"I think we did great," Shurmur said, via the *Akron Beacon Journal*. "I don't care what anybody says. But we obviously started off the draft by making a historic trade, probably one of the greatest trades in draft history, when we traded with Atlanta -- our sixth pick to get to (No.) 27, eventually up to (No.) 21 -- because we felt like we needed help in areas and based on the talent, based on what other teams around us were going to do and based on what we needed, we felt like that was the perfect thing to do."
The Browns packaged the 27th overall pick acquired from Atlanta with the 70th overall pick to trade up to No. 21 to draft Baylor defensive lineman Phil Taylor. They used the second-round pick (No. 59) acquired from Atlanta to pick wide receiver Greg Little from North Carolina.
Shurmur also raved about the man who is expected to be throwing footballs to Little once the NFL lockout is over, quarterback Colt McCoy, who went 2-6 in his eight starts as a rookie.
"I feel like he's got it," Shurmur said. "He makes good decisions. He's an accurate thrower. He's mobile. He's got great command of the huddle. He's a leader. He's a guy that I think can be the guy to lead our organization, so I'm looking forward to getting to work with him."
And that's the rub. Shurmur can't communicate with McCoy or the rest of his offense to begin the installation of his version of the West Coast offense.
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"I feel confident that whatever time we have, we'll get it taught," Shurmur said.
"As we know for a couple of days there [in late April], there was a time when we could visit with our players. As soon as (the lockout) was lifted, I had a quick meeting with my staff, and we got to the business of talking to everybody. We called everybody. The (players) that were in town came to the building, and then we were able to get them playbooks.
"So I was impressed by how quickly we reacted, and I think that was good. It was really good. It's fun to talk to them because there was a couple of guys that prior to the lockout that I did not have a chance to visit with much, and that was a great opportunity to get that done. So we took advantage of that for sure."
