a week. Do you want me to tell you where we have these guys rated? There are a lot of stories out there right now that I like and I want to keep a lot of them where they’re at. I am feeling pretty good about it (joking).”

(On the reports that Ryan Tannehill might not be ready to play right now)- “He played 19 games so it’s not like he is coming off not playing. I don’t know where that comes from. Especially in our system – he knows our system – he had the coach. It would probably be easier for him to play in our system, I guess. I don’t buy that. If you are drafting a kid early you are probably going to play him, in my opinion. If you draft a kid early, whatever first round, you are probably going to want to start him.”

(On if he isn’t for drafting a guy and letting him sit for a year)- “You never say never; it just depends on a lot of things. He has to prove he can play; you just aren’t going to throw him out there. That’s a good question. You have to wait and see what you get through training camp and see how it goes.”

(On if they will probably not come out of this draft with someone who will start at quarterback in 2012)- “I can’t answer that. I really can’t. Like I said, if we don’t we aren’t upset by it at all. But if we do, we do. I can’t answer that right now.”

(On how big of a setback it is to miss on a top five draft pick)- “It’s a big setback because obviously you are hoping for a good player for a long time. Financially, it is a lot less of a problem than it used to be, which is obviously great for everybody. Nobody wants to make mistakes, but if you made a mistake back then, it was a disaster from a financial standpoint. You are talking about what is supposed to be a really good football player. Everybody wants the 10 year Pro Bowler, which is fine, but I’ll take the two year Pro Bowler rather than a bust. You don’t want a bust, you can’t have a bust. That’s what you are trying to avoid.”

(On what point you can finally relax and say, ‘That was a good pick’)- “I don’t know if you ever do to be honest with you. If they come out there and play and you see them start then you are pretty comfortable, but you are always concerned about something. You just are. It’s a stressful business.”

(On the difference of impact between a three-down back like Trent Richardson and a wide receiver like Justin Blackmon who might not see the football as much)- “We all talk about the playmakers, I think if you look at those two guys, touchdowns, they are right about the same. They both score touchdowns, which obviously is what you want in an offensive skill guy. I guess that part of it, it doesn’t bother me. You are right, a running back is always going to touch the ball more, but running backs are going to score touchdowns no matter who it is. With receivers, that doesn’t always happen. You can look at it both ways.”

(On if there is any added pressure on hitting on the skill positions since they didn’t address it in free agency)- “There is always pressure on who we take. You have to have good players. Again, I am probably talking more about myself then to you guys when I say, you’ve got to be careful how you do that. You just can’t panic. I’ve done it. I’ve made bad mistakes for that exact reason. It was not from a skill position standpoint, it was more the positions we talked about with tackle and pass rusher. I’ve made big mistakes at both of them. I’ve traded up in the first round for both positions and they were bad moves. It was strictly for a need. It was something we never should have done. I am trying to avoid that. That was a long time ago when we did those, but we’ve learned from it. It’s something that I believe in. There’s a lot of pressure from media, fans, people in your building, scouts and it’s my job to say, ‘Wait a minute. It’s not the right thing to do.’ I think that is the hardest thing to convey to the fans. It’s not like we don’t want those guys, we want them just as bad as they do, but we don’t want to make a mistake doing it. There is way more mistakes made than great players picked or free agent wise or whatever. We just try to do the right thing.”

(On if Mike Holmgren moderates the quarterback position)- “Mike watches the quarterbacks, but he lets me do my job. He watches the quarterbacks and we talk about them. We spend a lot of time with the quarterbacks, talking about them and watching them together. Obviously, he has major input in a lot of things we do. He knows what we are doing, but he lets me do what I’m supposed to do.”

(On if he feels they might be able to get equal value on a quarterback late in the draft)- “Yeah, obviously it’s a little less pressure on those types of guys. Do they have to come in and start? No. Do we think they can be starters down the road? Yeah. I think there are guys like that. Mike talks about that all the time, in a perfect world you would always try to draft a quarterback and hopefully you hit on a Matt Hasselbeck or a later, mid-round guy who turns out to be a good player. It doesn’t happen very often. Like you said, if you are in whatever round, fourth, fifth, third, if you are close and you have a chance to draft a quarterback, you are probably going to do that if you think he has a chance to be a starter down the road. Now, if you think he is going to be a career backup then in my opinion you don’t draft him. You can draft him late to be your third or second or whatever, but if there is a guy who you think can be the starter, why not take a chance on him?”

