"Mike Holmgren is confident that former Vikings head coach Brad Childress is the right man for the Browns' offensive coordinator position.

"Brad's an outstanding coach," the Browns' president said on the team's radio show Wednesday night on ESPN850.

"I've known him a long time. When I first met him, I had just arrived in Green Bay and Brad was on the staff at the University of Wisconsin with Barry Alvarez and he had been friends with [Eagles coach] Andy Reid and so we knew some people and became pretty close. So that's about 20 years ago. [We had a] connection over the years because he worked for Andy in Philadelphia and Andy and I are very close.

"I thought he did a really great job in Minnesota in an unusual set of circumstances at the end. He came close to going to the Super Bowl. He's an excellent football coach, a very bright guy, knows how to coach quarterbacks. He's a tough guy, he demands a lot and I think it was a great hire for Pat [Shurmur]." "