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Browns Head Coach Eric Mangini press conference 6-12-10

(Opening statement)- “We finished up here this morning. I’m not going to have the second part of practice and that’s something that we typically have as an option, depending on how we do the throughout the whole course of the camp. I think that we had really good OTA days and I think they did a really nice job, especially yesterday and leading into this morning. This creates that opportunity for them to do something a little competitive to finish off the weekend. I thought overall, we made a lot of progress with a lot of new guys in various spots and all different types of new guys, younger guys, mid-range guys and some older guys. That’s what this time is about. It’s about laying the foundation leading into training camp and also getting to know each other, getting to know the system and all of those things are really important. Ideally, we walk away from this feeling good about it as a player and as a coach and excited about coming back to training camp. That’s where I am right now. I think we had a good set of days, a good minicamp and I really like the progress a lot of guys made.”

(On moving guys around on right side of the offensive line)- “We are going to continue to do that. We did that last year as well and I believe in it. I think that what usually happens is that those guys all play. You have your five starters and typically two guys that go to the game as backups and you don’t know which spots you’re going to need somebody at, so you want to be able to have the best combination of five when you have to put somebody in. We will continue to rotate those guys through and see how it plays out. Shawn (Lauvao) got some reps both in OTAs and this camp, with the ones, twos and threes, so he will be in that mix. He’s done a good job. He’s gotten a little bit better each time we have gone out there. He’s a smart kid, he’s stout and it’s hard really get an appreciation for that right now, but that’s what he was in college and that’s what it looks like here early. We will rotate him through and George Warhop did a nice job with his planning of how we are going to build flexibility.”

(On the focus on the passing game during the offseason workouts)- “We spent, I would imagine, the same amount of time on the passing game last year. You really have to do more of that work in these camps because you don’t have pads and the fits in the running game aren’t quite the same. You try to do some of it so the guys understand where their assignment is, but you can create a lot of collisions that way and you try to be smart about it. I think that there’s been a lot of progress in the passing game. Brian Robiskie has had an outstanding offseason. I’m really happy with what he has done. Mohamed (Massaquoi) continues to develop. I think Chansi (Stuckey) had had a really nice camp as well. You have seen some of the things with Evan Moore’s progress, Ben Watson, there are a lot of guys. I think Josh Cribbs has gotten a lot better as a receiver. He had a couple of plays the other day, when I was sitting in the offensive meeting room where some of the smaller subtleties of the position, he was doing and he knew he was doing. I forget who he brought that to their attention. It’s good to see. It’s good to see and it’s nice that all of these guys can get as many reps as they have throughout the course of this.”

(On Jake Delhomme)- “I think he’s done a great job and I feel really good about the things he has done. He’s worked with the ones throughout this time period. What I like about him, and you guys I’m sure see it as well, is just the way that he runs the offense. There’s no doubt who is in control, there’s no doubt what we are doing. If we are wrong, we are all wrong together and that’s what you want. He’s really bright. He’s really bright and you hear me talk about tools in these press conferences, the things that get you out of a bad play or that get you in to a good play. He’s used a ton of those throughout this camp, which is outstanding. I think he’s thrown the ball well, in terms of accuracy where he can place the ball away from the defender. All of those things have been good.”

(On if he could name Delhomme the starter going into training camp)- “We are heading in that direction, but we will go into training camp and see what happens. On the flip side of that, I think Seneca (Wallace) has done a really nice job as well. I feel good about where Jake is and I feel good about the work he has done with the ones.”

(On players getting a fresh start with a new team)- “It happens a lot of times in the league where a guy is in one place for a long time and then changes scenery and may blossom a little bit or may get back to his old form. Where it happens a significant amount is guys that don’t quite get it when they come in to the league. There are sometimes young guys who don’t really understand the expectations, don’t really understand what they have to do to be a pro and it takes them getting cut once and realizing, ‘Okay, this is what I have to do.” The next team benefits from the first team’s separation. With older guys, we picked up Rodney (Harrison) from San Diego. When he came in, I think it was good for him and good for us. There are a lot of guys like that.”

