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Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of Building Brown's Town. Very happy

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Speaker 1: to be joined by the general manager of your Cleveland Browns,

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Speaker 1: Andrew Berry. Ab good to be with you, Hey, thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me, Nate, absolute pleasure. Let's go way back

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Speaker 1: to when you broke into this business in Indianapolis the

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Speaker 1: RCA Dome for those people who remember, are going all

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Speaker 1: the way back before into Lucas Oil Stadium there. So

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Speaker 1: you kind of came in the league with a dome team.

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Speaker 1: Was that a focus? What were the advantages? What was

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Speaker 1: it like with a dome team?

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Speaker 2: So I'll say the first advantage was just, honestly, how

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Speaker 2: loud it got in an indoor stadium. Like open air

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Speaker 2: stadiums are great, there's no no disrespect to to you know,

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Speaker 2: open air stadiums, but there's something about being able to

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Speaker 2: capture the noise of you know, fifty five sixty five

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Speaker 2: seventy five thousand people, you know, on on third and ten,

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Speaker 2: you know, if we're on defense, and it makes a

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Speaker 2: huge impact. You know, opponents would come into to Lucas

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Speaker 2: Oil and talk about how loud it got playoff games,

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Speaker 2: sunny night games, and it was a real advantage for us,

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Speaker 2: especially when we had two premier pass rushers and Dwight

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Speaker 2: Freeney and Robert Mathis. You know, tackles were trying to

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Speaker 2: they were trying to get off the ball quickly. I

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Speaker 2: can think of the amount of negative plays, sacks, things

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Speaker 2: like that that you know that that volume, that loudness

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Speaker 2: had a direct impact on.

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Speaker 1: So knowing that, let's just focus on the defense side

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Speaker 1: of it, knowing that, does that change at all how

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Speaker 1: you would want to build your team Because if you

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Speaker 1: have speed, and I know every team wants speed, but

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Speaker 1: if you have speed off the edge when they have

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Speaker 1: to go on a silent count, if you can guess

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Speaker 1: that you have a chance to be there quicker than

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Speaker 1: even outdoors.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say this. You know, when we were in Indianapolis,

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Speaker 2: we were predicated on speed on both sides of the ball.

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Speaker 2: You know, we it's not that we didn't want size,

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Speaker 2: but when it comes to you know, picking through players,

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Speaker 2: when you know you're not in the top ten and

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Speaker 2: you have to pick pick through weaknesses or flaws, at

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Speaker 2: that point, we would prioritize speed over size. And you know,

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Speaker 2: with with this because always we felt like we had

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Speaker 2: a fast track. We had a you know, a generational

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Speaker 2: quarterback and on offense, you know, we were you know,

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Speaker 2: we were really a spread team that wanted to beat

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Speaker 2: it with beach it with speed, be able to throw

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Speaker 2: the ball down the field, be able to separate, be

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Speaker 2: able to play in space, and defensively, you know, we

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Speaker 2: were all about defending the passing game. You know, we

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Speaker 2: knew we would score a lot of points on offense.

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Speaker 2: And you know, Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney, at the

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Speaker 2: time they were drafted, they were not for everyone in

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Speaker 2: the league.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: Freennie was thought of as like, hey, this guy's you know,

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Speaker 2: he's too short. Robert it was like, hey, this guy's

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Speaker 2: a productive small school rusher, but he's just way too little.

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Speaker 2: But they both could really burn the edge, and we

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Speaker 2: felt like that really play to our advantage, you know,

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Speaker 2: given our home environment.

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Speaker 1: So how do you balance in that situation? Okay, our

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Speaker 1: home environment, we have these guys, but you do also

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Speaker 1: still have to go on the road, and then if

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Speaker 1: you take it to the Browns, everybody else here is

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Speaker 1: going to be playing outdoors. It is a very physical division.

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Speaker 1: So as you kind of project into the future building

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Speaker 1: this team for you know, the enclosed stadium in Huntington Makefield.

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Speaker 1: How do you kind of think of that balance.

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Speaker 2: You do want your home environment to be an advantage

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Speaker 2: because that's where you're going to play, you know, most

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Speaker 2: often over over a long period of time, and we

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Speaker 2: certainly have the ability to create that with Hunton Bank Field.

