Yesterday Pat Shurmur seemed relieved in giving his review of the tumultuous first season with the Cleveland Browns. He talked about how it wasn’t good enough. He talked about hiring an offensive coordinator. He talked about cherishing the opportunity for a real off-season this year with a roster of players he now knows pretty intimately. As far as looking toward the future though, he wasn’t able to shed a lot of light other than the fact that there will be changes and everyone is intent on doing much better next year. I wasn’t overly bothered by the message or the content, but I imagine a lot of people were left unfulfilled by it. I think it put an extra emphasis on Thursday when Tom Heckert and Mike Holmgren are scheduled to speak. I am just not expecting much more than what we got from Shurmur.
On the staffing situation, I am guessing Holmgren and Heckert will re-affirm what Shurmur said about hiring a coordinator and not talk specifically about candidates other than to say, “Yes. I’ve worked with him and I have great respect for him.”
When it comes to players on the Browns roster currently they will say a lot of the same things that Pat Shurmur said about Joe Thomas and Joe Haden. They will speak glowingly about D’Qwell Jackson and Peyton Hillis who are upcoming free agents. They will most certainly stroke their egos by praising draft selections, Greg Little, Phil Taylor and most of all Jabaal Sheard.
They might speak generically about how exciting it is to have so many draft selections this year at Tom Heckert’s disposal. They might talk about how exciting all kinds of players are in the first round of the draft. Ultimately though, they will say very little.
They will talk about wanting to get better. Holmgren might even offer a barely-meant “mea culpa” for his tone and demeanor the last time he spoke to the press about Colt McCoy and the concussion situation. More than likely if anything in that realm is offered he won’t mean it at all.
My point in all this is that there won’t be a lot of juicy bits. There won’t even be anything to chew on, I don’t think. I’m not saying I have a problem with that either. It is far too early to even plant misdirection for the draft as we are still waiting for bowl games to finish and some juniors to declare or not. It is also too early to be talking in detail about free agents as many are still scheduled to be playing in the playoffs.
That’s what I expect anyway. Maybe I’m wrong and there will be some fireworks. Does anyone else expect anything else? What would you like them to discuss after a season as bad as this one turned out to be?
