Phil Savage Quotations

We are pleased to have Andra back. We feel he is a key piece in our defense and will continue to be as we build toward the future.

We felt like we made a lot of strides and are beginning to put some things in place that are going to help us become a winning team. We know we have a long way to go. Being in a tough division with Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati will elevate our play and elevate our standards. In order for us to compete in our own division, we're going to have to get a lot better and a lot quicker.

We've spent a lot of time with Jay Cutler. We feel comfortable with him.

Since the very first time I saw Gary at Baylor, I loved the fact that he was big, tough, fast and he could hit. He's also very versatile, and can play corner and even safety if needed. He brings a football temperament and mentality we like and has developed into the consummate professional.

If Bobby Carpenter had been at one spot during his career, he might have had more production. He's not quite as productive as A.J., but when they walk into a room together, you're more impressed with Carpenter in terms of the way he looks.

If those players were still here performing and producing, I wouldn't be here. But those errors were made, and that's a situation we have to get fixed.

If we move two or three spots, that would be one thing, but I can't see us moving into the top five. One of those players would really have to fall out of it and end up at No. 9 or 10.

If something like that happened, then I certainly appreciate it. I do think we make a good partnership.

He is a very solid player on the field and equally as dependable off of it. He is the true epitome of a professional football player.

He doesn't make a lot of racket. It's not like they're going to be there forever.

He may ultimately be the safest pick in the draft. This guy's a football player. I suspect he'll go very early, and the team that gets him will be fortunate.

We can capitalize on the feeling that people have about the Browns with a solid draft.

Happy New Year. I've really got nothing to say.

He seemed like a class A-type of kid. You can tell he's kind of a power-packed body type. I think the question for us is where does he fit in a 3-4 defense? You don't know if he's an outside 'backer, an end, an inside 'backer or a pass rusher.

He's athletic enough he could play another position other than nose. He could play end for us.

He's going to be a very good left tackle in this league. He might be a dominating pass protector, but he has some room to improve in the run-blocking area.

He is the newest and maybe most critical Brown we've added in the last four days.

I think the comfort level would be five, six, seven spots. I don't think you'd want to go much further than that. If we have three or four players we still really like, we could move back to 16 and still get one of them.

I think that's part of the criticism the previous group had taken. They didn't acknowledge that Ohio football's pretty good.

Our intent from the beginning was to combine free agency with the draft to make us a better team for 2006 and hopefully beyond that.

Reggie has a lot of talent. In my opinion, with Reggie Bush, more could be less and less could be more.

I think he can move over and play the left side, but that's something we'll have to determine this spring. But I think he'll be able to do that.

I'm still general manager of the Browns. We won and I'm excited about that.

We've tried from the outset to show there's a step-by-step process to all of this. If you're in a swimming pool and the water's over your head, you're reaching with your toes to find bottom before you can push yourself up to the surface. I think at this juncture, we feel like we've certainly found bottom and now everything's in front of us.

Miami this year had an incredible team down there, ... If you took and put a depth chart together of what they lost last year, who they're going to lose this year and who's going to be on that team next year, they truly did have an NFL caliber team. There's no two ways about that.

Who knows? I just know that he's a very big human being.

We just want to make sure we're putting the foundation in place. But a lot of the veterans we have now, while they are critical to the development of our team, they want to win now. They don't just want to be babysitters.

You have to figure out a way to use them. They may have to be complementary guys.

Willie may be the most critical Brown we've added in the last five days. He has leadership presence and professionalism. He brings a tremendous amount of credibility to our team.

Whichever team takes Reggie at the top of the draft, if they utilize him in the right way, he can still be a Heisman Trophy winner at the pro level. Even if he's only touching the ball 10 or 15 times a game. ... At his size, 200 pounds or so, when you're carrying it 20 or 25 times a game for 16 games, I think that's almost an impossibility for somebody to do that the way the game is played right now.

We have some problems, and we're trying to get them fixed. You can't fix them all at once, but we're making progress.

We had him rated high up there because of his athletic and football ability. But that's the cherry on top, that he is such a good person. He's an absolute A-class, first-rate person.

We have a group of linebackers now and we will sort through them and see which ones serve us best.

To make a quantum leap from No. 12 to four or five, you are giving away your draft. Plus, the money is so great up there in that top five or six. I don't think we want to go down that path again. We did that last summer and we don't want to go back to it again.

We know there are going to be some bumps in the road. I'd like us to be a hungry team, one that makes the other team earn whatever it gets. Hopefully, we can position ourselves to steal some games.

We got the deal done in about 15 minutes. He really wanted to play here.

We have a veteran line in terms of guys playing in the league, but at some point in time it's an area that has to be addressed with younger players. I'd love for us to be able to draft somebody of significance for the offensive line. I think it would be a step in the right direction. That's something that we would certainly consider. It may or may not happen.

When you're carrying it 20 or 25 times a game for 16 games, I think that's almost impossible for somebody (his size) to do.

There are other ways to get up there to get him.

We definitely want that first pick to solve one need.

We definitely wanted to make this happen. We feel like we've made a real nice statement to the rest of the league and to our fans that, hey, we're serious about wanting to win.

We definitely wanted to make this happen today.

We do feel like we'll be active this year if certain players are available. If they all disappear on us, obviously we'll have to go to Plan B, Plan C and Plan D. And we'll be fairly disappointed if we're not able to make a couple moves pretty early.

There is a lot of misinformation out there at this time of year. Certain teams probably operate where they don't tell the truth. Others teams just say what it is. We probably fall somewhere in between.

