<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=yspsctnhdln>Savage knows needs remain</TD></TR><TR><TD height=7><SPACER type="block" width="1" height="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>By Patrick McManamon, Beacon Journal staff writer
BEREA - The Browns added intelligence and athleticism on day two of the NFL Draft -- but Phil Savage admitted that he couldn't fill out the team's wish list. "Our list was more than the number of picks we had," Savage said Sunday after concluding his first draft as the Browns' general manager.
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The Browns completed their draft by adding a sixth-round pick via the trade of quarterback
Luke McCown to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They selected cornerback
Antonio Perkins of Oklahoma (round four), linebackers
David McMillan of Kansas (round five) and
Nick Speegle of New Mexico (six), defensive lineman
Andrew Hoffman of Virginia (six) and offensive lineman Jonathan Dunn of Virginia Tech (seven).
The draft overall added a receiver expected to be an impact player, two defensive backs projected as 2005 special-teamers, a young quarterback and late-round picks whose contributions would be a bonus.
What kind of team does that leave the Browns as they start talking to undrafted players?
"We'll do our best to be competitive," Savage said. "Go out and put a team on the field that will work hard, play hard, do what the coaches ask, play within the scheme. My hope as a team -- I haven't mentioned this to Romeo but I'm sure he agrees -- is we want to be a team that people have to work to beat us.
"We don't want to give it away. We want to make people work hard to beat us. I think we can do that this year. We want to make people really strain to have to beat us."
That's a realistic appraisal given where Savage and coach Romeo Crennel were starting when they took over a 4-12 team.
And it's a realistic appraisal given what the Browns have as they head toward two off-season minicamps.
The offense gained a playmaker -- Crennel still cautioned that wide receiver
Braylon Edwards will have to "earn it" -- but questions remain about the team's defensive front seven.
"I think the difference between the offense and the defense is the fact that defensively you're transitioning from a four-three to a three-four," Crennel said. "That's the major issue. The other issue, I think, is that the guys we have on the defensive side of the ball, many of you haven't seen what they can do yet....
"You haven't seen them and you don't know what we've got. I don't either, as a matter of fact."
The second-day rundown includes:
• Perkins, a cornerback who set an NCAA record by returning eight punts for touchdowns. In a 2003 game against UCLA, Perkins had 277 yards in punt returns. He was once timed at 4.31 in the 40-yard dash and was a standout receiver in high school.
Perkins missed four games last season due to ankle and knee injuries, and some draft observers think that he could have been a second-round pick had he stayed healthy.
"I think he was valued as a first-day guy," Savage said. "That's what we were looking for on day two."
• McMillan, who played defensive end at Kansas but will move to linebacker with the Browns. He has a combination of size (262 pounds) and speed that Crennel likes.
McMillan had seven sacks as a senior and 15 in 46 games with the Jayhawks.
"He might be able to give us something as a rookie as a pass rusher -- if nothing else -- while he's learning how to play outside linebacker," Savage said.
Savage said the Browns would have taken McMillan in the fourth round had Perkins already been drafted.
• Speegle, a four-year starter for New Mexico and a 2004 team captain. Speegle stands 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, and he graduated in May 2004 with a 3.97 grade-point average. He also was rewarded for his work in the community by the American Football Coaches Association.
"He's a versatile player who plays behind the line of scrimmage, on the line of scrimmage, he can blitz through the line of scrimmage and he also rushed off the edge," Crennel said, adding Speegle is "a developmental type of guy."
• Hoffman, a nose tackle at Virginia, who fills a position of need for the Browns.
"He'll be a guy who will be in the mix in terms of trying to get some playing time," player personnel director Bill Rees said. "He'll hustle, he'll play tough and he'll play wherever you need him to play."
• Dunn, a 6-7 and 328 pounder who mainly played right tackle at Virginia Tech. The Browns do not hide the fact that their last-round pick needs time to grow.
"We felt like in the seventh round that (Dunn) would be a worthwhile project at the tackle position," Savage said.
Savage said he had a list of 20 players whom he favored on the first day, and the three players chosen were on the list. On day two, he had a list of 25 players, and the five players taken were on that list.
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