Executive Vice President, Football Operations & General Manager, Andrew Berry (7.29.24)

Opening Statement 

“Okay, so I want to start with probably the most important news of the morning. I heard that Fred (Greetham) and Murph (Dan Murphy) won the inaugural Cleveland Media Pickleball Tournament. Is that correct? Now, I heard the championship comes with an asterisk because I heard Mary Kay (Cabot) was like Brock Purdy in the NFC Championship game. I heard that team would have won. Is that correct? I have that right? I have that right, okay. All right, so year two at the Greenbrier. We’re really excited to be back here. We had a great experience last summer; the staff here is great, it’s a fantastic location for us to come together as a team and really just focus on us and set the foundation for the upcoming football season. You know, as we go into training camp and as we go deeper into the summer, we’re really excited about the group of players, coaches and staff that we’ve put together this season, and we’re looking forward to the next five or six weeks as we get prepared for Dallas on September 8th. We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of work to do, but we’re encouraged by the early returns in camp, and we’re looking forward to keep going and kind of stack days together and ultimately reach the potential of this team. So with that, I’ll open up for any questions you guys have.”

 

Andrew, you were able to kind of resolve a contract situation with Amari (Cooper) to make sure he’s here for camp. He spoke about wanting to stay in Cleveland past this season. I was curious if extension talks were kind of part of those conversations or do you kind of want to wait and see how he performs? 

“Yeah, Daniel (Oyefusi), you know, obviously I have the policy, I don’t talk about contracts, don’t talk about discussions that we’ve had with individual players. I think everybody here understands what Amari has meant to the organization in our affinity for him. He’s an excellent player, outstanding human being. He’s a really good professional. And, you know, one of the things that’s interesting, with Amari assuming normal health, he has a chance to get to 10,000 yards this year, and he’s probably about a year and a half away from having his – if you look over the course of his career, spending the most time with the Browns relative to other organizations. So all of those things are important to us. He’s been a big part of our success last year, and we were glad we were able to resolve the situation.”

 

When you traded for (Jerry) Jeudy, I think you restructured first and then extended. So technically you can do that the same?

“Yeah, so Tony (Grossi), nothing that we’ve done would preclude us from, you know, extending him. That’s correct.”

 

How about Deshaun (Watson)? How do you think Deshaun has looked so far this camp, and what does the outlook over the next few weeks seem like? 

“Yeah, Mary Kay (Cabot), we’ve been very pleased with Deshaun. I think you’ve all seen that he’s really worked his tail off in terms of his shoulder rehab over really like the past year, had a really strong spring. You know, he’s done a really nice job here early at camp, so we feel like he’s in a great place both physically and mentally and look forward to a big year.”

 

Andrew, back to contract stuff real quick. Not about any specific player, but my memory serves me correctly, last year in camp you did multiple restructures. Is that something that you’re going to be looking to do in this particular part of the calendar this year?

“Every year is unique, Daryl (Ruiter). Without necessarily tipping our hand, we could, we may or may not, but we do always try and operate with a multi-year time horizon and try and get ahead as many issues as we can.”

 

How encouraged are you with Nick Chubb? We’ve seen him out here running. How encouraged are you where he’s at? 

“Yeah, no, I mean, look, Nick, he’s Batman, right? Like, we are incredibly pleased with the work that he’s put in, the progress that he’s made. You know, he still has a little ways to go, but we’re really happy to see where he is as we enter camp and look forward to him to continue to improve the health of the knee.”

 

Is there any kind of timeline for when he (Nick Chubb) might practice or are you picking out a date in the season when you might expect to have him?

“We’ll deal with it day by day.”

 

Andrew, you guys should give a seminar on coping with injuries after last year, with the way it went, did that make you rethink, I mean, obviously, probably altered practices, what have you. Is there anything in terms of the roster to kind of build in protection in case the inevitable happens? 

“Yeah, it’s a good question, Tom (Withers). I think the way we consider, I guess, attrition within the roster, it’s twofold. It’s one, the level of risk that you may have in a certain position group based on every player that you sign or trade for or draft, they don’t have the same level of injury risk. Some have maybe a more extended history, some have been durable for their entire careers. So that’s certainly something that we take into account when we build out a position group. And then the second piece of it is, it’s why roster building is 365 days a year because you can never have enough depth. And the groups, we always joke, the groups that you go into the camp and you’re like, ‘Oh, man, we’re really deep here. Like, we’re gonna either have to release a good player or we’re gonna have to work a trade.’ It seems like those are the groups that you get wiped out with, you know, first, that type of thing. So we are very, you know, cognizant of that, that you just can’t build enough depth into the roster, but we certainly will die trying.”