(On if Justin Blackmon stacks up to other recent top five receivers like A.J. Green and Calvin Johnson)- “From a college standpoint, yeah they stack up. But those guys you are talking about, Calvin Johnson, those guys have had great careers. A.J. Green had a great rookie year so it’s tough to compare them. From a college standpoint, he stacks up. Heck yeah. You are talking about a guy in the top five, everybody is talking about him, or wherever top 10, then yeah he is a good player.”

(On if measurables are more important in the top five)- “No, not really. If there is something drastically off, yeah it would. But these guys, you are talking about nickel and diming some stuff.”

(On if Trent Richardson is the best running back in the draft since Adrian Peterson)- “That’s the same thing, you can say all you want, but there have been some really good college players who haven’t turned out so well. He was replacing a guy that was pretty good, Mark Ingram. He was pretty good. To say he is that much better, that’s for other people to decide. We have to look at this year.”

(On his impressions of Richardson)- “He’s a great guy. Like I said, all the guys we are talking about we feel really, really comfortable with. That hasn’t always been the case. With character all that stuff, they are all good.”

(On if it helps Richardson coming out of a more pro-style system)- “Yeah, a little bit, but the main things is you get to see him catch the ball and in pass pro. That’s good. Where some guys you never get to see them catch the ball or you never see them line up in pass pro. There are a few guys in this year’s draft, I would say the top at least our top three running backs, all can catch the ball and can block. That’s something that sometimes you can’t tell. One guy is not and one guy is in that type of system, I am talking about after him, so it helps.”

(On if he gave Gary Brown grief for getting knocked down by Richardson)- “It was quite interesting. I saw, I think it was Mary Kay who talked to coach (Nick) Saban and he mentioned it so that’s not good. We were actually sitting on the plane coming back and my director of college scouting was with us and he looked it up on YouTube and he was talking about he already had 50,000 hits by the time we left. We gave him a little grief for that.”

(On how important it is to draft a young linebacker to get into the rotation)- “That’s something we are thinking about. In our opinion, it’s not a great linebacker draft. That’s not saying we aren’t going to get one. It’s just not, I don’t know how else to say it. Hopefully we can get some young guys in here and see what they do.”

(On having patience in the past when drafting guys like LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson in the second round and if there is that type of guy available this year)- “That’s tough to do. I think there’s a chance that at least one of those positions, that there is going to be a good player there, a guy that can come in here and start. That is tough to do. I remember vividly the biggest one was (Brian) Westbrook. We were trying everything in the world to get up to get him and he was there where we picked him late in the third. LeSean, we thought that would be a chance that he was going to be there and he was. That was a tough one, too. His was because he was sick and he didn’t work out very well so people were down on him, I don’t know why. DeSean had some other reasons why he was there, but if you can get those two guys in the second round you’ve done a pretty good job. I am not tooting my own horn, we were lucky. We all know there is a big part of luck in this draft and that’s just the way it is.”

(On Trent Richardson taking a girl with cancer to the prom and if that fit into what they already knew about him)- “Yeah and I don’t know if you saw the story about Blackmon too. It was the same type of thing, a girl with leukemia. Those two guys are class, class guys. Hopefully we can get those types of guys.”

(On if Randy Lerner has increased his input in what the team should be doing in the draft)- “No, Randy has been great. He really has. He believes in what we are doing and he knows it’s hard. We want to win games and everybody does. He is the owner of the football team and I talk to him about it. I let him know what we are thinking, but as far as asking us to do something, no.”

(On reflecting on the trade with Atlanta from last year and if he thinks about it a lot)- “I haven’t thought about it a lot, but I do think it was the right thing for our football team. I really do. The guys we drafted last year turned out to be pretty good players, which helps that. If they weren’t and everybody assumes we would have taken A.J. Green and that would have been the guy if we stayed, and I am not going to say ‘yes or no’ on that. This year, we hope to get some more good players. That’s what the whole thing was. Somebody asked the question if it was time to not worry about gathering up picks and we think we are getting close to that point. I would say I wouldn’t do that trade this year. I think we are further along than last year in terms of talent. Moving all the way down to that pick, it would be tough for me to do this year.”

(On if they are poised to make a big splash this year)- “No, I really don’t. It’s funny, I talk to Thomas Dimitroff about it all the time. It’s always like, ‘Who got the better of the deal.’ We could really care less. He thought it was a great move for his team and I thought it was a great move for our team. We both agreed with it. We talked about it even before the trade, I understand what we was doing. I do. He really understood what we were doing. It’s kind of funny when you talk about things like that.”

