Opening statement:
"Good evening everyone. It has been a long night as you all well know. Every draft is different as we move forward. You can see trends start running up and down. We did not get up into the first round like you guys thought we would, but we have eight picks for the next two days and we look forward to that. I think we are going to acquire some really good football players moving forward."
On if the Browns came close to making a deal to trade into the first round:
"There were about three guys we were looking at that we thought may help us. To get up to the position where they were acquired at that time, I thought the compensation was too rich to move that far. I think we are in a position now that maybe you exercise a degree of patience in this thing and just see. We will start working tomorrow. We always are going to work at this thing to see if we can get up there, but the compensation package was just too much for us as an organization."
On if he was surprised only one CB was selected in the first round:
"If you really talk to a lot of people around the league, if you talked about the cornerbacks and how they had the cornerbacks rated, I bet you would have 20 different stackings at the cornerback position this year. I think that goes with a lot of these positions, but I do think that there are some really talented football players that are going to come across this board here tomorrow and the next day."
On if the first WR selected may have occurred later due to depth at the position in this year's class:
"Yeah, but the depth, there really was not really a marquee receiver per se, but tomorrow, you will see a lot of receivers start peeling off of the board."
On if the odds that the Browns will attempt to move up in selection placing are substantial:
"That is one of those questions that it is a hypothetical. You explore those options and then you see if you can get up there at the right price, you stay patient or you even kick back. Now we can really get into the exercise of moving up and moving back. We will be actively be working the phones all day and all evening tomorrow."
On if the Browns came close in discussions to move into the first round:
"You try, but it takes two. Every time we were trying they would kind of say, 'Wait, you need to kick in a little bit more,' and I was not willing to do that."
On if Mississippi State and Titans DL Jeffery Simmons was one of the players the Browns were targeting:
"I am not going to say who the three were. I think it is inappropriate to say who the three are."
On if he takes notice to who 2019 opponents are selecting:
"No. Right now, I have not had a chance to analyze what the other teams have done per se. What I was trying to do is kind of watch the board and watch the trends unfold on the board. There were a couple of times where I would stop and listen to commentary on the TV like I never really had done in the past drafts. Then I actually walked outside and got a bite to eat and ate some dinner, and I thought that was good. Actually, I went back at about 9 p.m. and had a second meal. That was good."
On if he is aware of audio of Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill and if that may have impacted his draft evaluations today:
"I do not know the details of the specifics of that. Once I find out, we will talk about that. I do not really know the details."
On if the Browns were only interested in moving toward the end of the first round:
"Well, I called (Cardinals General Manager) Steve Keim up. I said, 'Listen, I have my second (round selection), my third and my fourth – is that enough to get up to the first pick of the draft?' I talk to a lot of guys, but seriously, I thought after right about the midpoint there, that is where you were going to probably get the guys that you had targeted."
On if anything surprised him about the first round:
"A lot of defensive linemen that went. My gosh. How many went today – 14? That is a big number. Actually, you know what else surprised me was very rarely do you see a draft – there were some (offensive) tackles still left on the board later in the process. I'm watching a center and a guard go before tackles. That was something that kind of caught me off guard a little bit."
On if he expected Florida OL Jawaan Taylor would be selected earlier:
"I did. I thought he'd go a little bit earlier."
On if the Browns can get a starting-caliber player with the No. 49 selection:
"We always would hope we can get a starter with that mid second-round pick.
On if all three players the Browns considered trading back into the first round were selected in the first round:
"Did they all get picked? We're not going to talk about those three players. No, they are all gone."
On Pittsburgh trading up and Cincinnati's and Baltimore's selections:
"I haven't really thought about it strategically from their vantage point. My mind, I'm a compartmentalized thinker. I kind of focus on the task at hand."
On if he remained grateful that WR Odell Beckham Jr. was essentially the Browns' No. 17 selection:
"I'm very happy to have Odell Beckham as the 17th pick in the 2019 Draft."