 

Is Deshaun able to throw every single day now, or will there be games where you take some days off or how would you deal with that?

“Yeah, so without going too specifically into his plan, there will be some level of cadence, but he’s in a really good spot. He’s got more than enough volume.”

 

Do you feel you need to increase your cap space to conduct business this season? 

“No.”

 

Going back to Deshaun, it seems like a lot of the passes so far early are relatively short. Is that part of the plan?

“It’s not. It’s not. It just, I mean, I might disagree with that assertion, to be honest, Chris (Easterling). I think, you know, certain throws in the NFL that require a lot of arm strength, they’re not always vertical and down the field. I think perhaps what, you know, maybe you’ve seen in the limited amount of 7-on-7 or teamwork we’ve done just happens to be that’s where the progressions have gone.”

 

Andrew, with you and Kevin (Stefanski) getting the extensions in June, just knowing you’re going to be here together and the stability you brought here for these few years, can you just talk about that?

“First and foremost, it’s a huge blessing. I don’t think either of us take it lightly. We very much realize that we are in a fortunate position. We have really good ownership, you are really good people. We have an organization where we love working with the people on a daily basis. I have, like, the easiest head coach to get along with in, like, the entire NFL. And, oh, by the way, he happens to be a two time, you know, Coach of the Year. So it’s a really great situation, and we’re looking forward to pushing the organization and pushing the team because we certainly haven’t met our long term goals yet.”

 

Andrew, back to Cooper. So dialogue will continue with his agent?

“I wouldn’t get into any of that specific stuff.”

 

Andrew, you were in the front office when this franchise was at its lowest point. And now, you’re in charge of the football operations where, you know, you feel like you’re a perennial playoff contender and you’re trying to climb the mountain of getting to a Super Bowl. Just where is your level of expectation or goals for this team this year? 

“So, number one, you know, just mentioning I guess really eight years ago when I had my first stint in Cleveland, and I know this isn’t the question, but I’m just going to talk about this anyway, Daryl (Ruiter). Everything that we went through during that time, whether it’s like the lack of success on the field, you know, the internal turmoil, just everything that went with it, it really does make you appreciate, you know, the – certainly last year but the past couple years a lot more. And like, that’s actually a cool part of the journey, like, I wouldn’t trade that for anything because you grow and you learn and it makes you not take the good days for, you know, for granted. So I want to start off by saying that. In terms of expectation, like, I really have two expectations going into every season, and that’s for our organization to maximize our potential on the field and for us to be able to handle adversity however it comes in a high-level, professional way. And that’s actually one of the things I was probably most proud of the team last year, that we had a bunch of different curveballs and I felt like our players, our coaches, our staff really just handled everyone regardless of when it came or how it came, and I was really proud of that group and every team in the NFL is going to have those peers. You don’t know what it is, whether it’s an injury, a losing streak, you know, whatever, but you’ve got to be able to overcome those moments or those stretches if you want to be playing deep into the playoffs.”

 

How have you seen JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) develop since you drafted him, especially maybe last year, where did you see him take the biggest jump? 

“Yeah, I think with Jeremiah, really from his rookie year, he’s always made the high-end plays. Like, he has, you know, he has like matrix-type athleticism where he just has rare movement skills and he can play behind the line of scrimmage. He’s fast. But where he’s grown over the past three years is his ability to reduce his errors because sometimes our greatest traits also become like our biggest negatives and his aggression at times would have him over commit, and, you know, make two plays, give one up, you know, make a play, give two up, things like that. And I think that is something that’s decreased over the past three years, and hopefully will continue to decrease as we go into year four.”

 

You don’t have an extension to announce do you?

“You’ll be the first to know, Scott (Petrak).”

 

Does the quarterback situation from last year encourage you to keep three this year?

