Phil Savage (On free agency)- “We are working on some free agents now. We’ll probably sign anywhere from 10 to 15 players. We will have a rookie mini-camp next weekend. We probably won’t release any of that information until they are here on site with our team.”

(On the overall draft)- “All-in-all, I think we had a very successful draft. It was very solid the whole way through. Every team stacks their board differently. After the first 40 or 50 picks, teams start going all over the place. I’m sure people will look at our picks and asking why we picked certain players. For us, all of our picks make sense. They give us an opportunity to get better. I think we are pleased with some of the decisions we were able to turn over. The front seven was going to be such a focus of ours. If you go from left to right, you have Willie McGinest, Ted Washington, Oshinowo, Kamerion Wimbley, Leon Williams, D’Qwell Jackson and we have Orpheus (Roye) back. I think our front seven at least has the potential to turn the corner from where we were last year.”

Romeo Crennel (On the overall draft)- “After going through the second draft, we were able to identify things going into the draft. Coming out of it, I think we are pretty satisfied with the guys we added on the team. Not only are they good football players, they address some of the needs that we identified after this past season was over. The first draft, we were kind of shooting in the dark. We really didn’t know exactly what we needed and we were trying to take the best athletes we could take to put into the defensive and offensive schemes. We were able to identify our needs this time and as I look at the draft, we addressed those needs and acquired some players that I think will help us do some of the things we need them to do to make this team better. Overall, I feel good about this draft. Now, we have to get them in here and out to the football field. They have to prove why we drafted them on the football field. If they can do that, we will definitely improve.”

(On creating competition on the roster)- “Overall, there is a lot more competition this year. Like I said, last year we didn’t know what the needs were. We didn’t know the players and what they were capable of. After this season, we were able to identify players we liked, some areas of need and through free agency and the draft, we have been able to address those areas. Addressing those areas provides competition.”

 CLEVELAND BROWNS 2006 DRAFT CHOICES

Rd.   Overall    Name                            College              Pos.              Ht.       Wt.

1.      13             Kamerion Wimbley         Florida State         DE/LB          6-3       245

                          (KAM-eron WIM-blee)

2.      34             D’Qwell Jackson            Maryland             LB                6-0       228

                          (dee-KWELL)

3.      78             Travis Wilson                 Oklahoma            WR               6-1       213

4a.     110           Leon Williams                 Miami (Fla.)         LB                6-2       238

4b.     112           Isaac Sowells                 Indiana                OL                6-3       324

                          (Souls)

5a.     145           Jerome Harrison             Washington St.     RB                5-9       199

5b.     152           Demario Minter              Georgia                DB                5-11      190

6a.     180           Lawrence Vickers          Colorado              FB                 6-0       233

6b.     181           Babatunde Oshinowo      Stanford               NT                6-1       302

                          (ba-ba-TOON-day

                          Oh-shi-no-who)

7.      222           Justin Hamilton               Virginia Tech       S                   6-3       217   

Phil Savage (On possibly dealing for Joey Harrington)- “They were out there trying to sell Joey Harrington. The call was made to see what they are looking for. He’s a former No. 1 pick. We’ve seen quarterbacks come through this league. They cycle through one time and the second time they are better wherever they land. I guess Miami has a future pick on the table in a later round. I thought we would call to see what it is. Harrington is headed to Miami so, it’s a dead issue.”

Romeo Crennel (On facing the quarterback issue)- “I think it’s only a challenge because you guys make it a challenge. You seem to keep throwing that ball up in the air, trying to get me to hit on that. I keep missing. Right now, I have a veteran quarterback in Trent Dilfer and a rookie quarterback in Charlie Frye. Both of them played in games last year. I haven’t decided who the starter is going to be yet so, I’m going to go into the offseason, mini-camp and maybe even training camp before naming a starter. I might name a starter before then. Whenever I feel the time is right to name a starter, I’ll name a starter.”

(On Trent Dilfer participating in the offseason program)- “He’s been rehabbing. He comes over every day to rehab. He hasn’t gotten into the offseason program yet with the lifting and running. He’s almost my age so I don’t want to stress him too much.”

(On expecting Trent Dilfer to participate in the veteran mini-camp)- “Of course. I think he’ll be able to do something. His rehab has been coming along well. I don’t think there are any setbacks that they have told me about. I anticipate that he will be able to go out there and do something.”

