Hue Jackson Senior Bowl

(Mary Kay Cabot/cleveland.com)

MOBILE, Ala. -- Hue Jackson is still on a nationwide search for his starting quarterback, and doesn't know if he'll come from this draft.

Furthermore, he hasn't written Robert Griffin III off yet, despite that most folks assume he's gone.

"That's interesting,'' said Jackson. "Who made that announcement? I didn't."

So, it's premature to speculate that Jackson's pet project from last season won't be back for his second season?

"Everything's premature right now,'' he said. "You guys haven't heard that from me. So I wouldn't read into any of that. My job is to continue to evaluate and look just like I told you guys I would. I haven't come to any conclusions. Everybody else can jump to those conclusions but we're going to keep looking at this thing.

"It's too important to our football team, to our fan base, to our organization. We've got to make the right decision. We've got to make the right decision. We've got to get that part of it right, and I plan on doing that."

Likewise, he said the Browns haven't yet determined who their No. 1 overall pick will be.

"It's a little early,'' he said. "There's still a lot of work to do to make those kinds of decisions."

He won't commit to finding his franchise QB in this draft. The top prospects are Deshaun Watson, Mitch Trubisky and DeShone Kizer, none of whom are participating in the Senior Bowl. The Browns will also consider signing free agents and/or trading for veterans such as Jimmy Garoppolo and Tony Romo.

"It could (come from this draft),'' he said. "It could come from a lot of different ways. I don't want to get pigeonholed into just one way. There's a lot of different ways it can come as we continue to move forward."

Regardless of where he comes from, Jackson knows it's job No. 1 to find and/or develop a championship-caliber QB. All one need do is look at the conference championship games to see that a premier QB is what it takes to go deep in the playoffs.

"We've got to have a quarterback that plays winning football for us, and that's what we're going to do,'' he said. "We're going to find that guy. We're going to find a guy that can win for us, and that's what we have to do. That's my job. That's what I came to Cleveland for, and I'm not going to stop till we get that guy."

On a day in which Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger hinted at the end of his career approaching, Jackson acknowledged that he hasn't had the quarterback play to compete in the AFC North.

"It's stopping us from being where we want to be,'' he said. "We haven't established that guy yet. We haven't established who he is. Until you can do that, then I think we can make the next jump. So that's what we're trying to do. It's going to be a great off-season. We have free agency and we have the draft coming, so there's going to be a lot of opportunity for us to evaluate and make good decisions about what to do for our football team."

Jackson stressed that the departure of Pep Hamilton to Michigan wouldn't crimp the quarterback evaluation process.

"I coached the quarterback, met with the quarterback, called the offense's plays, so I think we're making more of this than what it is,'' said Jackson. "I came here to coach that position and get it better, and I plan on doing that. ... We're going to do it collectively as a group. But hopefully we're going to lean on my expertise and what I need at that position to win."

By the same token, he has total faith in Greg Seamon to tutor the quarterbacks.

"He coached me (at Pacific), so I know what I'm getting there,'' he said. "The person that coaches that position, you've have to have a lot of trust because it's like my baby and at the end of the day I know what I want it to do and how I want it to be and I know Greg will do exactly that.

"I'm standing here today because of Greg Seamon. He helped me as a quarterback see the game better, understand the game better, but he also made me a tough individual playing the game under him. He's really driven. He gets guys to play well for him. I know that."