Frye starts job as No. 1
Friday, June 2, 2006
By Steve Doerschuk REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER
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It seemed official Thursday. Young Charlie Frye was on the edge of the hot seat.
The Browns ran through their first voluntary spring practice, launching Frye’s run as the team’s undisputed starting quarterback.
For the first time in public, during a talk at a Canton Browns Backers dinner, General Manager Phil Savage revealed the background of how Frye came so far, so fast.
The 2005 draft had steamed through two rounds. Savage had picked wideout Braylon Edwards at No. 3 overall and safety Brodney Pool at No. 34.
“We ranked 150 players on our board,” Savage said. “Charlie was our 45th-ranked player. People say, ‘Is that a second-round grade?’ We just let players fall off the board and said, ‘If he’s still there when the players ahead of him are gone, we’ll take him.’
“There was one name ahead of Charlie Frye when it was our turn in the third round.‘’
The name was Ellis Hobbs. He had played for a nondescript Iowa State team, but he did turn out to be something of a find for the Patriots.
New England grabbed him late in the third round, at No. 84. Hobbs started the Patriots’ last 10 games at left cornerback, and they went 7-3.
The Browns had been on the clock in the third round with the 67th pick.
“We’re sitting there talking about it,” Savage aid, “and I’m like ... ‘OK, Ellis Hobbs is ... probably gonna be a nickel corner. He might be a starting corner at some point, but ... he’s 5-foot-9, 180-some pounds, and he’s he only guy standing between Charlie Frye and the Cleveland Browns.
“ ‘Guys, there’s no way we pass up Charlie Frye, who potentially might be our quarterback in a year or two, because this kid ... has got grit, moxie, mobility. He’s got just enough arm. Let’s do it.’ ”
Savage’s first hard look at Frye came in 2004 while in Baltimore.
“One of the Ravens’ scouts wanted to go to Penn State, which was playing ... Akron,” Savage said. “I told him I’d ride up there with him ... Akron had this quarterback, Charlie Frye.”
Savage talked with former Browns linebacker Frank Stams, who was doing radio work for Akron. Stams raved about Frye’s toughness and mobility. Akron wound up getting waxed, 48-10, but Savage liked the way Frye hung in.
Months passed before Savage saw Frye again, this time as the Browns’ new GM, at the Senior Bowl that set the stage for the 2005 draft. Senior Bowl practices draw hundreds of NFL scouts to Mobile, Ala.
“Charlie is not gonna wow you with physical gifts or throwing a pretty ball,” Savage said, “so we sat in the bleachers ... (and) watched Charlie throw left to right, right to left, down low, up high, and we were like ... ‘I don’t know about this guy. He just throws kind of average.’ ‘’
Most scouts make Senior Bowl judgments via practices and leave before the game.
“A handful of us stayed for the game,” Savage said. “Who emerged as the MVP but Charlie Frye?”
Two months later, Frye threw for scouts at Akron’s Pro Day.
“I didn’t really want to go,” Savage said. “In that environment, he’s just going to be throwing ‘on air.’
“I acted like I was watching him, but I really wasn’t. I didn’t want to skew our vision of him.’ ”
Savage drove from there to a speaking engagement near Uniontown, then drove to a private meeting with Frye.
“For two hours,” Savage said, “we watched film and talked about the Browns and his career at Akron.
“I’m sitting there listening to this guy thinking, ‘This is not a silver-platter quarterback.’ This is a guy who has earned his way, coming from the small town of Willard, Ohio, probably overlooked to a degree.
“He’s led a less-than-stellar college team into Iowa, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and Penn State. There’s something a little unique about this guy.”
Savage consulted with coaches and scouts. Films were studied. A consensus was formed. It wasn’t as glowing as reports that projected Frye as a Brett Favre-style improviser — Frye doesn’t have Favre’s arm. But it placed a certain premium on his “intangibles.”
The Browns picked Frye in Round 3 and wound up installing him as the starter after going with Trent Dilfer for 11 games. Dilfer is gone. Frye was the hot-button name at Thursday’s start of spring practice.
“I feel like with LeCharles Bentley and some of the offensive linemen we have, a healthy K2 (Kellen Winslow Jr.) back ...,” Savage said. “The team built around Charlie will be able to hold him up when he does have to struggle at times.
“Yet, he has that little bit of a dimension that when the other guys are flat, he might be able to lift them up. I think he can do that late in games.
“He did that against the Ravens when we were down 16-6 and came back to win. That’s kind of been his M.O..”
By now, Frye seems a natural for the job. How different the Browns’ spring would seem if the pick had been Hobbs.
BACKERS’ BIG NIGHT
Savage’s appearance helped raise $35,000 for the Children’s Network of Stark County, according to Canton Browns Backers President Chuck Schuster.
Schuster and a network of volunteers put together the program, which featured donated auction items.
“We nearly doubled what we raised in 2005,” Schuster said. “It was a night to remember, and it’s going to be tough to beat next year.”
Browns players LeCharles Bentley and Josh Cribbs attended Wednesday’s dinner and told Schuster they want to attend the Network’s Children’s Christmas Party this year.
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