“No, I’d say more generally, I prefer Tony (Grossi), I prefer to keep three most years. Now, I’m not just going to keep three to keep three and there are certain situations, like the opportunity with Josh (Dobbs) last year at the cut-down, we felt like that was good for the team. But generally speaking, we do believe in keeping three as long as we have three that we think are worth keeping.”

 

Isn’t it easier to bring up practice squader for a emergency situation this year?

“Yeah, it is, but I guess if you think about it, Tony, like, you’re generally going to have a better quality player if they’re on – like, if they make it to your practice squad, generally there’s probably going to be a lesser quality than someone that you feel compelled to keep.”

 

Andrew, we’ve seen Mike Vrabel everywhere on the field and it seems like he has kind of an ever changing role as a consultant. I’m curious what your interactions have been with him and maybe how he’s maybe helping on the personnel side?

“Yeah, Vrabes is awesome. He’s awesome. And we are lucky because I think, and you all probably see it, we’re probably on borrowed time with him, but we’re going to maximize it as much as possible. I think he has such a unique perspective because here’s a former All-Pro player, coached in power five college, defensive coordinator and then very, very successful head coach in Tennessee. So there’s nothing that he hasn’t seen or that he can’t provide insight into whether it’s how we’re practicing on the field, how we game plan, player development and player support areas, how we think about acquiring players, whether it’s in the draft or free agency. So, we are certainly getting our money’s worth with Mike, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have him here with us.”

 

Just to kind of piggyback off that you mentioned, you might be on borrowed time. This is a guy that I think most people consider one of the top coaches in the league. So, just to have that opportunity to bring him in, how exciting was that like how quick did you guys jump at it?

“It was pretty exciting, because I remember when Kevin and I were talking about it, we were like, ‘Do you think he’d do this?’ Like, do you think he’d do this? Or he’s gonna, like, maybe want to you know take the year off with his family? And so like we kind of came in, like, softly, tactfully, and it was like, from the very beginning, ‘Oh, yeah, I’d love to do this.’ Like, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ Like, it’s pretty cool, because we had all, you know, we had known Mike from, you know, crossing paths. Kevin was on a committee with him and everything, but to see him day to day, I mean, you would think he’s a first time NFL QC by how much he’s, like, sprinting up and down the field. So it’s just really, really awesome.”

 

What type of energy does that bring to the guys and on the field, to have him so involved running around, hands on?

“It’s great. It’s very competitive energy because Mike’s a little bit of a trash talker sometimes, but he’s a very active coach, so the guys love having them around.”

 

Andrew, with the changes to the offensive staff this offseason, OC and really all of them. What excites you just about what they can bring to this team, what you’ve seen early on?

“Yeah, I think there are two things that excite me most, Kelsey (Russo), about the offensive staff. I think, first, they’ve come from a variety of different backgrounds. Most of them have not crossed path in terms of working together, and to see how they’ve come together as a staff, as a working group, that’s been really cool to see. And then the second part is just the diversity of thought that’s within that room, because they come from such different backgrounds, it’s been pretty cool to see how that’s come together with building out the offensive scheme.”

 

How optimistic are you about Jed Wills being able to get back on the practice field anytime soon?

“Yeah, we feel like he’s progressing appropriately. We feel like – I’d say Jed, among many of our guys who aren’t necessarily all the way back, they’re progressing appropriately, and they will hit the practice field at an appropriate time. So, although we have maybe a higher quantity of players that aren’t full practice than you would typically want, we also feel fortunate that, you know, we’re not sitting here, knock on wood, on the first week of camp saying, ‘Hey, such and such, we just lost, because for a season ending injury’ or something.”

 

Would you include (Jack) Conklin in that? You expect him to hit the practice field at some point?

“Yeah. Like, I think all of our guys are progressing appropriately.”

 

Following up on Kelsey’s question about the offense. Where do you think we’ll see, maybe, the most significant changes given Ken (Dorsey) influences and the rest of them?

“I think that’s probably a better question for Ken and Kevin. And probably second, I’d say we’re only a few short weeks away from the preseason game.”

 

Andrew, when Martin (Emerson) was coming out in the draft, it just seemed like a lot of people didn’t really know what to make of him. You guys obviously saw something in him, get him in the third round. Has he even exceeded expectations entering year three now with what you thought you might do with him?

