May 22, 2013

Ryan Tannehill Meets With Cleveland, but Not With Mike Holmgren

April 23, 2012 by 40 Comments

With the NFL draft now just a few days away, one can expect to see an increase in rumors, smokescreens, hidden messages between the line, etc.

So make what you will of this news, but QB prospect Ryan Tannehill visited with the Cleveland Browns, but as he told 92.3′s Bull and the Fox, he did not meet with Browns president Mike Holmgren, supposedly due to scheduling conflicts as a result of poor weather delaying Tannehill’s visit. Does this mean the Browns aren’t serious about Tannehill, or is that reading too much into it? Only time will tell. To listen to the full interview to hear what Tannehill had to say about the visit with Cleveland, along with a host of other topics, check out the link above.

[Related: Offensive Positions Outside QB Are The Way Browns Should Go]

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  • Harv 21

    … or maybe he DID meet with Holms, and that’s the smokescreen …

    … or maybe that was a Tannehill imposter who called the show …

    Woo baby, almost time to shake these sillies out.

  • Natedawg86

    He spoke with @MikeHolmgren haha

  • David

    … this is not the QB you are looking for, move along …

  • cmm13

    you winz the interwebs.

  • MrCleaveland

    It means nothing: 50%

    It means a lot: 50%

     Like Harv said, we’re almost there. We’re under 100 hours to go. We’re all a double-digit midget.

  • Ritz

    If QB guru and team president Mike Holmgren is not there for Tannehill’s visit to Cleveland, then what the hell is he doing??

    The whole freaking point of having him run this team is to have his wisdom (especially when it comes to QBs) guide the team and his gravitas endear players. Hard to do that when you are not around.

    At best this shows a lack of commitment (barring any emergency family situation he had to deal with or something like that). At worst it means the man in charge of the Browns is not doing his job.

  • mgbode

    or, as noted, he had other football related activities scheduled for when he came in as it was delayed due to weather (implying Holmgren would have been there had Tannehill arrived when scheduled).

    also, it we likely have our decision on Tannehill regardless of this meeting.  we bring him in because if we are picking him then it’s good to do one final check.  if we are not picking him, then it’s a good smokescreen. 

  • MrCleaveland

    Mike was busy doing a radio interview with a Seattle station, during which he leaked a story that Tannehill has really shot up the Browns board.

  • Ritz

    But I have a hard time understanding what other more important football related activities there are. If the president of the team needs to reschedule a meeting here or there to meet with Tannehill I think he has the pull to do that.

    Plus it’s a pretty crappy smokescreen when the team president skips the meeting.

  • Ritz

    The Big No Show

  • Docv16

    This mean nothing,just a creation of 92.3 fm. Can’t listen anymore…….

  • hanover_fist

    People seem to forget that Heckert, not Holmgren, is the team’s GM.  Holmgren has some input, of course, but ultimately it’s Heckert who interviews the players and Heckert who makes the draft picks.  I’d be more concerned if Heckert didn’t meet Tannehill.

  • Ritz

    I agree with you – at any other position. But Holmgren knows QBs better than anyone in Berea, so while Herckert is the GM and its his draft, why not use a resource like Holmgren. I get he was busy with whatever, but this is a top-10 QB we are talking about here. Even if the Browns are 99% sure of what they will do in the draft, why not be one-hundred-million percent sure?

  • hanover_fist

    My feeling is that if Heckert isn’t capable of making his own decision on a top-10 pick then he shouldn’t be the GM.

  • Ritz

    I am not saying he can’t or shouldn’t… I am just saying why not use Holmgren’s supposed expertise as an evaluation tool?

  • hanover_fist

    I can’t see anything new or different that they could possibly learn in a 10-minute (or 4-hour) interview with Holmgren that they don’t already know from countless hours of predraft research.

  • Ritz

    Then please explain to me why teams bring players in for 2 day visits?!

  • Team Brady

    breathe.

  • Steve

     Because you can’t hold someone’s hand all the time, and sometimes you have to trust your employees to do a good job when you’re not around.

    I’m sure Holmgren has seen enough of Tannehill to make a decision on him and Shurmur and Heckert know his opinion.

  • Ritz

    Oh I am.  I am trying my hardest not to feel like this is a big deal, I really don’t want to freak out running down the street screaming over nothing. But I have this bad feeling that the man running our team is disinterested and not committed. I am sure he wants to win, just not sure how ‘all in’ he is. And that troubles me greatly.

    Yea, this incident is most likely not a big deal. But I sense a pattern.

  • NoVA Buckeye

    am i the only one who thinks colt can actually thrive with one more year? if he doesnt, THEN we can look at qbs. walrus II should be looking at his film from his sophomore year at texas and compare it to his junior year at texas, when he SHOULD HAVE WON the heisman AND the national championship. he made great progress despite depleted talent from the year before (and won more games)

  • mgbode

    i don’t like comparing college with the NFL.   i think Colt ‘can’ take the job still and pull a Drew Brees.  i don’t think he showed enough to not have a challenger for that spot though.

    fortunately for him, there were only 2 surefire challengers in the draft and we didn’t get in position for them (and I think the Skins paid too much – just noting). 