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Speaker 2: That being said, I think there are probably smaller differences

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Speaker 2: in terms of how you have to build your team

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Speaker 2: indoors versus outdoors.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: The example I give is, you know, you think about

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Speaker 2: you know, the Packers when Aaron Rodgers won the Super Bowl,

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Speaker 2: one of the hardest weather environments to play in. But

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Speaker 2: I mean they were a spread offense with you know

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Speaker 2: Greg Jettings and Jordan Nelson and Donald Driver and Michael Finley,

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Speaker 2: you know guys guys like that. Or you take the Chiefs,

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Speaker 2: you know in in in their recent stretch, I mean

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Speaker 2: they had Kelsey and Tyreek Hill. Now they have you know,

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Speaker 2: Hollywood Brown and you know Xavier Worthy and and and

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Speaker 2: Richie Rice. So as you look at teams that have

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Speaker 2: historically been in the hunt, you know, every year year

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Speaker 2: and in you're out, I think there are some carry

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Speaker 2: over principles. We just think that those characteristics that probably

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Speaker 2: lead to winning, you know, at a league wide level

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Speaker 2: can only be enhanced with you know, with the new environment.

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Speaker 1: And let's take it to the offensive site, cause I

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Speaker 1: think that's where perhaps in the passing game you get

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Speaker 1: the biggest benefit. Complete control of the environment. It is

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Speaker 1: perfect ideal conditions every single time. And I think you've

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Speaker 1: seen quarterbacks who like Drew Brees for example, look at

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Speaker 1: his indoor outdoor splits over his career. It is quite different.

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Speaker 1: But you can have a certain style of quarterback indoors

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Speaker 1: that maybe you couldn't have because think about you mentioned

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Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes of those two teams, those guys

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Speaker 1: have absolute candons. You can have kind of more of

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Speaker 1: a finesse, accurate quarterback in a dome. So from an

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Speaker 1: offensive standpoint, how does it affect what you want to do?

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Speaker 2: You know, the controlled environment is real, especially as you

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Speaker 2: get you know, later in the season, because the passing

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Speaker 2: game is so important when you get to playoff time

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Speaker 2: and high leverage moments in games, and we want that

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Speaker 2: to be to our advantage. Like you know, we've we've

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Speaker 2: we've been very clear that that you know, we're focused

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Speaker 2: on the quarterback position. We're focused on you know, winning

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Speaker 2: passing efficiency over the long run and being able to

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Speaker 2: do that in a home environment that you know that

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Speaker 2: would be conducive to doing that perhaps a little bit

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Speaker 2: more easily. You know, we think that that's something that

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Speaker 2: that that we're excited about.

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Speaker 1: As you kind of think about it in your chair, right,

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Speaker 1: is that twenty twenty nine will be our first season

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Speaker 1: in the enclosed stadium. At what point does that start

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Speaker 1: maybe altering? Is it the twenty seven draft? Is it

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Speaker 1: the twenty eight draft where you start saying, Okay, we

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Speaker 1: need to be thinking about guys, not just where we

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Speaker 1: are now, but maybe we're building for this environment and

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Speaker 1: that advantage.

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Speaker 2: I'd say it's pretty it's pretty prevalent now, you know,

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Speaker 2: even though we play in in in and outdoor environment.

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Speaker 2: You think, you know, you think of you know Buffalo

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Speaker 2: with Josh, Kansas City with you know, with with Patrick,

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati with with Joe Burrow, know, Baltimore with Lamar and

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Speaker 2: then even historically Brady up in New England, you know,

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Speaker 2: Farv and Rogers in Green Bay, Big Ben and Pittsburgh.

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Speaker 2: You know, all those all those teams had you know,

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Speaker 2: very explosive offenses with you know, with high level passing attacks,

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Speaker 2: So that wouldn't you know, that wouldn't you know change

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Speaker 2: as much. But maybe some of the characteristics at the

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Speaker 2: player level where it's like okay, hey, you know, how

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Speaker 2: how well is this player's arm strength going to play,

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Speaker 2: you know over a full season, or you know, how

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Speaker 2: will this player hold up? You know, as as as

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Speaker 2: the temperature changes and as the element changes, like there's

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Speaker 2: maybe a little bit more flexibility in that in the

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Speaker 2: in in future years. But but I would say the general,

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Speaker 2: the general principles probably stayed pretty consistent.

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Speaker 1: Is there something to be able to For example, in

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Speaker 1: our division, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh will be outdoors at least

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Speaker 1: for as long as we know. There are certainly no

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Speaker 1: plans for them not to be. To having be the

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Speaker 1: one in your four that gives you maybe some type

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Speaker 1: of advantage that yes, you need to be able to

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Speaker 1: play their soft football, but also when they come here,

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Speaker 1: it's maybe a little bit different than what they're used to.