(On if the offense looks to Delhomme as a leader)- “Yes. There was a play today, one of the two-point plays we were practicing, and someone was chirping and he explained how it was going to work. I probably couldn’t say it in here the way he expressed it, but it was clear, it was definitive and nobody questioned it. That’s the way it should be. You come in, you get the call from the quarterback and he runs the offense. What we try to do as coaches is give them good plays and give him good options to make decisions based on what he sees at the line of scrimmage. That’s a partnership. It’s a partnership between the offensive coordinator, Brian (Daboll), and Jake and myself and Jake or Seneca or whoever it is. It’s a partnership of let’s get to the best thing and you work together at that.”

(On Brian Schaefering’s long throw at the end of practice)- “Did you see that launch he had today? There was no run up, nothing, just chuck it. He’s got a gun. Maybe we will use him for like the last play. The last play from the minus 20.”

(On players being limited in practice today)- “A lot of those guys, Mary Kay (Cabot) there may be some soreness or some tightness or things like that. What you don’t to do is press it too hard at this point and have some kind of longer term injury that they have to rehab from. We made so much progress, in terms of the football-specific stuff, whenever we are even close to thinking there could be a chance of that, we pull the guys out. A lot of it was precautionary and it was good for some other guys because they got a chance to get some of those reps that typically the person that was out would get. There’s nothing major that we had come from the camp and any of the guys that were sitting out were much more not taking a chance going into the phase of having a setback.”

(On Scott Fujita’s hand being wrapped up)- “He just had a cut yesterday. It was not too bad. Same thing, if we had a game or anything like that, he could have played. We are not taking any chances and we will let the other guys get reps.”

(On the players that have been sitting out with injuries being ready for training camp)- “Yes, I would imagine they all should be able to. Now with that being said, with injuries, we have to get there and see where they are. I’d say they are all on track and where we expect them to be. Now it’s just a function of when we get back, making sure that that’s the case and going from there. They’ve all worked good. There has been nothing to think otherwise.”

(On preliminary conclusions for Joe Haden) - “I don’t have a lot of preliminary conclusions, I’d say that I really like the way that he’s approached things. I think that the volume of information has been new. I’m not saying he didn’t have a large volume in college, it’s different. He’s done a good job and he’s been put in a lot of spots where he’s has to adjust and there’s been hiccups as well along the way. Those safeties and corners they have a lot to do. Some days it was really good and other days it was not quite as good.”

(On Delhomme knowing how to motivate his players)- “I think its starts with being comfortable in the position and he’s very comfortable in the position and the veteran quarterbacks that I have dealt with it’s different. They’ve done it. They have a track record. They’ve run a huddle. They know what’s important and those are the types of things that those guys think about. Where young quarterback he's just hoping to get everybody lined up and gets the snap count. He’s not worried about the guy’s buttons, necessarily, he’s just worried making sure the ball comes to him and he gets the right read and that’s a real plus for us.”

(On young off the radar players who stood out)- “Off the radar, I think Carlton (Mitchell) made a lot of progress throughout camp. I think (Johnathan) Haggerty has made a lot of progress throughout camp. Larry (Asante), he’s gotten a lot of work and we’ve asked a lot of him and I’d say similar to Joe (Haden) where there’s been some really good days and some days that weren’t quite the same but I do grade that on a curve because of how much they’re asked to do. Those are hard spots to play. I think Shawn’s (Lauvao) gotten better each day. The young defensive linemen, they were all working at it. It’s just hard.”

(On rookie free agents that have stood out)- “Haggerty probably has jumped the most out of that group of guys. I’m trying to think who else stands out. He’s the first one that comes to mind.”

(On if Asante did not practice today)- “Yes, he worked a little bit today.”

(On Colt McCoy getting reps with first team)- “The way the practice was set up today was we had all the special teams and the situation work and we had two move the fields which were full field move the fields so it’s started backed up and went to the goal line. There were really four team segments there and the two two-minutes so we wanted to give each quarterback a segment so Jake and Seneca took the move the field segments and Colt and Ratty (Brett Ratliff) took the two-minute segments and with Colt and Ratty what we did is last time, Ratty went with the ones and Colt went with the twos so we just swapped them and plus its good. It’s good to see what he’s going to look like operating with those guys. We’ve got some young guys in that huddle don’t get me wrong, but it’s different. They’re all used to dealing with Jake and Seneca and you have to go in and establish that you belong”

(On how McCoy handled first team reps)- “The drive I think they got us out on fourth down there. We didn’t continue it, but mechanically it looked fine.”