We talked to him, visited with him. We felt good about it. It was positive and we're going to go through these next few weeks and see where we are and talk to him and talk to his agent about some ideas that we may have.

We felt this decision was in the best interest of both the Browns and Ross.

We feel like parts of free agency match up with what we need. Hopefully we'll get enough Plan A's and B's that we'll be better next year and we'll give Romeo and the coaches a better opportunity to coach more top-line athletes and better players and we'll be much more improved a year from now.

You don?t win the Super Bowl in March, but you certainly prepare to win. These are three additions that will improve our team and make us better. So it?s exciting here in March, but what really matters is what happens on the first snap in September.

We are anxious to give him the opportunity to have a focused off-season where he can emerge as a leader on offence.

We could pick him, we could pass him or we could wait for the phone to ring.

Either they run real fast and can't catch or they can catch, but run slow. Or there was some medical issue or character issue. A lot of times, the second round in general is a hit or miss type of round regardless of position. I do think receiver is a position where you see a number of misses in there.

At this level, it's hard to change some things throwing the ball. You can talk about using your body and your legs, but it's different when you're talking about throwing motion. ... If you care what happens when the ball leaves his hand and gets to a receiver, it's not an issue. If you care about what happens before, then it will be an issue.

There's so much emphasis placed on the combine. The main two things for us are our doctors and we can have interaction with the players. We can formally interview 60 players.

There's going to be some growing pains. But I think we'll be a hungry team. We'll make people earn the win and hopefully position ourselves to steal a couple of games.

These fans already have had their hearts broken twice. They're just looking to grasp on to something positive about the Browns. Hopefully we're going to give it to them in due time, because we really got nowhere to go but up.

Some were wondering if he could get above 300 pounds so this probably solidified him right at the top.

Ted defies logic, and he defies age. You can take any film from last year and watch it. He can still get the job done. He's not just huge, he can still move.

People recognized he clearly had the team on his back and he seemed not to flinch in that situation, Some of the decisions he made, the throws he made and the overall leadership you look for in a quarterback is what I saw. You felt like he was able to excel in all those areas.

Orlando fits the 3-4. He's a physical, inside backer. We felt we needed a guy who had more bulk. He worked out and we said we'd give him a shot.

That's going to be the question on him - can he do it on a down-to-down basis? But he's so massive. He's a very big guy that can be a very physical force.

That's four guys who can play in this league.

This is an area we talked about constantly since we got here last year, and that was to try to build a run defense and improve our run defense. The guy we've signed is one of the all-time great nose tackles.

Almost every player is a projection in the 3-4 defense.

A lot of people put stock in 40-yard dash times. If you go back and research it and pull out Ray Lewis' numbers, you will see that they are extremely close. Almost identical. I'm not saying this kid is Ray Lewis, but I'm saying he has some of those same type qualities and same type of demeanor.

You don't want to get caught with your pants down in the draft.

There's a position or two where we might try and fake it for another year and do a combination of players at one spot. That could easily happen.

It's a real nice statement from the Browns to the rest of the league and our fans that we're serious about wanting to win. And we want players who want to be here.

It's one of your impact positions, that left tackle spot. In our eyes it's almost a skill position in terms of the abilities it takes to play out there.

It's the meat and potatoes of scouting for a 3-4 defense.

It's kind of like Christmas. It's on Dec. 25 and then all of a sudden they say, no, it's Jan. 3 this year. A hurry-to-wait type scenario.

That's something we have our eyes on. It's something we're tracking. We're going to see if we can get through this week and next week and if we can get back to full strength. The secondary looked like it was one of our deeper positions coming into this thing. It has obviously taken a turn.

The thing is, all these figures, it's like paying $6 for McDonald's hamburgers for the rest of us. It's at a whole different level.

A running back, you can put him in the game and he's going to be running a lead or a toss, and it's basically the same thing he's been doing his whole life,

Anytime you give up a future No. 1, it really takes away from the following year.

If we can compete with the three teams in our division, we can compete with the other teams in the league.

If you have a tight end that can get down the middle, then defenses have got to close the middle. When they do that, your outside receivers are one-on-one. It takes away some of the pressure. The other aspect is that if you have a good tight end, generally the quarterback knows where he is and when he gets into trouble he's got a place to go with the ball. That's the big value.

In my opinion, with Reggie Bush, maybe it's a case that less is more and more could be less. He can still be a Heisman Trophy winner at the pro level even touching the ball 15 times a game.

In my opinion, there's a lost generation of Browns fans out there. They haven't enjoyed the feel-good atmosphere of having a quality, winning product. That is really our objective.

In my opinion, there's a lost generation of Browns fans out there,

If he's there at No. 12, we'll turn that one in. I don't think he's going to be there.

He's not a cookie-cutter receiver. He's a little different, and that's one thing I admire about what Pittsburgh has done. They've taken a Randle El and a Hines Ward and have known what to do with those guys. They've been creative.

I call it silly season. You never know what's true and what's false.

I came to Cleveland because of my belief in Randy Lerner, his integrity and his commitment to making the Cleveland Browns a championship team. I am excited about continuing as GM and am more committed than ever to this franchise and to helping the organization bring the Browns fans a winner.

I don?t necessarily think it affects (his status). I think it just leaves the sentence open-ended, to a degree.

He brings a tremendous amount of credibility to our team.

He adds a lot because he's been here the whole time the Browns have been back. We hopefully won't repeat the same mistakes that have been made in the past. Steve serves as a reminder of what some of those were. He's been a really valuable resource.

For the most part, he played adequately. He's an NFL left tackle.