D.A.: 'This is where I want to be'

02.29.2008

He might've just signed a new multi-million dollar contract, but Derek Anderson appears to be the same old Derek Anderson.

When asked how he'll celebrate the signing of his new contract, he simply said he'd be playing golf with some friends and going to a friend's birthday party.

"Nothing crazy," he said.

During a conference call with the Cleveland media Friday night he was asked how it felt to be a millionaire.

"Oh, it's not like that," he said. "It's good to get things taken care of and know I'm coming back and we can improve on what we did last season."

The Browns quarterback agreed to terms on a three-year contract with the team Friday in a deal that will keep him with the club through the 2010 season.

Anderson said Cleveland is where he wanted to be all along.

"Yesterday I talked to my agent and I said, 'This is where I want to be and let's make sure we do the right things to get that taken care of,'" he said.

Anderson has good reason to want to be in Cleveland. The Browns picked him up off waivers in 2005 after the team that drafted him in the sixth round, the Baltimore Ravens, released him.

Anderson didn't play in 2005 and appeared in five games in '06 before earning the Browns' starting quarterback role midway through the season opener in '07.

He started 15 games for the club in '07 and led the team to a 10-5 record as a starter, nearly guiding the club to the playoffs.

"The season we had was awesome. Patience is the biggest thing," he said. "I stayed patient and when I got my chance I was ready to go."

General Manager Phil Savage said Friday that the deal he signed suggests Anderson will have a leg up on the starting job over Brady Quinn, giving him his first full offseason to prepare as the team's starter.

"Through the spring and into camp it's going to be good," Anderson said. "There'll be giant steps from the year before and we'll grow within the offense. It'll be huge for us.

"Obviously we have a lot to accomplish still and I want to be a part of it."

Anderson admitted teams began to defend him and the Browns offense differently towards the latter portions of the '07 season once it became apparent that the offense had the ability to put up large amounts of points.

He said he thinks the array of weapons the offense still has will go far in preventing teams from cracking down too hard.

"It happened towards the end of the season," he said. "We were making big plays in the pass game and teams were aware of that and defended us differently but we have all those weapons and we have Jamal back and I think we can keep doing (having success)."

For the time being, the club will continue to have two young, capable quarterbacks on the roster. Savage insisted Friday that both Anderson and Quinn will be on the team through the 2008 season -- and, for that matter, as long as they can hold onto both.

"To go into the season with only one quarterback and being an injury away from our whole season being derailed like you see every year in the NFL, I didn't want to put our organization at that risk," he said. "I explained it to our owner. The coaches understand that. The personnel staff understands that.

"We're going to have both quarterbacks as long as we can keep them and then we're going to pick one of them. The Cleveland Browns are going to be quarterbacked by one or the other -- either Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn -- for a long time."