By Mary Kay Cabot, The Plain Dealer
BEREA, Ohio — Browns new CEO Joe Banner, in a wide-ranging interview with The Plain Dealer on Thursday, acknowledged that he and new owner Jimmy Haslam must decide by the end of the season if Brandon Weeden is their quarterback of the future. 
"It's right to put Brandon on the list of important things we have to figure out and we have seven games left to do that," Banner said. "It's an extremely important question for this organization to get right."
With the Browns 2-7 at the bye, they're likely to end up with a high enough pick to draft a premier quarterback, which makes the last final seven games pivotal.
"The only reason I'm leaving he door open is, you could think he's the right answer and a year from now go, "Oh, gee, I thought he was but he isn't,' " Banner said. "So it's not like you're etching it in stone, but you certainly have to at least for your next off-season plan, make a determination as to whether in two years from now, when we're trying to be a championship-caliber team, is he good enough to lead us there?"
Banner said Weeden's age -- he'll be 30 in their first full season -- isn't as much a factor as his ability.
"In a perfect world he isn't 30, but you've got to deal with reality," Banner said. "It's not a yes or no because of his age, it's a yes or no because of how good he is or how good he's going to become."
He said he'll rely on the current staff to evaluate Weeden's potential and that they'll weigh factors such as youth at the skill positions.
"Anybody can see he throws the ball well," Banner said. "The more crucial evaluation are the other issues that drive the best quarterbacks in the league such as huddle presence, feel, intelligence, and leadership.
Banner said the quarterback decision is tied for No. 2 with general manager and behind head coach as the most important decisions a team must make.
"You can't win big without a great coach and a great quarterback," he said. "And frankly, if you have a great enough coach and quarterback, you can afford to make a few more personnel mistakes. You've got to lock them in."
Banner addressed a number of other topics including his role, his philosophy on changes, and what he's looking for from coach Pat Shurmur and General Manager Tom Heckert:
Q: Do Shurmur and Heckert need a certain number of victories to stick around?
A: No. We're not going to say, "If you win four games . . ." We want to see if they have the qualities that will lead this organization to a championship-caliber level. I know Pat [from our Eagles days] but I've never known Pat as a head coach. I've never known Pat where he was expected to demonstrate his leadership skills. You may have an opinion about some play call, but that's not what we're scrutinizing. If they have the qualities we're looking for, let's move forward.
Q: What are those qualities?
A: When we hired Andy Reid in Philadelphia we did a study on every coach who had led a team to two Super Bowls to find the common denominator. We went in looking for things like offensive philosophy, did they come from defense, did they come from college? Had they been a coordinator? We found nothing. Then we accidentally realized they were all exactly the same when we took football out of the equation -- they were all incredibly strong leaders, they all had hired great staffs, they managed them well and were all very detail-oriented.
Q: So that's how you found Reid?
A: I found Andy when he was working for [former Packers GM] Ron Wolf in Green Bay. Ron was hiring a head coach and didn't even interview Andy. I got a list of candidates based on those qualities we found. Eight teams were hiring head coaches and no one else interviewed Andy. It worked out pretty well [five NFC championship games and a Super Bowl].
Q: Do Shurmur and Heckert have a realistic shot, or will you want your own people regardless?
A: They have a realistic chance. I like them both. I do feel like I have a head start. I know a lot about Pat, so I'm not really starting from scratch. There's just elements of evaluating Pat that I need to see more and know more before I could come to a conclusion. I've always had a good rapport with Tom. I come in with a positive view of Tom and we'll see when we get to January how we feel about that. Tom left the Eagles because he wanted more input. It wasn't a negative thing.
Q: Who will have final say on the 53-man roster?
A: We'll determine that officially when we see who's in those roles. My bias is for the coach to make those decisions. Now, we may end up with somebody in personnel who's so good that I tweak that, but going in, my bias is that the coach will have the most say on the 53-man roster and the 45 who dress for games.
Q: What will your role be in football decisions such as the draft?
A: I will be one of the four or five people in that room. I'll have a voice. In some instances, it will go through me, but our goal is always to drive a consensus. That's always been my role as it related to the football part of the operations.
