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Browns CEO Joe Banner said a quarterback at No. 6

(Photo by Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)

Indianapolis -- Browns CEO Joe Banner revealed Saturday he doesn't expect to draft a quarterback with the No. 6 overall pick, and that the club is prepared to give Brandon Weeden a chance to show just how much he wants the starting job.

"It's not the focus of our thinking," Banner said of taking a QB with the team's first pick. "I think [that's] kind of a way to be helpful without getting too specific. But at the same time you can't have too many good quarterbacks. They're valuable assets. In Philadelphia we were very successful in, if we had more than one, getting great value for the more than one."

Question is, can Banner be believed during the NFL's fibbing season? At this time last year, the Browns were shouting from the rooftops that Colt McCoy was their man for 2012, only to be using it as a smokescreen to draft Weeden.

"I will not lie to anybody here," Banner said to a small group of Cleveland media at the NFL Scouting Combine. "I will not mislead you. I may not answer you, I may be incomplete in my answer. So I'm not telling you we would or wouldn't pick a quarterback in the first round or the second round [if the team acquires a second-round pick]. But I'm also kind of implying that that's not what I expect to have happen."

Banner acknowledged that the Browns have discussed every quarterback who might be available via trade or free agency -- a list that includes the likes of San Francisco's Alex Smith, Seattle's Matt Flynn, Miami's Matt Moore and Philadelphia's Nick Foles.

They've also discussed trying to get teams to trade a player they weren't planning on moving. Banner wouldn't mention names, of course, but the Boston Globe once speculated that if Vice President-Player Personnel Mike Lombardi came on board, he might try to get his longtime friend Bill Belichick to part with Patriots backup Ryan Mallett. It's unknown if the Browns asked, but it's unlikely to happen.

"We talked about every single possible player," Banner said. "What we'd like to do is create as much possible competition with as high a quality of player as we possibly can."

Banner also stressed that the Browns are not currently looking to trade Weeden, McCoy or anyone else.

"I would not expect at this point in time that we're going to be receptive to trading our players," he said. "We're looking to build on the players we have and take this thing to a higher level over some period of time."

With the options for a new quarterback limited -- in part because it's a weak QB class in the draft -- the Browns are willing to see what they have in Weeden, who has a strong enough arm to run the downfield scheme of coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner.

"We're telling you that we see potential that we're going to try to work with it and see what it's going to develop into," said Banner. "Some of that is just going to come from how bad he wants it. So I think we'll know a lot more than we know now shortly."

It was the second time in two days that a member of the Browns brass seemingly challenged Weeden to pick it up a notch. On Friday, Chudzinski said, ". . . Ultimately it's going to be on Brandon or on any player what they put it into and how much they commit to it. That's going to be the difference."

Audio: Joe Banner – 2/23/13

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Banner took it a step further when he lumped Weeden in with second-year receiver Josh Gordon as two high picks that need to step it up.

"These are guys who have shown some potential," he said. "But if they flattened at the level they're at now or didn't have the determination to be the best they could be because of work ethic and things like that, then they probably won't be good enough to be on a team that will try to win a championship.

"On the other hand, they seem to have the ability that if they're willing to make the commitment, take the coaching, be part of the culture that we're going to create in the organization with the team that's going to be a very physical, determined, hardworking group, then maybe they can be part of the team."

A clue to what Banner may have been alluding to was found in a recent story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith, who's regarded as the top quarterback in this draft. His quarterbacks coach, Jake Spavital, also coached Weeden at Oklahoma State, and indicated Smith's work ethic was superior. He also believed Smith should go No. 1 overall in this draft.

"(Smith) studies it," Spavital said. "With Brandon Weeden, I couldn't say that about him. I love the guy to death but he had some good guys around him. Brandon knew how to get the ball to those guys. There were times at West Virginia when (Smith) had to create things."

Banner acknowledged that the Browns aren't exactly at ease over the quarterback position just yet.

"We'll feel comfortable when we're able to sit here and tell you we have a starter that we're sure is a guy that can lead us to a championship," he said. "Whereas we're hopeful and we're going to give Brandon his best chance to succeed, I don't think any of us say we know that yet. Until we can say that, we're going to be working that position."

Banner said ideally Weeden will live up to his first-round status.

"We have a huge vested interest in him being successful," he said. "We're bringing in coaches that can maximize that. He's in an unusual position of coming in as a rookie and inheriting a good offensive line. It will accelerate our ability to get to where we want to if he succeeds."

Banner doesn't mind committing to a quarterback who will turn 30 next season -- if he's got what it takes.

"Would it be better if was 24? Of course," Banner said. "(But) if he can play well for us for five or six years, that would be great."

He said the team must avoid forcing the issue at quarterback in the draft. After Smith, the next best prospect is generally regarded as USC's Matt Barkley, who was regarded as a potential pick for the Browns last year before he decided to return to college.

"If we picked a quarterback just because we're worried we're not good enough there -- just to pick somebody who we're not even that sure about -- that would be a bad mistake," Banner said.

So for now, it's Weeden's chance to prove he deserves the job.