(On how much and what he knows about his offense)- “It’s hard to know exactly know where you are until you have a chance to play somebody else and even then you engage it week by week. What I can say is there were a lot of things I was excited about. The way that they understand what we’re trying to accomplish has been really good I think throughout the course of camp. Their ability to hear the checks and the adjustments and things like that and get to the right spot and everybody be in the right spot, I think that’s been really good. The no-huddle, that’s been positive. The shifts and motions, we had very few alignment errors. I’m pleased with the work they did throughout the spring it’s now seeing Brian Robiskie, for example, carry that over into training camp and in the games. Chansi and Evan (Moore) and Jake and (Ben) Watson and (Peyton) Hillis. There’s a lot of new names and I’m sure I left out some guys but just got to see how we can continue on that path.”

(On Evan Moore)- “He has missed a little time so we were getting him some more reps is really kind of what it was. I think we saw some of the things that he can do in the games that he had last year and he does a good job each day of practice in terms of catching the ball and some of the things he’s going to have to work on now is the blocking component and see how much he progresses in that area. I think he’s got really good hands. I think he’s a good route runner as well so that’s one element and now going to have to work on the other part.”

(On feeling more comfortable to score in the red zone this year with more experienced players)- “I hope so. That would be the goal but the experience, were still pretty young at receiver. The guy with the most experience I think is Chansi. He’s in his third year or fourth year whatever it is so we’re young there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we can’t be effective. Yes, I hope score a lot more than we did. I hope we get down there a lot more than we did to score. I’ll take scoring from anywhere. Backed up, red area.”

(On the role of Marcus Benard)- “I don’t know yet. I think one of the things that has helped Marcus is with Matt (Roth) not being here, he’s gotten a lot more reps and that’s been good for him because he’s got some chances out there that he didn’t have this time last year. I can tell you where he is now versus where he was last year at this time it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable, but he’s got a long way to go and he flashed some good things last year in the latter part of the season. Can he play play in and play out? Can he understand the whole role at outside linebacker or is he going to have to be more of a sub-guy or a package type guy? I know he wants to do as much as he possibly can and now it’s a function of how much is he going to be able to do and where does he fit. There a couple times last year, we were doing a tackling drill and he’s grabbing a facemask instead of doing it the right way and I didn’t know if he would last very long, but he did. He just gave a great speech the night of the rookie minicamp where he was talking about what it means to be a free agent and how some guys would tell him to slow down and some guys would try to get him to relax or whatever it is. He just said ‘I don’t have time to do that, I don’t have time to do that.’ He knew each day that he came here he had to put his best foot forward in order to get that next day and he did and even his presence when he spoke for the group it’s just great to see. He’s grown up a lot.”

(On why he hasn’t named Delhomme his starter)- “He’s been working with the one’s and were going to work Seneca with the one’s as well. It’s no competitive advantage I’m to keep here. It’s just both those guys are going to work with them and I want to see what happens. It’s not anything other than that, I just want to see how it goes. I really liked what he’s done though. I really have liked a lot what he’s done and I like what Seneca’s done. I just want to see a little bit more before we do that.”

(On the importance of one quarterback getting more reps than the other in training camp)- “I can tell you we have enough reps in training camp for everybody to get their fill. We really do and I’m not saying that in a condescending way. It’s just we got a lot of reps and they’re going to both need an equal amount of reps in those areas and that’s how it will be structure for the one and two. It may not be with the same group, but they’ll get the same amount of work in those areas.”

(On Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn last year)- “Yes, they got a lot of reps. Both those guys they got a ton of reps last season. Last season is last season. We’ll work with these guys and I’m happy with them and Seneca’s done a really nice job so it’s good to have this situation.”