This report on Phil Savage’s Q-and-A luncheon is must-reading if you’re interested in understanding the front office perspective heading into the draft. The highlights:

• “Football temperament” is the hardest but most important thing for a scout to evaluate.
• The team has conscious of its purpose to “clean out some of the big bad apples and bring in some little good apples,” but there’s not necessarily a zero-tolerance for players with isolated off-the-field problems.
• Savage basically said to expect the Browns to pick up a guard, a tackle, and a defensive end some time during the draft.
• Winslow should be “ready to go” by June 1.
• The strategy for reducing injuries: be careful in the weight room during the off-season, and during the season, pace yourself during the week so you have a “charged battery” on game day.
• If the Browns don’t trade out of their #3 overall pick, Savage will take a “difference maker,” who by his definition plays “left tackle, quarterback, wide receiver, pass rusher, cornerback,” not linebacker. (Note that running back was absent from his list as well.)

Well, it’s hard not to like what Savage is bringing to the Browns as he changes not only the roster, but the very culture of the team. Granted, there is a bit of a culture shock when you realize we’ll be headed into the season without the team’s three leading tacklers from last year, their only multiple Pro Bowler, their leading interceptor since the rebirth, their leading rusher since the rebirth (assuming William Green is on his way out), and three first-round draft picks on the D-line. But, he’s right, it’s not about stats or status.

The true measure of the Browns’ growth will not come from looking at which individual players come and go. Rather, the process is paramount. How those players are selected. How the coaching staff maximizes their potential. How a cohesive team-orientation takes root. How on-field strategies are devised and deployed. That’s where the fundamental changes are taking place, and that’s what will determine the speed and enduring strength of the Browns upward trajectory.