Executive Vice President, Football Operations & General Manager Andrew Berry (1.6.25)
Opening Statement:
“I’m sitting here in front of you with a season where we just won three games. I really share in our fans’ disappointment, frustration. Quite honestly, I’m embarrassed with the results that we’ve had as a team this year. Just plainly put, we didn’t meet expectations. Our decisions coming into the year didn’t meet expectations and ultimately that responsibility lies at my feet. Thinking back a little bit to a year ago where we were coming off an 11-win season going into the playoffs, our goal has always been to perform at the level or a higher level on a consistent basis. In order for us to do that, especially as we look at this season, we really have to look at everything. It’s an objective and hard analysis at each position group and the roster. It’s looking at what we’re doing to put our players in the best position to be successful. It’s looking at how we practice, how we train to avoid the major losses that we’ve had in player availability over the last couple of years. We really do have to look at everything. I think it probably goes without saying that to reach that level of consistency, we have to have consistent availability and consistent performance at the QB position as well. That’s something that’s been elusive for us over the past couple of seasons and that’s something that we have to be able to fix and remedy. I’ll share with you all this morning that I was recently listening to John Maxwell talk, and John Maxwell, he’s a former pastor, longtime leadership executive coach, he was like a New York Times Bestseller, and he was talking about the topic of how to get a positive return on failure. He used this term, he talked about good misses and bad misses, and it stuck with me because I’ve listened to Kevin (Stefanski) coach quarterbacks for five years and he uses the same terminology where it’s like, ‘Hey, you’re going to miss throws. But let’s make sure they’re a good miss or a bad miss.’ And the way John categorized good misses versus bad misses is with good misses, they force you to adjust. They’re failures where you learn and you have to adjust, where the bad misses, they’re the ones where you don’t learn anything, and you make excuses. We have a lot of good people in our organization from a core group of players, good coaches, good people in football operations. We will make adjustments, and we will learn from this and grow from this. I will learn from this and I will grow from this to ultimately deliver the results our fanbase deserves and our organizations deserves. The last thing I’ll do before I open up with questions, I did want to give an update on Deshaun (Watson). Yesterday, as we went through our normal player medical process, we did learn that he did have a setback in his Achilles recovery. We don’t have all the details and everything yet, but it’ll obviously extend the recovery process for him. It is new information just learned in the past couple hours, so I don’t have everything yet. But did want to make you all aware of it before opening it up for questions. With that, I’ll leave it to you all.”
As far as Deshaun’s concerned, does that take him out of the running for next year or how does that impact him coming into camp?
“Yeah, Tom (Withers), it’s too early to tell. I don’t have all the information. Obviously in a situation like that, one thing I will say I have learned from this year is I don’t want to rule out anything with a major injury. We are still collecting all the information and obviously our focus is making sure that he can get as healthy as possible.”
You just learned about this yesterday?
“Yeah, typically in our end of year process, all our players go through what we called exit physicals and it’s something that we learned yesterday.”
How did this setback occur, or do you have an idea? Does he even know?
“I don’t have all those details, Nate (Ulrich). Obviously, it’s pretty fresh information and we will work through that over the next couple of days.”
To be clear, when he got examined, did he know something was wrong or is this new information for him as well?
“Yes, he did raise it to the docs that something didn’t feel right and everything like that. And then, we realized he had a setback.”
Do you expect him to need another surgery?
“Again, Scott (Petrak), I’m not trying to be evasive here, it is all really new. I can’t rule anything out, but I will know more in the next couple days and weeks.”
How did it happen?
“Like I said, I don’t have all the details, Mary Kay (Cabot), and honestly I don’t necessarily want to go into all that until I have all the information. But that’s all I have for now.”
What had been the timeline before this setback? Did you guys what had been kind of an optimistic outlook about when you would expect him to be back to participate in football activities?
“He was still early in his recovery, and we felt like he was progressing appropriately. As I think back to this year when we’ve had guys who’ve had major surgeries or injuries, the timelines really can be variable until you get a little bit further on. We experienced that with certain players this past year. So, it was probably still too early in the process to say whether it was like he’s optimistic or he’s ahead of schedule, he’s behind schedule. But we felt like he was at least progressing appropriately.”
You’ve drafted one quarterback in five years. And of course, Watson’s the biggest acquisition you made. Do you think you need to fix the process in finding the next quarterback?
“Yeah, Tony (Grossi), it’s a good question. I think as we go into the off season, we have to look at everything like we really. We really do. We want to make sure that we’re eyes wide open in terms of what we’re doing across football operations. That being said, we have good people, we have good coaches, we understand how important the quarterback position is and that’s obviously going to be a primary goal as we enter the offseason.”
