"Staying the course, the rebuilding procedure prescribed by Admiral Mike Holmgren, requires a compass to indicate the course is correct. It is fair to say that, at best, signs are mixed for the Browns.

The North Star of the NFL, the one fixed reference point, is stability at quarterback, the most important position in the game. The evasions offered by Holmgren this week when he was asked for an endorsement of second-year quarterback Colt McCoy were telling. He won't "anoint" McCoy yet, but he "loves" him.

Much talk centered on McCoy's "intangibles," which, being unseen and unmeasured, went unspecified. In the actual tangibles -- a passer with a strong arm, receivers with good hands, a right side of the line that did not need turnstiles to slow down the pass rush -- the Browns were lacking. This is an indictment of the admiralty, not entirely of the man wrestling with the wheel.

Dissonance between concept and its implementation has been a trademark of the Browns ever since Carmen Policy signed 49ers veterans who expected a training camp that would conserve their bodies, and then hired Chris Palmer, who was of the "thump 'em again" school of practice plans.

Holmgren's view that the upcoming season will only be the second in the real rebuild is remarkable. It skips merrily over the year lost with Eric Mangini, whose run-based game plans were the opposite of Holmgren's quick passing schemes. Maybe 2010 was all a bad dream, like that season on the 1980s TV series "Dallas," in which the mistake of killing off a popular character was corrected by ascribing it to his wife's nightmare. (Your comment about our long civic nightmare goes here.)

Throughout the news conference, there was no sense that time's a-wasting. Everyone feels pressure, but no one is on the "hot seat," Holmgren said. "