BOCA RATON, Fla. -- If we know one thing about the Browns this offseason, the team is spreading a wide net in search of a savior under center.
Cleveland is expected by many to select a passer with the No. 2 overall pick, but the franchise's hunt also extends to veteran options, with the Browns still a candidate to trade for San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick or even sign former Redskins signal-caller Robert Griffin III.
New coach Hue Jackson has opinions on all these players, calling Griffin, who visited the Browns on Friday and Saturday, a "very talented" performer.
"It was a great meeting. I think he's obviously a tremendous talent and a great young man," Jackson told NFL Media's Steve Wyche. "He had a lot of success early in Washington and then things just didn't work out. Those things happen in the National Football League. But at the same time we are going through our process. We are going to be very diligent in what we are doing -- trying to make sure that we put the right quarterbacks on our football team and in that quarterback room. And that's one of my biggest responsibilities and also one of our organization's biggest responsibilities."
On the stalled talks for Kaepernick, Jackson told Wyche: "I can't comment on players on other teams. But it is where it is and eventually I think all those things will show itself."
The Browns will also have their choice of either Cal's Jared Goff or North Dakota State's Carson Wentz when they go on the clock next month at No. 2. Jackson has committed to personally attending the pro day of all the top arms in this year's draft, but emphasized again on Sunday that "we may draft a quarterback and we may not."
If they do pick a rookie passer, the Browns might be wise to red-shirt him until this team-building process led by executive VP of football operations Sashi Brown enters its next stage.
Jackson, though, wants nothing to do with calling this latest chapter in Cleveland a rebuilding effort. He emphasized to Wyche that it's closer to a Browns "reboot," which is fair because, from another angle, there was nothing to rebuild.
"We wanted to keep every last one of the players that left if we could. But there's also a price in doing that," Jackson said. "They have a right to exercise their option to go. So it's not like we did not want them back. I mean they have to want to be back as well. And it just didn't work out. So at the end of the day, I know it looks to a lot of people like it's a rebuild. You can call it a reboot. You can call it whatever you'd like. But I do know this much, that we are doing what we know we need to do in order to have a sustainable football team for years to come."
You can catch more of Steve Wyche's interview with Hue Jackson on Monday's edition of NFL HQ.