    Osweiler, Foles, Coleman or Lindley give him the start of the year and possibly the whole year to prove Colt can hang in the NFL.  Let’s see what he does.

  • Ritz

    I get that… But why not just be there for the meeting. Its not going to hurt and it might help.

    I mean if this is not what Holmgren does, then what the hell does he do exactly??

  • The_Matt_Of_Akron

     No one from outside of NEO, regardless of their paycheck, could ever be as “all-in” as we are.

  • The_Matt_Of_Akron

      Maybe no one in Berea thinks he is a top-10 pick….

  • Ritz

    Very true… I just expect the team president to be fully invested. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Things like this make that less clear.

  • Ritz

    Then why bring him in for a visit? Because its a smokescreen. Is it an effective smokescreen if Holmgren is not there and it’s obvious to you the Browns don’t think he is a top 10 pick? No. So then nothing was accomplished.

  • Jim Brown

        When Mike Holmgren claims that Colt McCoy is his guy, I believe
    him as much as people believed John Elway when he stated, matter of
    factly, that Tim Tebow was his guy and he was going to stick with
    him…lol.   Colt McCoy is what the Cleveland Browns are stuck with,
    until the Browns management is able to get an NFL caliber quarterback
    for their team.  What do you get when you put the best NFL line and the
    best receiving corps together with Colt McCoy, that’s easy…a losing
    NFL football team.  It’s not rocket science, and no matter what spin
    Mike Holmgren puts on it, when he tells himself the truth, he knows
    that currently the Cleveland Browns don’t have a single NFL caliber
    quarterback on their team and he knows it.      To give you a
    perspective here, Tim Tebow is a 5 times better NFL caliber quarterback
    than any quarterback currently on the Cleveland Browns roster!!!! 
    That fact is pretty sad when you sit down and think about it, and it
    clearly shows how bad the Cleveland management has done the past
    several years!

  • Jim Brown

        When Mike Holmgren claims that Colt McCoy is his guy, I believe
    him as much as people believed John Elway when he stated, matter of
    factly, that Tim Tebow was his guy and he was going to stick with
    him…lol.   Colt McCoy is what the Cleveland Browns are stuck with,
    until the Browns management is able to get an NFL caliber quarterback
    for their team.  What do you get when you put the best NFL line and the
    best receiving corps together with Colt McCoy, that’s easy…a losing
    NFL football team.  It’s not rocket science, and no matter what spin
    Mike Holmgren puts on it, when he tells himself the truth, he knows
    that currently the Cleveland Browns don’t have a single NFL caliber
    quarterback on their team and he knows it.      To give you a
    perspective here, Tim Tebow is a 5 times better NFL caliber quarterback
    than any quarterback currently on the Cleveland Browns roster!!!! 
    That fact is pretty sad when you sit down and think about it, and it
    clearly shows how bad the Cleveland management has done the past
    several years!

  • http://www.cinpleweb.com/ stin4u

    I love the outrage expressed by some about Holmgren not being present for this. Generally speaking, those people were in the “YOU CAN’T DRAFT TANNEHILL AT FOUR!#$#$@!” group. And, now that Holmgren is mentioned in a story about him, the outrage flies that he wasn’t present during the visit.

    It’s called being bitter because you like the taste.

  • Steve

     Holmgren’s job is not the coach or GM. He’s not here to coach up guys or pick the roster. As the president, he’s here to pick the right guys to run the team and set the organizational culture. If Holmgren is doing his job right, then shouldn’t have to be meeting potential draft picks. The CEO doesn’t do job interviews.

  • Ritz

    Because a two day meeting with a potential draft pick at QB is the same as a job interview…

    OK so he picked the GM and coach. How exactly is the ‘setting the organizational culture?’ What does that entail and what exactly does he do? It seems to me very little.

  • mgbode

    “That fact”

    pretty sure that is your opinion and not a fact.  also, if our FO felt that way, then we easily could have have Mr. Tebow on our team as the price of attaining was not that high.

  • mgbode

    He’s a people person.

  • mgbode

    sorry, couldn’t resist the obvious.  Holmgren’s job is to oversee the entire team that includes everything from Nance and the legal team, the football operations, the business operations, and his role was expanded to represent the team at all owner functions and he has mentioned being involved in some other Lerner ventures such as expanding the waterfront usage.   I have a feeling Holmgren keeps quite busy in his daily ventures.

  • BenRM

    Common response for the “I Hate Everything this Front Office Does” crew: Yay, another chance for me to voice my repetitive opinions!

    Common response for the “Everyone Else” crew: Yay, this means we won’t be drafting Ryan Tannehill!

  • Steve

     It may not be exactly the same but its pretty close. They like Tannehill enough to bring him in and ask him questions. Isn’t that a job interview?

  • Ritz

    I agree that’s all correct. But he is a football guy, a QB guy. He was planning to go to the meeting. I just don’t see how anything else in his job is more important.

  • Ritz

    Sure but I would say that it’s an interview for the most important position in the entire sport. Not a basic interview. This is a HUGE decision.

  • Ritz

    Because it’s impossible for someone to look at each situation individually. For example, I like Heckert, that was a good hire. I think Shurmur is a bad coach. I see a disturbing pattern with Holmgren. It’s not as simple as either/or.