CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns Assistant general manager Catherine Hickman took questions from reporters on Monday with regard looking ahead to hosting the Cincinnati Bengals, the outlook of the 2025 season, and more.
Below is the transcript as provided by the Browns media relations department:
Can you give us any news on the Quinshon Judkins situation?
“No updates there.”
I just asked Kevin (Stefanski) this, so I want to ask you this too. So, (Cincinnati) Bengals week is finally here. How do you feel about this 53-man roster that you guys have assembled? What have you seen and how do you feel about it heading into the season?
“I mean, the beauty of this week one is everybody’s 0-0. So, everybody has worked really, really hard in the offseason to put this roster together. And here we have a great opportunity, starting week one, to win football games, and I feel very, very proud of all the work that we’ve done in the offseason between personnel and coaching.”
Catherine (Hickman), I’m curious, what does the day-to-day look like when it comes to personnel discussions that you have with Glenn (Cook) and Andrew (Berry) about player acquisition and player personnel? Because obviously, Andrew makes the final decision, but it just seems like there’s constant dialogue. What does that look like? Are you watching film and then you go to him and say, ‘hey, I saw this.’ How does that work?
“Yeah, I mean, we really look at it from very various angles, whether it’s group watch settings, group meetings, discussion, daily messaging. It’s really all about being relentless, all hands-on deck and just constantly have those conversations and making sure that we always improve the roster. So even for us, okay, yeah, it’s set, but like, what are areas where it can get better? Where do we want to continue to improve? And that’s really a daily thing to your question.”
What does your role look like? How does it shift from training camp where you’re like a mad dash to put this 90-man (roster) and cut to 53, and now you’re moving into the scouting part with the college season?
“Yeah, training camp is a lot focused on us, right? So, trying to put our 53-man roster, practice squad together. In the fall, I shift more into a college process where it’s very, very, very heavy college work. Then free agency is going to hit too. So that’s part of the fall, and then we kind of put all together when the season wraps up. I’d say like after the trade deadline, most of the time personnel is like, we’re on to next year and focusing on our college and free agency efforts.”
What have you seen in Joe Flacco throughout this whole process that gets you excited about what he might be able to do on Sunday?
“I mean, you guys have talked to him so many times, like this person is just awesome. What he’s been able to do, not only on the field with the team, the consistency that he brings, his ability as a passer, but also what he brings to the locker room, like that’s invaluable. And especially how young we are in this room, I think it’s actually pretty hard to quantify how much good he’s doing for this team.”
Kevin was asked about the coaches and players, what the on-field identity of this team is. From a front office perspective, what is this Browns identity? What do you guys want it to be?
“So, it’s simple. It’s tough, it’s competitive, and it’s encased in an environment of hard work that we all take pride, and we all have ownership in. So that’s the environment we want to create for our players. From the coaches to our PD (player development) staff, our support staff, our strength coaches, that’s what we’re going to be about.”
Have you seen that shift over the past couple years of targeting things that you wanted to achieve, maybe be a little bit more about?
“So, we’re just intentional in every facet of our processes. So, whether that’s acquiring players, or how we’re asking them to work here, and how Kevin (Stefanski) is thinking through his practice blend with his coaches is really a testament of all the work together, collaborative and aligned.”
Specifically in the offseason and through training camp, how did you see the guys really embody that toughness, that competitiveness? Guys talked about a different intensity throughout camp. So how did you see that play out?
“So again, as I said, it’s intentionality in everything that we do. So, from the guys that we bring here, from Kevin’s messaging, from how he builds practice, those are all things, like we want to put guys in positions where they can compete. And then we want to make sure that again, it’s all coming together. So, I thought the team’s done a very, very, very nice job throughout training camp and making sure that we get those reps and they’re ready for week one.”
Catherine, developing players at this level, young players specifically at this level, obviously it’s not as easy to do when you’re tasked with winning football games. You have 12 rookies, I think, on the active 53. How intentional was that and just how vital is that to the, the bloodline of roster building not just for today, but going into next year, in the subsequent years?
“Yeah, it’s critical and it’s honestly, it’s credit to these young players, like they’ve made the most of their opportunities, and they’ve earned their spot. Now, you know, our coaches aren’t teachers. They’re developers. And that’s a credit to how Kevin (Stefanski) builds his staff. And then we have a pretty robust player development group and program that works very closely with the coaches to help the players develop both on and off the field. And that’s something we take great pride in, and we’re very intentional in how we build about it. Now, is it a challenge? Absolutely. But I would revert back to saying these young men have really earned their spot and they made it an easy decision for us to make.”
Catherine, what is your role in when it comes time to acquiring a player or having a player on the roster that has some kind of an off-the field-issue or something involving a domestic incident, do they rely on you heavily in terms of just to get the sort of female perspective on if this is something the club should do? You know, how does this all kind of take place?
“Yeah, I’ll start by saying, like, I like to refer to myself as an executive, not a female executive or a woman executive. So, what I bring to the table is an overall holistic perspective when I do advise on certain situations. And ultimately I defer to the process that Andrew (Berry) has in place, which is thorough and diligent, and then he takes it from there.”
And in terms of Dillon Gabriel, what has he shown you throughout this whole process?
“Dillon (Gabriel) has been super impressive on and off the field. He is, I mean, extremely, extremely mature, professional. He has a process and how he goes about his craft, and it shows. There’s a lot to work on as you enter this league as a young quarterback, but Dillon (Gabriel) has really put the time and worked with her coaches. So I think I really look forward to see his trajectory and how he collaborates with both our coaches and PD (player development) staff.”
And if you don’t mind, I wanted to ask you about Shedeur (Sanders) as well. How have you seen him grow since he showed up on your doorstep, and what do you feel like the outlook could be for him?
“Yeah, that’s a tough question with any player after one preseason period, to really talk about outlook. That’s what we try to predict as accurately as we can. But as we all know, that’s a difficult thing. When it comes to what he’s shown so far, he worked at his craft, he’s passionate, he’s dedicated to it. He puts the time in, and those are really the things that you can really hang your head on when it comes to these young players. And then he’s shown growth. He’s shown growth on the field and again, it’s a super small sample size so we got to continue to be intentional with his plan and work with him just like we will do with every rookie.”
Catherine, when you talk about, you know, for you specifically, you kind of shift into college mode right now. Everyone knows you got the two first round picks next year. The assumption is you guys are shopping for quarterbacks. Ownership has said they really want to see at some point this year, hopefully the two rookies. How do you in such a compressed window, considering the various trajectories of young quarterbacks in this league, some take off immediately, some take a couple of years. How in that short window this season can you guys, I guess, make as accurate of an evaluation or projection on both Dillon (Gabriel) and Shedeur (Sanders) while also balancing the assets you have next year?
“Yeah, it’s a actually great question, Daryl (Ruiter). That’s what makes our job fun and hard, I’d say. I’d say I just go back to like the plan that we have in place for these guys when it comes to developing is acquiring as many valuable data points as we can. Now we know these things take time. So, what is that going to look like at the end of the year? I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you, and I don’t do well with hypotheticals, but I will say that every opportunity we will have to evaluate them we will take. None of them are going to take, you know, a back seat in how we plan and program for them with the reps that we have. And then from there we’ll see what the spring brings, and we’ll evaluate all possibilities like we always do.”
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.