(On if there is a preconceived notion of how many starters they want from this draft)- “No, I haven’t thought about it. The guys you take in the first three rounds we would like to be starters. Now, whether they start this year, that would be great, but it probably depends on what position we take. Some guys if you take a guy and someone else is there then they might not be a starter; he might play on third downs or whatever. Trust me, I feel very fortunate and I don’t want to say lucky because our scouts do work their butts off and that’s why we do a great job because of the people we have working for us, but a lot of it is luck. Every year you can’t expect to get five starters or seven starters, it just doesn’t happen. If you look throughout the league no matter what it just doesn’t happen. We have been very, very fortunate here. Some people say they are starting because we aren’t very good, but that remains to be seen. We disagree with that, we think they are starting because they are good enough to start. If we can keep that up – and that’s what are plans are – but if you don’t my philosophy about building through the draft doesn’t work, so you better draft good players.”

(On what the identity of what they want to do is and his vision for that identity)- “That’s a tough question. Pat (Shurmur) and I obviously want a physical football team. On defense, I think we’ve helped that. Offensively, we want to score more points than we have in the past. Do we need explosive players? Yes. I think we are on our way with the defense. Do we need more help there? Yes. Offensively, everyone knows it – it’s not a secret – we need guys that can score points. Hopefully, we can add to that.”

(On if they talked about a one-year deal with Peyton Hillis)- “Yeah, we talked to him. We just decided to not go there. That’s really what it came down to. We talked to him and we just decided that we were going to move in a different direction. There’s no ill feeling. We talked to his agent and just decided to move on.”

(On if one of the reasons they didn’t re-sign Hillis was because he felt they needed more speed at running back)- “No, I don’t think so. We are getting Brandon Jackson back and if we add somebody in this draft somewhere then there’s just no room at the end.”

(On if changing schools so late impacts Russell Wilson at all)- “That whole thing, I don’t think it was anybody’s fault. There was a baseball thing and some stuff in there. No, that doesn’t hurt him at all. It probably helped him to be honest with you.”

(On the two defensive linemen free agent signings in Frostee Rucker and Juqua Parker)- “I think both of these guys are really going to help us. I think they are really good players. They are super, super tough. I know J.P. from my days in Philly and he is one of the greatest guys, greatest workers, team guy, tough and he can rush the passer. He was hurt a little bit last year so he didn’t have as many numbers but he can rush the passer and he will help our football team. He really will. I think he will be great for our young defensive guys. With Frostee, I think it’s the same thing. He played a lot of snaps for Cincinnati and we are going to use him inside as a pass rusher on third down, which he didn’t do a whole lot there for whatever reason. They had other guys. We do think he is going to help us. We are excited about both those guys.”

(On if those signings precludes them from drafting defensive linemen)- “Ends it might preclude us a little bit. Obviously if someone fell, but early ends probably wouldn’t be a big deal for us.”

(On if they will be looking to add a defensive tackle)- “I am not saying we are set at end, but we could always use depth. Defensive line, especially pass rushers, we are always going to look at.”

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(Opening statement)- “As you know it’s the start of the offseason program, and it’s obviously exciting for me to have the players back in the building. I got a chance to see most of them. Really aside from a couple of guys, we’ve got an outstanding turnout for the first day. They are getting their weight training in and I’m sure you all know the rules on it. We are in phase one of basically a nine or 10 week program. Its 10 weeks total with a week off, but I am going to go straight through with nine straight and give them their week off at the end. We are in phase one for a couple weeks now where it’s basically weight training with our strength coaches then they will be able to meet with their assistant coaches, but not go on the field. As we get into phase two and three then we will get into the OTAs and the mandatory minicamp. Then after the draft we will have a rookie weekend minicamp. Its Mother’s Day weekend that weekend so I’ll have some people upset I’m sure (joking). I’m excited. For coaches to see players back, I think that’s an exciting thing. From what I can tell talking to the players, there is excitement to be back. For a lot of our veteran guys, their body clock says that the offseason program started a month ago. Most of these guys I’m sure have been working out on their own, at least the ones I have spoken to, and now they get an opportunity to train with their teammates.”

(On if he has talked to Colt McCoy personally about the offseason)- “We visited this morning actually. I saw him this morning, we talked. He is doing fine. He is looking forward to getting going here with the offseason program.”

(On if he felt the need to talk to McCoy about the team’s pursuit of a quarterback during the offseason)- “Nope. Like a lot of the other players who I have spoken to throughout the offseason, I didn’t think that was necessary. We just kind of greeted each other and we started talking about really what we want to get accomplished in the offseason more than any other business.”

