The Cleveland Browns' defensive playbook is apparently thinner than one might expect, given coach Mike Pettine's tutelage under the uber-creative Rex Ryan.
The lack of girth, Pettine told TheMMQB.com's Greg A. Bedard, is by design.
"I don't put a lot of graduate-level information in it," Pettine said. "We know in places like New England, it's only a matter of time that they somehow mysteriously end up with our playbook."
Teams guard playbooks as if the latter were the nuclear football. Players must return the playbooks before being cut, and nowadays teams can remotely wipe an iPad if a player digitally uploaded a playbook.
Still, Pettine told Bedard that at Wes Welker's wedding, Tom Brady bragged to former Jets outside linebackers coach Mike Smith (who was Welker's roommate at Texas Tech) about how the Patriots "may or may not have had possession" of a couple of Jets defensive playbooks.
"It didn't shock me because Rex would give them out like candy anyway," Pettine said. "He gave one out to (Alabama coach Nick) Saban and I was like, 'Don't you know Saban and Bill (Belichick) are pretty good friends? I have a feeling it's going to end up in New England.'"
Just to be sure key information doesn't end up in Foxboro again, Pettine will keep most of the high-level courses out of the original playbooks.Â
UPDATE: Belichick was asked if he's ever had a Jets playbook following Thursday's minicamp session.
"You've got to talk to Mike Pettine," Belichick said, per The Boston Globe. "I don't know."
Ryan later addressed Pettine's comments at the top of Thursday's news conference, telling reporters, "I don't understand what he's trying to gain by it."
Ryan continued. "... Everyone needs to talk to Mike Pettine 'cause he's got all the answers."
In the latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast," the guys make the case that multiple teams have closed the gap on the Seahawks and 49ers in the NFC.