How did the decision to change the offensive coaching staff around, and the coaches, the whole offense thing, how did that come about last year? And then where are you with that going forward into this year?
“Yeah, so I think whenever you talk about coaching staff, Kevin’s goal is to make sure that he surrounds our players and builds a system that can accentuate their strengths and really minimize their weaknesses. Any decision that he makes in that regard is really with that in mind. A lot of things didn’t go well for us offensively. We didn’t perform up to standard. We didn’t perform nearly well enough. And I know when Kevin met with you all yesterday, he was talking about he wants to make sure that we have a sound and explosive offense and that’ll really be the focus for us moving forward.”
Was Kevin’s idea to kind of get away from sort of the things that they had done well in the past with zone blocking and that kind of stuff?
“Yeah, I’d say this, Terry (Pluto), that probably the better way to characterize it; Kevin believes in putting a system around the player’s strengths. And the nature of the NFL is that your players, they will change from year to year. What we may have been good at in 2020 may be different than 2021, or 2023, different than 2024. Obviously, like, what we put together this year wasn’t good enough. We didn’t play well enough on that side of the ball but have full faith that Kevin will be able to put it together and allow us to have better results.”
Is there a goal now to kind of get back to the basics of where they work? It seems like quarterback’s wide open, you could go anywhere with this. And so offensively, to go back to what was working?
“Yeah, I think this, and Kevin mentioned this, it’s probably less about what specifically we do in the run game or what specifically in the pass game, but sound and explosive and however that comes together and fits our players best, that’s the way that he’ll go.”
How does the Deshaun setback impact your quarterback acquisition strategy?
“I wouldn’t say that it has a significant impact, Mary Kay (Cabot). I think the reality of it is that room, it will look different next year. It may obviously impact what the room looks like as we enter the season or camp, depending on the severity of the setback. But I wouldn’t say that it had a significant impact.”
When you look at your roster, if it did not play up to its potential, how will that affect the way you restructure it for next season?
“Yeah, I think Jeff (Schudel), we’ll look at everything. I think it would be naive to suggest that there won’t be turnover in different rooms. Our goal is to make the decisions necessary to make improvements both in the short-term and the long-term foundation of the team. We do have guys that we like that will be a part of both. But there are going to have to be some changes that we do make with the team.”
It’s been pretty clear that players don’t feel like they were put in a position to be successful, that the organization played to how the team was built and their strengths as individuals. And part of that too is with what Myles (Garrett) had to say a couple of weeks ago about his frustrations with the state of affairs. So, I guess just in your exit process with these players, I’m not going to ask you to reveal confidential conversations. But just what was the message to players like Myles and those that felt like they were not put in a position to be successful this year as far as making sure that doesn’t happen in 2025?
“I’d say first, Daryl (Ruiter), that I think everybody shares in the frustration of the season. Our fans, our players, our coaches, ownership, football operations, everybody realizes that just the results weren’t good enough. That being said, I think there is shared ownership. It’s not just one thing. There were areas where we could have buttressed the roster better. There are things that we could have done on the sidelines better. There were things that — our best players, they have to play up to their potential. That’s also an element of it. And so, we all share in it because the reality of it is when you win three games, I wish it was just one thing, but it’s a collective failure.”
Obviously, Myles was strong about not wanting to go through a rebuild. First of all, do you think a rebuild teardown is necessary?
“I don’t envision an off season where we’re moving on from a ton of core players. Like, I think a lot of the decisions, as we think about some of the areas that we may need to strategically pivot, is going to be about both short-term and long-term decisions. So, like, I do expect there to be some turnover on the roster. But the idea that we would get rid of some of our cornerstone players, I don’t necessarily see that as a viable path.”
Do you can win next year and did Myles, I guess, buy the blueprint that he was looking for?
“Okay, maybe I’ll answer that in two parts. So let me say in terms of Myles, my anticipation, expectation is that he’ll have a direct ticket from Cleveland to Canton at the end of his years and expect him to be here and retire at Brown quite frankly. In terms of winning, our goal is always going to be to win. Our goal is always going to be to improve the team. I think, one of the beauties of the NFL, I guess maybe a parallel, you think about the team that was holding the two-pick last year, we’re going to see them next week play. I’m not quite sure where they play, but we’ll see Washington play in the playoffs this year. So, you can never really put necessarily a time frame on it with player movement and how things change in the NFL. It’s hard to have a crystal ball, but we really will be focused on making the decisions that we think cannot just allow us to have a 10 or 11-win blip, but really allow us to stay there. And so, that will be balancing both the short term and long term.”