(On what the offseason program will give them that they didn’t have last year)- “An offseason program. I don’t mean to be funny, but this is my first offseason program. I think it gives you a little bit of clarity knowing how much work needs to get done on the field in the latter part of May and June. This period here is mostly strength and conditioning and meeting time. I’m looking forward to it. I understand and realize how important these can be so you can get your systems in place or refined. The players have a chance to work together and it starts to develop a winning chemistry. When you get through this body of work, then they have a couple of weeks off then you try to repeat the football part of it in training camp as you prepare for the season.”

(On the new restrictive offseason rules and how it affects them)- “I had to really dig in on what the actually rules were because I want to make sure we follow the rules. I do think that structure and having boundaries that you don’t cross are good. I think there is enough time here in a nine or 10 week period to get what you need to get done to get ready for training camp. I am good with it. The one thing you want to be able to do is you want the players to be here and excited about doing the work. You want to be able to get a lot done then put it to rest as you get ready for training camp. From what I saw, the players are looking forward to going over and revisiting the things we did well last year and making improvements on the things that we didn’t do well. You get to work with some of the new coaches and some of the new players. For me, I just have a much better view of what our team is and the areas we need to improve in to get ourselves in a position to play in the playoffs and compete to play in the big game. I think that’s what we are looking to do.”

(On how the players are health wise)- “Terrific. I think everybody on the squad is out there doing what they have to do. We are fine.”

(On if Scott Fujita is there and if he has heard anything about his situation)- “Scott is not here today and I have not heard anything. My understanding is that he is in New York today, but I don’t know any details.”

(On how Marcus Benard is doing)- “He looks good. I am hoping to see the best of Marcus and he looks good. I have seen him a couple of times through the offseason and he was there today. I didn’t get a chance to watch in the weight room, I am not allowed to be in there yet, but from what I heard, he performed well.”

(On if Benard will switch to linebacker)- “No, our thoughts are to keep him at defensive end and have him in there competing. We haven’t talked about moving him to linebacker.”

(On Ryan Tannehill)- “I think you guys are going to visit with Tom (Heckert) here. I’ll leave that for Tom.”

(On how involved he is with the draft process)- “I’m very heavily involved and I talk to Tom every day.”

(On if there was someone who did not come to today’s workouts that he hoped would be there)- “No, I think the turnout was actually very good. There are a couple of guys who aren’t here that I knew why, and there was communication as to why they weren’t here. It was a great turnout in my opinion.”

(On if there are things that he normally would want to accomplish that he can’t because of the new rules)- “No, we’ll be able to get everything we need done, for sure. Although the rules may sound restrictive, I feel like we’ll be able to get everything accomplished that we need to this offseason.”

(On what conclusions he can make about the running backs at this point)- “The guys that are here are healthy and they are going to compete. You have Montario (Hardesty), Brandon Jackson, Chris Ogbonnaya and Armond Smith right now. They were all here today and I know, from our conversations, they are very eager to improve.”

(On how much can he interact with the players at this point)- “Right now, they can only be in the building a certain number of hours and most of that, for the first couple of weeks, involves weight training. We as coaches, we have an opportunity to meet with them. Yes, we can and I did. I had a meeting with the players and beyond that they talked with their position coaches and their coordinators.”

(On a typical day in phase one of the offseason program)- “First of all this is all voluntary, I think that is an important thing to remember. That’s why with the fact that the turnout was so good, it tells me that they are excited to get back to work. So number one, that’s an important thing. It’s not a mandatory thing so the fact that they are here says a lot about the direction that this team wants to go. Most of their time is involved with strength training and working with our strength coaches, Kent Johnston and Rick Lyle. Then there is a small portion within that four hours where they’ll spend time with their position coaches as well. In phase one, it can only be in the class room and not on the field. In phase two, the coaches can then take their activities to the field and work with the players. But at this point, we can’t. Phase one is for the next two weeks.”

(On the importance of having Brandon Jackson and Montario Hardesty ready for this season)- “I think it’s important because you have to have your running backs performing at a high level. To do that, they obviously have to get themselves trained and stay healthy. Of course, we’ve seen over short periods of time that those players you mentioned, Brandon and Montario, can play at a high level. I’m hopeful that they’ll get themselves better, improve like the rest of the players and then be there.”

(On if he believes Hardesty can improve now that he is more than a full year after surgery)- “Again I’m not an expert on that, but I do think he has had a longer time to obviously get his legs back under him. I think that will help him for sure.”

(On if there is anyone he is focusing on to see significant progress during the offseason program)- “Well it’s the first day so I don’t know how much progress they made in three hours here. I think, and again my message to the team was, everybody needs to improve. Whether you are Joe Thomas, who went to the Pro Bowl, or a first year player a year ago. We all need to improve to get where we need to be. I’m actually looking for improvement from everyone. For the older guys, it’s more familiarity with the system. For the younger guys, it’s obviously development beyond that as they become professionals.”

