Andrew Berry celebrated part of his 38th birthday by fielding draft questions from Northeast Ohio media at NFL annual meetings. (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
PALM BEACH, FL
Takeaways from Andrew Berry press availability on Day 1 of NFL annual meetings …
One of the Browns’ four options with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft is decreasing by the day.
No NFL trade from No. 2 to No. 1 has ever happened, and it appears the Browns won’t have the opportunity to be the first.
“So I guess I'd say at this point in the process, anything is possible … [but], candidly, I wouldn't necessarily see that as likely,” Browns GM Andrew Berry said on the first day of NFL annual meetings.
“Going [from] two to one is a lot different than the cost of going from 76 to 75, for instance, and you have to weigh all of that in terms of how it fits in your overall offseason plan and what else you can do in the draft. So I think that's probably why it occurs pretty infrequently.”
The only chance the Browns have of taking Miami’s Cam Ward, the unanimous top-ranked quarterback of the draft, would be if Tennessee passes on him with the first overall pick. That’s possible, but also not likely.
Strategy with No. 2 pick yet to be determined
Berry and the traveling contingent will conduct a private workout with Colorado stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter next week, and then will enter the “homestretch” of final draft plans.
(TheLandOnDemand learned separately that a workout with another player, based in the West, could be added, but the club hasn’t decided yet.)
Berry said, “We're pretty open to anything that we think can be advantageous to us” with the No. 2 pick.
He said the team will use all of its time prior to the first day of the draft on April 24 to decide what to do.
“Because you can walk a number of different paths with that pick, whether you pick a quarterback, a non-quarterback, trade up, trade down, looking at all those different scenarios and then seeing how the draft could possibly sequence from there and then ultimately how good you feel about those outcomes both in the short term and how it sets the franchise up in the longer term,” Berry said.
“There's a bunch of players that we like at the top of the draft and we continue to do our work on them, and I would say including quarterbacks. So, that's part of what next week and the next couple weeks are about, figuring all that out. The good thing is we still have time. We have a month. It's a big decision, so there's no sense in rushing it. We're going to use all the time that we have to make the best decision for the organization.”
What about moving up from No. 33?
The idea of moving into the first round and gaining a fifth-year option with a drafted quarterback won’t be motivate a trade, Berry said.
“I don't see that as being a primary driver in any decision for us this year,” he said.
In other words, they would be OK taking a quarterback at the top of the second round.
Veteran QB addition on pause
Berry said the team intends to add another veteran quarterback to join Kenny Pickett on the roster, but he appears in no hurry to do so.
Along those lines, Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins has told the Falcons he won’t consider waiving his no-trade clause until after the draft so that he can avoid being traded to a team that intends to play a rookie quarterback early.
“We will continue to build out the quarterback room, no different than the other positional rooms,” Berry said. “I'm not really necessarily too worried about [a veteran’s concern with us having the No. 2 pick]. I think each case is different.
“I'm sure there absolutely are some veterans that would be apprehensive about going to any team that has a high pick in the draft with the concerns like, ‘Hey, am I essentially going to be a placeholder for a highly drafted quarterback?’ I think that concern is very real for some veteran quarterbacks on the marketplace. That all being said, I wouldn't say that that was necessarily a driver for some of our decisions so far, but yeah, I think that dynamic definitely exists in the marketplace.”
Speaking of Cousins, Berry laughed off the story of Cousins visiting a Chipotle restaurant in Westlake on Friday.
“I wasn't there but I got a few texts,” Berry said. “It had nothing to do with the Browns.”
Browns don’t have Flacco Fever
I posed the Joe Flacco question to Berry this way:
“In 25 years of this expansion team, nobody's had more fun than during the five weeks with Flacco [running the offense in December of 2023]. So what’s the club’s hang-up with bringing back Flacco?”
He answered:
“I wouldn't go into any … specific free agent player, in terms of maybe our thinking in regards to the relative strengths or weaknesses, whether that's on field, off-field costs, things like that. We do have a pretty specific focus with our quarterback room both in the short term and long term and we'll fill it with players that we feel like fill that. And I'm sorry that that may sound a little bit vague, but I really wouldn't go into the details necessarily.”
Berry always liked Kenny Pickett
Berry disclosed that he initiated the trade with Philadelphia that brought Pickett, the former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round draft choice, to Cleveland. Pickett is the only healthy quarterback under contract.
“It was something that we sought out,” Berry said. “Kenny was actually someone that even when Philly traded for him [in 2024] it was someone that we were interested in at the right cost. Now the realism of that trade happening between us and Pittsburgh we realized was pretty remote.
“[Pickett is] a young player we spent a good amount of time with during the pre-draft process when he came out. [We] feel he's a good decision-maker, he does a really good job of protecting the ball, he's very mobile and we think that his relative strengths are something that fit well with the offense that we're putting into place for this upcoming year.
“We do think that there's a pretty credible path for him to continue to improve and take a step forward and I think you've seen that with players that they get into maybe new or sometimes maybe better environments for their particular path and their career.”
Berry likened Pickett to Jacoby Brissett, whom the Browns signed for the 2022 to serve as backup to Deshaun Watson.
“Kenny has … a similar profile but with probably a little bit more physical talent, so we're excited to work with him. He'll have a chance to compete for the job. Nothing's given in that regard and we will continue to add competition to the room, but we are looking forward to working with him.”
Brownie bits
* Berry initially declined to say if offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave joined the brain-trust at the quarterback workouts, but ultimately he conceded they did.
* Berry has not closed the door on re-signing running back Nick Chubb, who has not received any action in free agency. “I'd say that all possibilities are on the table. I wouldn't necessarily shut the door there. Obviously, it's got to be the right fit for both sides for that to occur,” he said.
* Still nothing new to report on linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. “He is progressing, which is a positive,” Berry said. “I'll be honest. It is still a little bit nebulous in terms of what that timeframe looks like. So we really are trying to deal with it week to week and month to month.”