When Myles says something like that and wants to know the plan, how important is transparency to you and how much do you feel like that is your job to provide the information to players to make sure that they know what they’re going into?
“Yeah, Cam (Justice), it’s a great question. We’ve always believed in having direct and honest communication with our players. It’s something that we do regularly, it’s something that we do, particularly longer-term things, really more at the end of the year. That’s what we view as more of an appropriate time as opposed to the end of the season. So, that’s something that has been like a regular part of our, I guess, a part of our fabric. And look, everyone in the organization has so much invested into this; time, energy, sweat, equity, and I think you guys know Myles. He wants to win; he puts everything into it and he’s one of our cornerstone players.”
So, Nick Chubb, I mean, last year you were so complimentary of him, but do you still envision him having a future here and can he get back to being a top running back?
“Yeah, actually, I want to start by saying I think everybody in this room knows how much respect that we have for Nick and how much appreciation we have for not just like his exploits on the field, but who he is in the locker room and who he is as a person. It’s always a challenging situation when one of your cornerstone players, their contract is up. That’s probably maybe a little bit the different situation this year relative to relative to last, where there is maybe perhaps a little bit less control on the club side with it. Those are all decisions that we do have to work through the next several weeks. We love Nick. He’s going to be a ring of honor player for us, and we know that. In terms of the short term, that’s something that quite honestly, we just have to work through over the next several weeks.”
Given the way Deshaun’s current tenure in Cleveland and even the way his season ended with some fans appearing to boo, to cheer. In your conversations with him, has he told you that he does want to remain in Cleveland and be the starting quarterback of this team when healthy?
“Yeah, I’d say this, Daniel (Oyefusi), Deshaun is — number one, he’s very focused on getting healthy for all the obvious reasons. That’s the first thing that’s top of mind. Deshaun’s invested in being here. At no point has he given an indication in terms of not wanting to be here or leaving the city or anything along those lines. He’s really focused on getting himself healthy and performing to a higher level.”
You’ve shown a willingness to, I don’t want to say ignore red flags, but maybe a little more tolerant of some red flags through the player acquisition process. My question is because that hasn’t paid the dividends that I think everyone was hoping for, will you reevaluate that part as far as like maybe some of your red flag non-negotiables when you’re looking at bringing in some players?
“Yeah, Daryl (Ruiter), I think every individual is unique. I think there are no perfect people. And I think part of our responsibility as an organization is to help guys to grow and mature, not just on the field, but also with their lives and careers. Each situation is different. There are some situations that we do have an infrastructure to support and help and some situations that we don’t. And there also is individual ownership that comes with it. So, we evaluate those situations on a case-by-case basis with the information that we have. Some of them will work out, some of them won’t. I think that’s kind of the nature of it really in every building. But we really do want to support and help our guys grow.”
Going back to the offense and the changes that were made last year, it’s my understanding you reached out to Buffalo and got a pretty honest evaluation of Ken’s (Dorsey) strengths and weaknesses. Who was behind the decision to bring Ken here and then why were you still comfortable bringing him on when you got a pretty blunt assessment from Buffalo of what didn’t work there?
“Yeah, so, Jason (Lloyd), I’d say number one, when it comes to the coaching staff, that’s Kevin’s decision. It’s Kevin’s responsibility. Number two, like with anyone that we bring into the organization, we do a lot of diligence as you reference. Really the stuff out of Buffalo was — actually let me back up for a second. I think, and Kevin mentioned this yesterday, the offensive struggles, they were not just about Ken. I think it would be unfair of us to suggest that because we didn’t perform appropriately on offense that it would be pinned on him, because it’s just not the case. I’d say secondly, Ken was an excellent professional. He’s a good coach. He’s really strong in a number of areas, particularly RPO game, the tempo, the pass game, things like that. I think the circumstances this year across a variety of levels were not ideal for the offensive staff, just being quite blunt. But, in terms of Ken Dorsey, he’s a good coach. All the work that we had done on him, that Kevin had done on him, we felt really comfortable with what we were bringing into the building. He’s going to land on his feet and he’s going to be successful.”
Andrew, when you examined your misses, was not bringing (Joe) Flacco back a good miss or a bad miss?
“Yeah, I’d say this Tony (Grossi), in terms of the backup quarterback world, I don’t know that really what we had on the offensive side of the ball and how we played on offense would have been influenced by one change in a decision. I think it was probably a variety of things that led to our challenges on that side of the ball. We didn’t play as consistently up front as we’re accustomed to doing. Obviously, we dealt with injuries and inconsistency at quarterback. We dealt with injuries at the end of the year at the skill positions. We turned the ball over a lot. I don’t know that there was a cure-all decision regardless of quarterback or any other position that would have changed the fortunes of the offense. It was a collective failure for us there.”
