CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two very important members of the Browns organization offered a ringing endorsement of top overall draft pick Myles Garrett following a groundbreaking ceremony for a new football field at John Adams High School.

"He is amazing," owner Dee Haslam said. "He's a pretty awesome specimen of an athlete."

The other endorsement came from the man who will likely get plenty of time facing Garrett during training camp this summer, left tackle Joe Thomas.

"I'm just impressed with his demeanor and his willingness to learn and his humbleness," Thomas said, "but also you see that fire that's burning inside him to be great and I think those are the hallmarks of guys that have a chance to be really excellent football players."

Thomas was happy to see the Browns select a pass rusher with the No. 1 pick, calling it a no-brainer based on need and the players available.

"It's an impactful player at a position of need," Thomas said, "and I think sometimes people reach for a quarterback at No. 1 and then it takes a long time to develop him and if they don't have the right system and the right people in place around them, sometimes it's hard for them to have that success."

Any Thomas-Garrett battle will be must-watch when the two face each other in practice during the remainder of the off-season program and once training camp begins in July. Thomas said he expects it will be a good battle in training camp.

"He's shown an interest in learning and I'm a player that really likes to try to help teach and impart any wisdom that I've gotten over the ages on some of those young guys," Thomas said, "so it will be fun for me, too, to be able to try to help as best as I can and try to get him to think like an offensive tackle and hopefully turn him into the great player I think he can be."

Haslam, for her part, hopes that Garrett's play combined with his magnetic personality will offer nothing but good things for the Browns.

"He's great to be around," she said. "A really, really nice guy. I think he'll do a lot for our organization."

QB1: Thomas praised the way Cody Kessler played during a rookie season a year ago that saw him thrust into action by Week 3 with little work with the first team under his belt. Browns head coach Hue Jackson said over the weekend that Kessler would start OTAs No. 1 on the depth chart.

"I've seen improvement to the untrained eye already this spring," Thomas said. "So I think giving him the job right now or at least putting him in the one slot right now is a great move by Hue."

Follow the plan: Haslam said last season's 1-15 record wasn't anything they saw coming even though they knew it would be a painful season. She also didn't sound like someone wavering from the plan put in place following a regime change after the 2015 season that saw Executive Vice President of Player Personnel Sashi Brown promoted and Jackson hired.

"We put a plan in place," she said. "We're following that plan. We're very excited about where we are. We're very excited about where we're going. So that's what we have to count on, and I think following the plan is the key to our success."

Last month's draft was just a piece of that plan.

"We're just really excited about where we are right now," Haslam said. "We feel like last year was a good draft, we feel like this is a good draft, you just string them together and you can build a really great team."

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