Mike Pettine: Not my job to rank quarterbacks
— -- BEREA, Ohio -- Mike Pettine clarified his comments about Russell Wilson on Thursday, with the Browns coach bringing some levity to his comments that the Seahawks quarterback is in the second tier of players at the position.
"Every quarterback that's ever played is tied for one," the Browns head coach said Thursday. "The best ever."
Pettine's lighthearted remarks opened his daily meeting with the media, and came in light of the attention his comments about Wilson received on Wednesday. Pettine said Wilson was in the second tier of NFL quarterbacks, behind Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.
The Browns play in Seattle on Sunday.
The first question given Pettine, as a joke, was: "What do you think of Pete Carroll as a coach?"
"The best ever," Pettine responded. "Tied for the best ever. Because I don't want to slight anybody else when I slot someone somewhere."
He took a more serious tone about the remarks when he did his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio by saying "there aren't too many quarterbacks that I respect more than Russell Wilson."
"It's not my job to rank quarterbacks and I know the bottom line for those guys, and he's said it himself, is to win football games," Pettine said on Sirus. "And he's one of the best at that. I don't get too wrapped up in that. This isn't the first time that I've said a lot of one topic and one small fragment of it was made into a headline.
"If I get worried about that then that's taking away from me getting my job done. He's won a lot of football games. He's does that really well. I try to answer the questions I get asked honestly and really don't have time to sit around and rank the quarterbacks."
Pettine said he understands how the Seahawks might take the remarks.
"You can interpret statements in certain ways," Pettine said. "More than probably should interpret the worst possible way. I have a ton of respect for Russell."
Wilson said on a conference call with the Cleveland media that he's focused on wins and not rankings.
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