Andrew, it’s just the first week of January and there’s maybe not an exact answer for this, but where are you guys with the 2025 quarterback class in relation to where you need to be in a few months?
“Yeah, we’re in a good spot. We always work ahead with the draft process. It’s like a year and a half thing for us. We’ve obviously finished up the college scouting season now that almost all the college games are done. Obviously, we have the College Football Playoff and everything, and our scouts are really gearing up for the all-star games that are coming up at the end… or some that have already started and then the major ones that are coming up at the end of the month. So, we feel like we’re in a good spot. Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go before we know the draft class intimately, but fortunately, those are decisions that we’ll have to make until the end of April.”
Do you see yourself doing any more than normal with this quarterback class?
“To be honest, I do a fair amount in the fall. I think I’ve said before that we really go into the process with the idea that we have an expansion team. So, we want to make sure that we’re covered across all positions regardless of what our needs are coming out of the season. And a big part of that is because pretty much every year the needs that you think going in, there’s at least some level of change coming out of it. But we feel like we’re going to be in a good spot there.”
Andrew, when you go through a significant move like you did with (Deshaun) Watson, all the assets, everything goes into it, then it goes backwards, however you want to call it this. So one, have you looked at where that went wrong? And secondly, then how do you recover on the cap the next couple of years? So, can you address where it went wrong and then how do you recover?
“Yeah, so I’d say, Terry (Pluto), probably first and foremost, I think that, to date, the trade hasn’t gone as we had hoped or anticipated. Hasn’t gone how Deshaun has hoped or anticipated. I think certainly a big part of it is the stop-start with availability and that we never have gotten consistent performance at that position. I think there’s a variety of factors in that, that’s not just the quarterback. We all share in culpability with that. The one thing is, when you do look, we’ve never been afraid to take big swings on things that we think can help the team and help the organization. Sometimes you’ll hit and sometimes they won’t go quite according to plan. But the one thing that we always do look at is, you understand with any business where you take on risk or where you make decisions, you understand that there is both upside and downside. There’s no such thing as a riskless transaction. And one thing that we always do want to do is really protect our downside as much as you can. And we will be positioned moving forward both from a cap perspective and I hate how we got here, but with having the second pick in the draft, whether we select a player or use it to maximize in another way, it gives us an opportunity to really pivot if we need to.”
Along the lines of where you guys are in the draft, how does the last three years of not having a first-round pick sort of impact or influence how you guys will treat both the number two pick, but also what you do? Is there any sort of sense you maybe have to play catch up a little bit and try to get some players?
“Certainly, when you’re in a deficit from a draft asset perspective, it can create certain challenges. That’s not necessarily how we would look at it at this point, not necessarily in terms of trying to catch up, so to speak. We’d probably look at it from like, ‘Okay, as we analyze the roster, who are our core players short-term and long-term? What are some of the areas where we would need to make some immediate improvements?’ versus, ‘Hey, this is something that’s maybe a longer-term need’ and really operate from there. Because it’s less about what’s happened in the past, that’s to some degree irrelevant at that point, and more about where are we starting from a baseline standpoint and that’s how we’ll make decisions moving forward.”
Compounding the results to date following the Watson trade, fans are watching the success that Baker (Mayfield) is having in Tampa Bay and they’re asking, “Why on Earth could that not happen here?” So, could you just, in whatever way possible, maybe explain to fans why it was so necessary to move on from Baker and why he could not be ready to achieve the success that he’s now having elsewhere?
“So first I’ll say, Baker is doing a terrific job in Tampa and certainly happy for him. Obviously, he created a lot of really great memories for us here. I think, Daryl (Ruiter), a big part of quarterback success or failure — it can be environment. And I think the environment that these guys come into can play a huge part in terms of their development. Baker’s obviously a really talented quarterback, and I think part of what we go through in terms of our ups and downs, whether it’s personal or professional, there also is individual growth. But he’s doing a great job in Tampa. I think he’s grown as a player. He’s grown as a person, and obviously, they’re in a good place there.”
Andrew, you talked earlier about a coach using a system that fits a quarterback or at least tweaking it. But when you think about quarterback environments and when you acquired Deshaun, Kevin (Stefanski) had a track record of doing a certain type of offense in the NFL and succeeding with it. And Deshaun had a track record of succeeding in Houston with another type. Has that difference between the two philosophies and styles, trying to make it all work together, has that been a greater obstacle than maybe anticipated when you made the deal?