“Honestly, we have pretty high expectations for Martin, especially knowing where we were going to transition to defensively. So we’re really proud of him. He is a diligent worker. He’s really smart. He loves football. It’s actually been pretty cool to see him going from a young player to more like kind of veteran leader within the defense. We feel good that he’s going to have another big season, and he’s just done a great job.”

 

How realistic is it for both Greg (Newsome II) and Dalvin (Tomlinson) coming off of their surgeries to be available for Dallas?

“Yeah, no, I think it’s entirely realistic. Whether that happens in the next couple weeks, we’ll see and, you know, work through that. One thing that we’ve learned about injuries is that you can never fully project everything, but I think that’s entirely possible.”

 

Andrew, you could probably speak better than anybody to how David Njoku grown off the field and on the field, too. So going back to from when you drafted him to now, how has he changed?

“Yeah, I think people forget David was 20 years old when we drafted him. And if you think about, I don’t know, maybe all of you guys were very, very mature 20-year-olds. I was not always. That was not always the case with me. And you think about now, he’s, what, going into year seven or eight. He’ a father now. He’s been through the ups and downs, and I think oftentimes in our lives and careers, almost what I was talking about earlier, Daryl (Ruiter), like, the hard times, they really have us grow and learn the most. Like, talking about a guy who was a first round pick, had a really good rookie year, got hurt, got to a point where [he] felt like the organization gave up on him, got to a point where he was relegated to a lesser role, fought through it, wanted a trade, fought through it. Like, we all grow and mature, so I have a personal affinity for David seeing him go through all that and fun fact, my first stint here, he was actually my neighbor. We were in the same apartment complex, so there were times where he actually, I remember my car was in the shop. He took me home from one of our away games, like that type of thing. So, like, I love David as a person, you know, first and foremost, and I’m really, really proud of him.”

 

Andrew, was there a point that the organization considered giving up on him?

“Not while I was here, no.”

 

Fans of media love to debate quarterback rankings, and I know that’s not a concern of yours where Deshaun falls in line or whatever. What gives you the most confidence, though, that he can play at that elite level that we’ve seen in flashes and haven’t seen consistently since he was in Houston?

“Yeah, I think it’s just seeing him every day. Seeing how he prepares, seeing how he works in practice. Seeing how he relates to his coaches. I think our biggest focus with Deshaun is just making sure that he’s available. I think the rest will take care of itself.”

 

Andrew, the (Jimmy and Dee) Haslams’ have a stadium decision they have to make here in the coming weeks or months. From your perspective, where do you come out or you team build the dome or do you want to stay on the lake?

“So I’ll say, first and foremost, from a football standpoint, any solution is like, we’re a yes, like two thumbs up. Because any solution where we’re improving our home environment, where we’re improving the fan experience, like that’s going to be great for us regardless of where, you know, or outdoors and indoors. I know ownership, Dave Jenkins, our local politicians are hard at work on a solution. If you’re asking my opinion personally, you know, I personally think that we are paying these guys to be athletes as opposed to gladiators. So I prefer the dome solution. I prefer to be indoors. I think that’s better for the team. And I also think being in the Midwest, with the elements and everything, it’s better for our fans as well. It creates a better fan experience late in the year when we’re making those playoff pushes. But I do, I do want to emphasize any solution is a good solution. We’re happy whether it’s a renovation, a build, you know, whatever, because it just means that our home environment is that much more of a home field advantage here in Cleveland.”

 

Andrew, you mentioned that David had requested, a trade. Just big picture, right, so you have that, and you had the Kareem (Hunt) and then Amari, and you’re able to handle all kinds of different situations. Do you have a philosophy or things you rely on when it feels like it could be contentious, but you’re able to get past it with these plans?

“I think the biggest thing, and this is something that I really took from Howie (Roseman) in my year in Philly is so many organizations either don’t put time or are afraid to build relationships with your locker room. And it’s building relationships specifically in non-crisis times because you’re going to have conflict. Like, it doesn’t matter. I mean, look, San Francisco, they were just, you know, in the Super Bowl this year, look at what they’re doing. Kansas City last year with one of their longest-tenured players in Chris Jones. Like, there’s going to be conflict. No different than a family, right? Like, I mean, you guys have parents, siblings. Like, you know, everything’s not always smooth sailing. And that’s what allows you to have either difficult conversations or work through challenging situations. Because, like, at the end of the day,  there is an understanding of wanting what’s best for the organization and the player and being able to honestly have, like, maybe difficult conversations that are clothed in truth.”

