Holmgren: No Excuses Heading into 2011

Despite the rest of the world casting lights of ill fortune on the team with a completely new coaching staff and a slew of young players on the roster, Browns team president Mike Holmgren is not making any excuses heading into the 2011 season. With the NFL offseason now in semi-full swing, Holmgren and the Browns appear to be hitting the ground in stride with the continually growing list of undrafted free agents being added to the Orange and Brown stable.

Roughly 16 hours prior to the free agent floodgates creaking open, Holmgren joined award-winning NFL writer Vic Carucci on a local sportstalk network to discuss the upcoming days – a stretch of time expected to fall somewhere between utter chaos and pandemonium with a special cameo by Jim Ross and the Spanish announcers table.

“I think there are challenges that other veteran teams might not encounter early, but were not making any excuses,” Holmgren said. “I told the coaching staff and Pat [Shurmur] before we left on vacation, “it is what it is.” We’re coaches. We’re teachers. We have some young people that really want to learn and get better and let’s just roll up our sleeves and do the best we can.”

Holmgren reiterated how much he appreciated his players getting together for voluntary workouts including the much-discussed camps held by second-year quarterback Colt McCoy. In the interview, Holmgren referred to McCoy as a “natural leader” with the “want to” to be successful within the NFL. Per the team’s president, the only thing missing is experience, something he’s primed to get an awufl lot of in the coming months.

Something else McCoy could potentially use is additional help on the offensive line as well as a potential big-play wide receiver that he could target in the pass-happy West Coast Offense. The Browns are one of a handful of teams with considerable cap space (while teams like the Baltimore Ravens have been forced to release players like Derrick Mason and Todd Heap), so Holmgren and his staff will have the chance to put all of their downtime research to good use.

“The league year begins August 4,^, so there is a lot of stuff they still have to do and different things, but Tom Heckert, Matt Thomas and all the guys, they are all primed and ready to go,” said Holmgren. “We have been talking about the plan and the players we want to go after for a long, long time. Now, the good thing is it’s here and we’re going to get this done.”