(On his views regarding the bounty scandal)- “That’s a league issue. I would say this, I think player safety is important and I understand the integrity of the game. There are a couple of issues I think that have to guide us and I’ll just leave it at that.”

(On if he heard the Gregg Williams audio tape)- “I did hear it.”

(On his reaction to the tape)- “I’m not going to comment on that. Again, that’s a league issue.”

(On the league wanting coaches to have discussions with players to make sure nothing like that happens)- “There has been education. Really, it was initiated by us. I think as coaches we want to make sure that we do things that right way and of course this will be a point of emphasis. I’ll talk to the team about it.”

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For the 13th time in the past 14 seasons, the Browns will open the regular season at Cleveland Browns Stadium when they host the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, September 9 at 1:00 p.m. This will mark the first time since 1969 that the Browns open the regular season against the Eagles. The two clubs have met in season openers six previous times.

“Although we have known our opponents and where we are going to play since the end of last season, there is always a certain amount of anticipation as to how everything will fall into place,” said Browns Head Coach Pat Shurmur. “I think that opening the year at home against the Eagles will be great for our players and our fans. It will be exciting to play a team, an organization and a coach for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect. It will be a good test for our team. Ending the year in two of the tougher venues in the NFL also will present a challenge. I am looking forward to kicking off the 2012 season.”

The 2012 schedule features one prime time game as the Browns face the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday, September 27 at M&T Bank Stadium. The game will mark the first time the Browns and Ravens will meet in Thursday night action.

The Browns open AFC North play in Week 2 when they travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals on Sunday, September 16. It will be the first of three divisional matchups over the next five weeks for the Browns.

For the fourth time in five seasons, the Browns will face the defending Super Bowl Champions as they square off with the New York Giants on Sunday, October 7. The contest will mark the first time Cleveland will play in MetLife Stadium. The Browns will also make their debut in Cowboys Stadium on Sunday, November 18, when they face the Dallas Cowboys.

The club’s bye week is scheduled for the week of November 11, their latest bye since 2002, which was also in Week 10.

For the first time since 2004, Cleveland will close out the regular season with two road games as they travel to Denver (Sunday, December 23) and Pittsburgh (Sunday, December 30). It marks the third straight year and fourth time in the last five seasons that the Browns close the regular season against the Steelers.

The combined record of the Browns’ 13 opponents this year was 102-106 in 2011. The eight teams that will visit Cleveland Browns Stadium posted a record of 67-61, and their eight road opponents went a combined 68-60. The Browns will play a total of eight games against 2011 playoff teams (Bengals, Ravens and Steelers twice each).

Also today, the Browns announced the dates and times of their 2012 preseason schedule, which consists of road games against Detroit (Friday, August 10) and Green Bay (Thursday, August 16) and home contests against Philadelphia (Friday, August 24) and Chicago (Thursday, August 30).

Cleveland Browns 2012 season tickets are now available. Fans can purchase season tickets by calling (440) 824-3434, toll free at (888) 891-1999 or online at www.ClevelandBrowns.com.

OTHER NOTES ON THE BROWNS’ 2012 SCHEDULE

vs. Philadelphia, 9/9

The Browns hold a 17-6-1 advantage against the Eagles in Cleveland.

vs. Buffalo, 9/23

The Browns are 10-6 all-time against Buffalo, including a 5-3 mark in Cleveland. The clubs have only met once in Cleveland Browns Stadium, when the Browns topped the Bills, 8-0, on December 16, 2007.

at New York Giants, 10/7

The Browns are 26-19-2 all-time against the Giants during the regular season, including a 35-14 win on October 13, 2008 the last time the clubs met.

at Indianapolis, 10/21

The Browns are 10-5 all-time on the road against the Colts, including a 27-19 victory last year on September 18.

at Dallas, 11/18

Cleveland holds a 15-11 advantage in the all-time regular season series. The Browns’ last victory at Dallas came during a 19-14 victory on December 10, 1994.

at Oakland, 12/2

Cleveland is 7-3 in its last 10 meetings with Oakland. The two teams will meet in Oakland for the second consecutive season as the Raiders topped the Browns, 24-17, last season on October 16.

vs. Kansas City, 12/9

The Browns are 7-3-1 all-time at home against the Chiefs. The all-time regular season series is knotted up at 10-10-2.

vs. Washington, 12/16

The Browns hold a 33-10-1 advantage in the all-time regular season series, including a 17-6 mark in Cleveland. This will mark the Redskins’ first trip to Cleveland Browns Stadium since 2004, when Washington topped Cleveland 17-13 on October 3.