Q: Will Jimmy Haslam be one of those four or five people?
A: Yes, absolutely because he's smart and he has common sense. The right decisions don't necessarily come out of someone who's been a traditional football guy. Sometimes they come more from common sense than anything. He watches football and he's going to have perspectives on what's most important. Will he be the guy watching the film and writing the report? No, although I'd be surprised if he doesn't watch some film because that's the best way to kind of see what you're seeing.
Q: Speaking of football guys, you're perceived as more of a business/salary-cap guy than a football guy. Is that accurate?
A: I think that definition has properly evolved over the last five or 10 years. There's a lot of examples of smart, hardworking guys running successful teams that are not thought of as football guys. You can't hire an Andy Reid without knowing something about football.
Q: But do you watch film and do some scouting?
A: I don't think the Eagles drafted a guy that I haven't watched. I'll watch all of the top guys and any free agent we're thinking of signing. Later in the draft, they might give me five guys to watch that could be available in the sixth round. I also go to the Senior Bowl and the Indianapolis combine, but I'm also there to develop relationships with agents and people in the league.
Q: Who will report to you?
A: The coach and the GM will report directly to me. In Philadelphia, the director of player personnel reported to Andy, who was the general manager, and Andy had a direct report to [owner] Jeff Lurie and a dotted line to me. It's slightly different than what we did in Philadelphia because Jeff was more involved. But I was the one most directly working with the football people or negotiating contracts, negotiating the trades. I worked directly with and supervised the football people.
Q: Who will decided if a change at head coach/GM is necessary?
A: I will lead on all of the day-to-day type of things including if we're going to make a change and really be responsible for putting together the right list of people to consider for the change. I don't care who you are in the NFL, the owner has final say on everything. I'd put together a list of three or four people. He may say, "Who's your first choice?" Hopefully that'd carry some weight. I'll have a list of qualified candidates because of how well I know them or the people I can trust know them. Jimmy will have more ideas of who we should look into and obviously I will and then we'll kind of put that into a first list kind of thing.
Q: With your best people either already here or locked in with the Eagles, where will your list come from?
A: One of big weaknesses in the league is people's inclinations to hire people they know or they feel safe with. I know people through the league in all categories -- salesmen, marketing people, position coaches, general managers. I have good people in mind in every area and they won't be my friends or at least that's not what will drive it. It won't be driven by people I've worked with. For me, the pool of potential talent is the entire league and all the relationships I've developed over the years. I'm not just going to be plucking people out of my past. You see coaches come in and the whole staff is somebody they used to work with. They're not hiring the best of the best when they do that.
Q: You're firmly entrenched in the West Coast family. Will this continue to be a West Coast team?
A: My criteria has nothing do with what scheme they play or that they philosophically line up with me or Jimmy or anyone. I have my personal biases, but it won't have anything to do with who we pick.
Q: Will you assume the title of president or hire one after Mike Holmgren leaves?
A: CEO is more than enough. Everybody in the building reports to me. If I do hire a president, it won't be for the football side. Will there be a president, a COO, an executive vice president? That's part of what I'm deciding. I'm really trying to stay open-minded about the organizational structure and hope to decide that in the next one to three or four weeks. Right now I'm 60-40 on not naming a president, but that could change.
Q: Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports reported you're considering former Browns personnel executive Mike Lombardi. True?
A: Since I haven't even decided whether I'm keeping the people that are here, at best it's wild speculation and in this case it's unfounded. Somebody's taking a shot in the dark.
Q: Did you leave on good terms with Reid and would he be on your list of coaching candidates if you make a change?
A: I had a great relationship with Andy. He's still a close friend. [But] I'm not going to answer that. That's speculation of course.
Q: Your biggest strength?
A: Being able to evaluate potential hires and put together really good people regardless of what area. I think it's my greatest strength and I think my history would back it up. You won't bat 100 percent. But you pick good people , create an environment for success and keep them together for a long time.
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/11/cleveland_browns_ceo_joe_banne_1.html#incart_2box
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