Delhomme focused on taking it easy

BEREA, Ohio – Jake Delhomme(notes) and anxiety just don't mix. The more intense he gets, the more things come apart, like trying to hook some fish on one of those lakes in Louisiana where he grew up. It doesn't pay to reel faster.

It's all about being relaxed. If his release from the Panthers in March didn't make that clear, the point definitely should be hammered home now as he takes over as the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback.

The Browns are trying to strip away the sludge of inept leadership. In 11 seasons since rejoining the NFL via expansion in 1999, the Browns have had two winning seasons and one playoff appearance. The football operations have been run by wheelers and dealers like Carmen Policy and Butch Davis to guys who appeared to be in over their heads like Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel. Throw in some odd controversies (the Browns appeared to be ground zero for MRSA in the NFL) and questionable moves (trading tight end Kellen Winslow(notes) and wide receiver Braylon Edwards(notes) for little last season) and it's easy to see why Cleveland is the land of disgruntled fans.

Enter the combination of Delhomme and new team president Mike Holmgren, a pairing that could add some warmth to a team whose face was Eric Mangini, a gifted tactician who is as stone-faced as Anton Chigurh.

Even Mangini, a man who learned the art of hiding emotion from Bill Belichick, can't help but smile a little when asked about Delhomme.

"Jake has that [Brett] Favre kind of easy-going personality where he can get along with anybody and [Chad] Pennington's attention to detail, which is nice," Mangini said, referring to the two quarterbacks he had during his three years with the Jets. "After dealing with those two guys over time, it has been really fun to work with Jake. He has control of the offense. He's in charge, they know he's in charge, he knows he's in charge.

"He has a good feel for what's going on externally. He's constantly putting plays in context of what we're trying to do, how we're trying to set up the offense, what we're trying to do, when to get out of a bad play and how to get into a good play, the blitz pickups."

What Delhomme has most is a sense of being forthright. He was horrible last season as he posted a career-low quarterback rating of 59.4, completed just 55.5 percent of his passes and had only eight touchdown passes compared with 18 interceptions. He not only lost his starting job with five games left in the season, he almost looked like he forgot how to play.

"Awful, last year was awful," Delhomme said. "There's no other way to put it. I was awful. There's no sweeping it under the rug. I didn't play well, I played awful. But I put pressure on myself. When we lost in the playoff game [to the Cardinals in January 2009] and I didn't play well at all, my whole focus and goal was to get back and play well.

"Then, in the first game of the season, one of my first few passes gets tipped, tipped and picked and it's like, 'Don't make another mistake, don't make another mistake' and I played that way the whole season. That's just something you can't do. You never, ever can play that way and I've never done that. I just put so much on myself. 'I gotta play good, I gotta play good' and when you're so tight like that, it's just worse."

Delhomme spent the entire '09 offseason thinking about that 33-13 loss to Arizona and the five interceptions he threw in the game. After playing well for most of 2008 and a majority of his time in Carolina, Delhomme succumbed to a flurry of mistakes last season.

"The funny part is that my wife even noticed it," said Delhomme, who may end up being the place setter for rookie Colt McCoy(notes). "We've dated since we were 15 years old and she said, 'You're not loose, you're not yourself.' I kept denying it, but she was right."

Now, Delhomme is at a place where there is little pressure and, for the moment, only the hope of growth. The Browns are right now a starless team. Their top name is Josh Cribbs, a glorified return man, and rookie Joe Haden(notes), a budding star cornerback. There's a good offensive line anchored by left tackle Joe Thomas(notes), but the rest of the roster features guys like wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi(notes) and running back Jerome Harrison(notes) – players that have shown glimpses of talent.

"I tell people all the time that when I went to Carolina in '03, that was Steve Smith's third year and he was known as a punt returner," Delhomme said. "Nobody knew him as a receiver. He was a talented player, but then he came upon the scene as a talented receiver with 80 catches or something.

"Mohamed Massaquoi … [had 34 catches] … , but he's big, he's talented, he gets it. He works his tail off. [Brian] Robiskie is the same way. They're talented and they have made plays all spring long. I've been around awhile and I've seen guys who get it and who don't get it. These kids get it."

Glimpses of hope showed for the Browns in the form of a four-game winning streak at the end of last season, despite playing with the quarterback tandem of Brady Quinn(notes) and Derek Anderson(notes). As bad as Delhomme claims to have been, Quinn and Anderson may have been worse, combining to complete less than half their passes (217-for-438).

Mangini doesn't look back much, admitting only that the team "struggled" on offense last season. That's an understatement. In one of the highest-scoring eras in the history of the NFL, the Browns were held to fewer than 10 points in seven games.

"The most amazing thing about our team last year was that we couldn't throw the ball, the other team knew we couldn't throw the ball and we still managed to score some points at the end of the season," a team executive said.

Thus, there is little pressure for Delhomme and that's when he's at his best.

"Go out and fling it and don't worry," he said. "That's how I gotta play."