Through all of the team's organized team activities and minicamps so far, one person who seems to have maintained a low profile is new offensive coordinator Brad Childress. That is what is to be expected of Childress this year; he is supposed to be the guy in the background who makes Pat Shurmur's job a whole heck of a lot easier. Childress' silence was broken in a two-part interview with ESPN Cleveland's Tony Grossi.
Both parts make for a very entertaining read, as Childress doesn't shy away from the questions Grossi posed to him. In the first part of the interview, Childress talked about his previous roles as an offensive coordinator and a head coach. He was asked if he had the ambition to be a head coach, and he basically said "no thanks." Childress was more excited to get back into a role that is focused on getting something specific accomplished: "It’s so refreshing for me to get back to the Xs and Os football part."
Childress also indicated that he will probably be up in the booth this year, rather than on the sidelines. "I could talk and see a bigger picture," said Childress, in reference to his experience coaching upstairs.
In the second part of the interview, the questions were more about the players he has to work with on offense and how confident he is that his unit can be turned around. This will summarize what Childress' thoughts were on the team's quarterback situation when he was first hired:
Grossi: "Were you involved in the decision to acquire another quarterback?"
Childress: "Sure. Are you on board with that? Yeah, a thousand percent. Yep."
Not even a hesitation; just the brute truth. Childress was also asked to summarize what he thought of the offense after seeing the OTA's and minicamp sessions:
"I see pieces that … what’s the old Bear Bryant thing? Everyone is useful, no one is necessary. I see a (Mohamed) Massaquoi can have a better year, just by being out here now. I think that’s a talented individual. Greg Little, when you talk about playing 91 percent of the snaps as a rookie, to me that’s like an eye-opener. That’s hard to do, and that’s double hard to do to me when you didn’t play your senior year, and to be a productive guy. I think we’ve got great competition at the running back spot. Trent (Richardson’s) record speaks for itself. But you didn’t get to see a Brandon Jackson last year, who’s had a really nice string of practices in camp here, if he can stay healthy. I see Montario Hardesty being as healthy as they tell me he’s been since he’s been here. I see (Chris) Ogbonnaya, as a backup running back, you’ve got to play special teams and be able to get in there on a snap and function without having got a whole helluva lot of turns.
"I like the tight end group. It’s an interesting group. The addition of Jordan Cameron gives you some speed, some athleticism. Kind of a different guy. Does he have to grow? Absolutely. When somebody punches him in throat, how’s he going to be?"
Remember to click the links above to read the full interview with Childress. As stated earlier, there is some good stuff in there.