MINNEAPOLIS -- Former Browns President Mike Holmgren, who made an appearance in the Super Bowl media center Thursday, believes that his longtime Packers colleague John Dorsey can get the Browns turned around -- under one condition.

"Yeah, they'll get it going,'' Holmgren said of the Browns' new GM. "You've got to find the quarterback. Once you find the quarterback, you can fix the other things.''

He admitted that things didn't work out when he lured Dorsey to Seattle to run his personnel department in 1999.

"Dorsey was one of my first hires in Seattle,'' Holmgren said. "He was my Director of (Pro) Personnel. At that time -- and I love him -- he was a super-scout. But as the director, I could never find him. He'd be at some little college some place. I said 'John, you're the director now. You're not super scout. You can still go (but not as much). So that didn't go (well), that lasted only a year. I didn't fire him but he left and went back to Green Bay and that's when I brought Ted Thompson in."

Holmgren said Dorsey, a former Packers player, "loved being on the road. He loved sleeping in little hotels.''

Obviously, he learned a lot from that experience. The next time he got a chance, as Chiefs GM with Andy Reid, he went 43-21, and went to the playoffs three times in his four seasons. He turned the Chiefs around from 2-14 before he got there to 11-5 in 2013.

"I haven't talked to him,'' Holmgren said. "I was planning on giving him a call. You'll like him. He's a good guy. I'm sure he's learned. He did that in Kansas City for Andy (Reid).''

Holmgren is happy that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has loaded up on good talent evaluators such as Dorsey and assistant GM Eliot Wolf, the son of Holmgren's longtime colleague, Hall of Famer Ron Wolf.

"Eliot still looks like he's 12," joked Holmgren, who remembers him hanging around the Packers as a young boy.

Holmgren was not a fan of the Sashi Brown regime or philosophy.

"No more analytics. Jiminy Christmas,'' said Holmgren. "The others are smart guys, they're good guys and their approach is different. It's a different game. It's a different thing.''

Holmgren, who went 14-34 in his three seasons as president of the Browns, believes he was on the right track before Haslam bought the team and wiped out the regime after the 2012 season, including GM Tom Heckert and coach Pat Shurmur (9-23 with Browns), who was just named coach of the Giants.

"If Shurmur had a little more time and if he found the quarterback, it would've worked,'' said Holmgren. "That was my feeling.''

Instead, the Browns have turned over coaches, GMs and quarterback since then, going 15-65 since 2013.

"You've got to find that guy,'' said Holmgren. "And now you've got draft choices. If they like somebody, don't trade back. Don't do any of that stuff. Get the guy. Am I correct in saying they could've had Carson Wentz?''

He said they tried to make it work with Brandon Weeden, but it was a stretch.

"You get in that situation and you desperately need one, so you do it and you coach him to death and hope it works,'' he said. "If they find the quarterback everything will fall into place.''