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Speaker 2: I don't I guess I wouldn't necessarily want to overvalue

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Speaker 2: it or over oversell it, but I do think that

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Speaker 2: there is something to be said about being a little

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Speaker 2: bit different and being a little bit unique, you know,

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Speaker 2: relative to the to the you know, the teams that

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Speaker 2: you play like. We always have this phrase that styles

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Speaker 2: makes fights like you know in in our league and

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Speaker 2: you know, probably no different. This is an extreme example,

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Speaker 2: but no different than when let's say the Service Academies

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Speaker 2: you know play a power for team. It's the first

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Speaker 2: time you're you're seeing something like that over the course

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Speaker 2: of the year. That does take an adjustment in terms

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Speaker 2: of your preparation or when you see at full speed

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Speaker 2: the first time. And I certainly think that you know,

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Speaker 2: with the new stadium, it does give us, you know,

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Speaker 2: even if it's a small advantage, like these games are

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Speaker 2: one on the margins, and that's something that.

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Speaker 1: We would look forward to. Is there something as somebody

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Speaker 1: who you know, you work with your team and your

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Speaker 1: collaborative obviously with coach and everybody to construct this roster

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Speaker 1: that at least when you play in our home stadium,

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Speaker 1: when it is the enclosed stadium at Brooke Park, the

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Speaker 1: best team is likely to win. Right. There's not going

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Speaker 1: to be an outside variable that is going to change

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Speaker 1: the game. Whether but you have this great game plan

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Speaker 1: and then here comes monsoons and whatnot, and you can't

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Speaker 1: execute it that you know, at least for that week,

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Speaker 1: the game plan we put in is the game plan

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be able to execute, and if we execute

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Speaker 1: and we're the better team and have the better plan,

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Speaker 1: we're going to win.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think there's definitely a an appreciation for that,

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Speaker 2: because you know, every year we get late in the

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Speaker 2: year and it's like, Okay, this is our thought process

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Speaker 2: going in. It's probably maybe a little bit uncertain what

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Speaker 2: kickoff weather it's going to look like, or what it's

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Speaker 2: going to look like in the second half. I think

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Speaker 2: probably the perfect example is the Pittsburgh game last year

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Speaker 2: at home, where it's a beautiful, crisp night for the

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Speaker 2: first half and then all of a sudden, turns into

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Speaker 2: a snow. Yeah, it turns into a snow globe on

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Speaker 2: the field. And eliminating that that variable and that uncertainty

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Speaker 2: is something that we would view in a positive flight.

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Speaker 1: I go a couple of years when we played the

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Speaker 1: Saints late in the year and they really couldn't throw

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Speaker 1: the forward pass. If that game was played in a dome,

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Speaker 1: it is a completely different outcome. But because of the environment,

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Speaker 1: the fact they couldn't throw the forward pass was pretty

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Speaker 1: good for them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think about that game a lot. That was

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Speaker 2: that was those were probably the worst weather conditions that

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Speaker 2: I've ever ever been a part of, with the wind

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Speaker 2: and the temperature and even just the field. The field

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Speaker 2: conditions it was, I mean, it was like playing on ice,

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Speaker 2: and so to eliminate those type of games, I think.

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Speaker 1: That was the first time that the Great Jim Donovan

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Speaker 1: even contemplated closing our broadcast windows in the radio. But

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Speaker 1: because it was that was a crazy one. So as

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Speaker 1: you kind of just kind of to put kind of

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Speaker 1: a ribbon on the whole thing that there is something

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Speaker 1: that is going to be special about this the advantage

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Speaker 1: with the crowd, the noise, all of that, the perfect

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Speaker 1: environment that will in some way shape how you build

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Speaker 1: this organization, this football team going forward.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's I think that's accurate. We want

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Speaker 2: to take all those things into consideration. You know, I've

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Speaker 2: said multiple times, like I firmly leave that we're playing

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Speaker 2: paying NFL players to be athletes, not necessarily you know, gladiators,

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Speaker 2: and we want to we want to be able to

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Speaker 2: create a environment where they can show that as often

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Speaker 2: as possible, you know, without the random chance of uh,

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Speaker 2: severe elements severely impacting the game.

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Speaker 1: Oh, we certainly all look forward to it and excited

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Speaker 1: to see what the product is on the field when

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Speaker 1: we move into this beautiful stadium, which will be probably

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Speaker 1: the best stadium quite frankly, on planet Earth for a

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Speaker 1: period of time. Huntington Bakefield, Thanks a b all right,

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Speaker 1: thanks Nate,