“It’s a good question, Nate (Ulrich). I think that it’s unfair to put either Kevin or Deshaun in a box, understanding that what he did in Houston and what we’re doing before the trade were different schematically. But that being said, Kevin’s been a part of a number of different systems throughout his career. He is a very smart offensive mind. He is able to adjust and adapt. And I think, he’d probably tell you, there’s actually a lot of overlap in many different offensive systems. You may get to different concepts in different ways. But I think that’s probably a little bit too much made of that. Look, it hasn’t yielded the impact that we had hoped. It would be easy to distill it into any one thing, but I do think that there’s perhaps a little bit too much made out of that.”
To go to left tackle, what do you envision there? I mean, is there a world that Jed Wills is back here? And did you guys see enough out of Dawand Jones to feel like you have an evaluation of him over there?
“So maybe to start with Jed, it’s probably like all of our players with expiring deals where we’ve got to work through all of that in the next several weeks. With Dawand, we did feel like he was actually hitting his stride before he got injured middle of the year. It is funny because Kevin was like, ‘Hey, you know what? Let’s just kick him over to left tackle’, during one of the practice weeks. And then we had the injury and it was like, ‘Oh, well, I guess he’s got to play the next week’. It ended up being, I guess prescient, if you speak. And I think Dawand deserves credit because it’s really like the first time in his career that he’s played at the spot with probably minimal preparation, and he acclimated pretty quickly. How that spot looks going into 2025, it’s probably too early to tell, but we did feel like it was good to get him some game experience at that position.”
Going off environment, do you feel like this environment here is good enough? Like it’s conducive of a winning culture?
“I do. I do.”
Andrew, with quarterback, obviously you’re going to need to add some there. Did you look at how the landscape of the offseason might be? Do you feel that number one, there’ll be quality veterans available whether it’s free agency or trade? And could you see pairing that with a top draft pick?
“I’d say, Scott (Petrak), that I think there’s opportunity every offseason. I wouldn’t necessarily constrain us to any one way of attacking, whether it’s the quarterback position or any position across the roster. We’ve always prided ourselves on being opportunistic. And there are probably also opportunities that we don’t see today that will pop up over the next several months. So, we’ll be flexible in that regard.”
Can you give a JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) update, please?
“I’ll be honest, Jeff (Schudel), I don’t have anything other than what Kevin told you guys yesterday. You know, he’s still working the rehab, and when we have a meaningful update, we’ll make sure we share it.”
Would you expect him back next year?
“That’s what I said, that’s our hope for sure. But again, with these long-term injuries, I really don’t have a crystal ball with it.”
Can you sort of explain what the Deshaun Watson extension actually did for you guys and what might happen with that down the road?
“No, I definitely understand and respect the question, Mary Kay (Cabot), but you know I don’t talk about contracts in this setting.”
What do you like about this quarterback class coming up?
“You know what? I think every class has its strengths. Probably not the appropriate time for me to go into detail on the prospect class. I do get the question, but I’m sure there will be guys that we like as we work through it.”
You and Kevin have a lot of big decisions, the entire organization does but you guys, as the head of it, have a lot of big decisions coming. How important is it for you guys to maintain alignment through this off-season as you’re trying to recover from 3-14?
“It’s huge, Nate (Ulrich), but the good thing is I always say that we work side-by-side, and we fight back-to-back. I have a ton of respect for Kevin on a personal level, on a professional level, he’s a great coach. I’m really not worried about that part of it because I have a fantastic partner.”
Andrew, assuming that Deshaun Watson comes back healthy, have you seen enough and what have you seen that leads you to believe that he can still play winning football for the Cleveland Browns?
“Yeah, I’ll be honest, Mary Kay (Cabot). Our focus with Deshaun, especially after yesterday, is getting him healthy. And it really starts with that and making sure that he’s physically right, where he can play to the best of his ability when he’s on the field. And that’s really where our focus is with him.”
Mike Hall, is he going to need surgery after that MRI?
“So, he did sustain an injury that will be in the months. Surgery certainly is a possibility, but he should return and perform. Scott (Petrak), I’d kind of put this in the bucket of… and I’ll go back to last year at this time when we had estimates with some of our key players and they probably went a little bit longer than normal. So, I’m trying to handle it a little bit differently this year just because with these longer-term injuries, it is a little bit more variable, and I don’t want to lead you astray.”
But there’s a chance he could be ready for next season?
“That’s correct. Yeah, that’s correct.”