Marvin Lewis on the Browns: Chudzinski and Staff Are Inheriting a Much Better Football Team

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis met with the media Friday at the NFL Combine. Before his 15 minutes were up, one of the reporters in attendance asked for his thoughts on the Cleveland Browns:

(Thoughts on the Browns) - "They are inheriting a much better football team. They’ve done a nice job over the last couple of years of the addition of guys through the draft and watching them grow. Rob (Chudzinski) has been a productive guy as a coordinator. His coordinators are experienced.

Mike Lombardi has had great experience in the NFL, Joe Banner. They have put together a group of people that have been successful and you come together and bring some ideas together. They are a much better football team than what their record showed. It was a team that was improving. In my mind they were going in the right direction. We have a tough division and have to play great football."

The thing that stood out with Lewis' remarks were how much he praised what new head coach Rob Chudzinski is inheriting. It's funny, because usually when a general manager (Tom Heckert in this case) gets fired, it's because they didn't put the right pieces in place. Now, it's up for Lombardi and Banner to build off of Heckert's work. If that happens, then the real difference maker could be Chudzinski and the talented assistants he has working underneath him.