Phil Savage (On the draft picks)- “I feel like we made contact on all of the guys to be honest. I think we feel good about Leon Williams and his potential. We feel good about (Isaac Sowells) and we had Jerome Harrison rated up there pretty high. DeMario Minter has played a lot of football in the Southeastern Conference. (Baba) Oshinowo is a guy who we tracked all the way through the season because he was a nose tackle. We knew it was going to be a need for us. Lawrence Vickers was a player we saw in the bowl game and we were impressed with him. The first nine picks have all played major college football and have been on a big stage. Justin Hamilton has probably got the least experience of all of those guys but, he gave all of the signals at Virginia Tech with a good group of players.”

Romeo Crennel (On how much better the team is on defense)- “I think we are a little better just because we addressed the pass rush area, the defensive line area and addressed the linebacker area. That was one area where we were really light. We added some guys there. I think we are a little better on paper. You have to take it from the paper and put it on the field. That’s where the real test comes in.”

Phil Savage (On picking a receiver in round three even if Braylon Edwards wasn’t hurt)- “I think we would have. We thought Travis Wilson was a high-round talent where he was available. He went through a tough season this year. They were coming off Jason White and going to a new quarterback. Mark Clayton had graduated and the other two receivers made it in the league last year. There was a lot of talent there in 2004 and he benefited from it. This year, he became the focus with a rookie quarterback and a struggling offense. Then he got hurt so his numbers were down. You saw him. He’s an impressive guy physically. With Joe Jurevicus being older and Dennis Northcutt being a punt returner and having his role, I thought it was a good choice for us.”

(On how many of the 140 players were left on the draft board)- “We ended up with six to eight guys. It’s not over with yet so it might get down to two or three at the end. The sand is almost out of the hour glass.”

(On what pick he is happiest with for the value)- “I think Jerome Harrison was one. He ended up coming to us in the fifth round. Probably (Baba) Oshinowo in the sixth round. Both of those guys, at least through the meeting process were ranked higher for us than where they went in the draft.”

Romeo Crennel (On the agreement in the war room before a pick is made)- “There are too many people in the room to completely agree. Everybody has a different opinion. Not everybody has seen every player that you are comparing with. You have to stand on the scouting area that the player belongs in. You have to listen to that scout a little more and weight those thoughts. The thing that I mentioned last year about this draft is that the preparation that goes into it before hand makes it much easier on draft day.”

Phil Savage (On the agreement in the war room before a pick is made)- “We literally could go into the draft room with one sheet of paper, which is our ranking that we work on continuously all the way through. We were working on it this morning before we went.”

Romeo Crennel (On D’Qwell Jackson and Kamerion Wimbley)- “We have to take a look at their overall abilities and see how they are going to fit. D’Qwell was more of a bubble linebacker like I had mentioned. He didn’t have much pass coverage so we’ll see how he does.”

(On every having two rookies start for him)- “Not that I can recall. I’m not going to say never.”

(On his position playing rookies)- “If they prove they can win the job, they will play. If they don’t win the job, they sit with me for a while.”

(On talking with Joey Harrington)- “I had a phone message conversation with Joey. I didn’t speak with him directly.”

Phil Savage (On coming close to taking an Ohio State player)- “They had a lot of players on our board. The one that got the closest was Ashton Youboty who went off the board in the third round. We were a little surprised to see him go there. There is a player who probably would have been better served going back. For every example you can name where they should come out, there is one where they should have come back.”

(On possibly trading to get A.J. Hawk)- “We talked about it a lot this past week. I called Green Bay several times but, they were pretty content to stay there and pick. The same with San Francisco. In case, Green Bay would have taken Vernon Davis, we would have talked to the Niners about it. Most teams seemed very reluctant to move up.”

(On any interest for Lee Suggs and William Green)- “Not so much. Every now and then, the phone will ring and people will inquire about players.”

(On the ownership being happy with the trade involving Jeff Faine)- “I think so. That represented third round value and we seemed to think that would have been a good pick for us to have gotten from another team. I think Randy (Lerner) was satisfied with that. In light of some of the other first rounders the Browns have had, to get a third round pick several years later probably is pretty good.”

(On how tired he is from the draft process)- “I’ve already started to go into decompression mode. It’s been two months of constant talk. It never leaves your mind and you always think about one player or another. Quite frankly, I’m glad it’s over.”

(On the free agency period)- “There are certain players that fit a few of our needs. We are going to have 40 free agents come in here. We’re only going to have probably 10 to 20 guys. We can be a little bit more selective. If there is a local guy, we try to be more selective. We try to capitalize on that prior to the draft.”