 

Do you think there’s a difference in building a team that’s based in a dome? Because when you were with the Colts, (Bill) Polian did that.

“I don’t think too much about it. I really don’t think it’s too much of a difference. I mean, like, I guess the way I look at it is like, take Patrick Mahomes, take Big Ben (Roethlisberger), take Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre for most of their career. Take Josh Allen. Like, those are some pretty tough elements, but they’ve been very pass happy. Take Tom Brady. They were pretty pass happy in New England. So I don’t think there’s a, I don’t think there’s a huge difference in that.”

 

Andrew, I mean, we brought up a lot of guys – JOK, Martin, David, all guys who have developed on different timelines. Like Martin takes right away, David takes awhile, your mindset when it comes to player development, where does that come from? How have you sort of perfected practicing patience with some guys and letting them develop?

“Yeah, I think you guys have heard me always say that development is nonlinear. Like, trust me, I would be the first to tell you that I would love for it to be like, ‘Okay, here’s where they are as a rookie. Then here’s where they are as a second-year player.’ But it very rarely works that way. I mean, I don’t know this, but, like, think about your own career. Was your development as like a beat writer, was that, you know, was that linear in nature as you think about, you know, when you started versus where you are now? My guess is that it probably wouldn’t be for most people in this room. And so it is a little bit of a case-by-case basis, but it’s probably more so knowing the specific needs or specific areas that the individual needs to be supported at different points in their career and then really try and leaning into those to hopefully shorten the development.”

 

Not to have you talk about specific extensions or anything like that, but you have a number of extensions coming up in a relatively short period. Like a puzzle, do you kind of plan out this and that, prioritize and how everything impacts cap-wise and planning?

“Yeah, we do, Chris (Easterling). It’s timing, amount, what areas you want to lean into the roster that all comes into play because we’re all given the same resources in the NFL and so you only have so many dollars to spend. So you do have to be purposeful in terms of how you map it out. But it’s also why we are so proactive in that area because we think it allows us to get ahead of different markets. We think it allows us be more – I guess dictate the action, so to speak, in terms of how we invest in the roster. Whereas if you wait and you wait and wait, you’re usually a little bit more subject to market forces, which may make building a team a little bit harder overall.”

 

I wanted to ask you about young receiver development. You know, (Anthony) Schwartz and DPJ (Donovan Peoples-Jones) got the sequences, didn’t work out. You know, this is year two for Ced (Tillman), seems to be a lot of optimism about what he might be able to do. You got guys like (David) Bell and (Michael) Woods. Just what are your feelings about some of those young receivers and their progress and ability to contribute behind the three receivers you went out and got on the trade market?

“Yeah, I feel pretty good, Daryl (Ruiter), and I think part of it is, if you acquire a player or how you acquire a player, it might be relative to role or relative to expectation. Like when we took Donovan, the expectation wasn’t necessarily that he would be a top two receiver. Now, he was able to play the number two role for us at a high level in 2022. You know, when you take Anthony, the expectation is like, ‘Hey, can he be a role playing vertical guy?’ Obviously, it didn’t work out the way that we had hoped. You know, we knew that as part of getting him in the late third round, he did have a significant area of development in his game. But you knew that it may not, it may not always work out, but I think part of it is like, we think they’re probably based on what is the expectation for role, what is the expectation for their skillset. And not every player is equal in that regard. So maybe how we would react to someone hitting their goal or maybe someone not quite reaching their goal would be different based on the level of investment.”

 

In the offseason, Jim Schwartz talked about how being year two in the defense, putting in change ups and kind of putting in different things. What are you excited to see from the defense in the second year of the scheme and what they can build on from last year?

“To be honest, Kelsey (Russo), more the same from last year. They were pretty doggone good last year. I think, you know, some of the tweaks, which I won’t necessarily go into the specifics here, but some of the tweaks that Jim has put in, no secret, we love to rush before and we love to play a lot of press man coverage. Now that offensive coordinators have had a year to look at what we did and maybe adjust, you know, what are we doing to be able to have those counter punches in our back, so to speak. And Jim’s always very proactive in terms of staying ahead of the curve in that regard.”

 

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