BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Andrew Berry came close to making a trade prior to Tuesday afternoon’s NFL trade deadline but ran out of time.
Berry wasn’t trying to sell either.
“We came close to one deal in terms of acquiring a player,” Berry said Wednesday. “It didn’t come to fruition from a compensation package.
“We feel really good about the team we have and feel really good about the guys in the locker room.”
Entering Monday night’s game, running back Kareem Hunt appeared to be all but gone.
Hunt requested a trade during training camp and the team made it known they were willing to entertain offers leading up to the deadline, but Hunt remains in Cleveland where he will finish the season.
“We always have open dialogue with our guys so none of that necessarily happens in a vacuum, just to be clear,” Berry said. “Kareem has been excellent every day that he has been in the building since August. I think you all know how passionate he is, how much he cares about this team and how much he cares about this city. We know he is going to have a really strong second half and are looking forward to [him] helping us continue to win games, like he did on Monday night.”
Hunt, who had seen his touches cut significantly in recent weeks, totaled 72 total yards from scrimmage on 15 touches in the 32-13 rout of the Bengals.
Berry recognizes how easy it would have been for Hunt to just mentally check out and appreciates the week-in, week-out effort they receive from him.
“I would actually give Kareem a lot of credit because I think for an individual going through what he went through the past couple of months realizing that his status was in some level of flux, and all Kareem did since August has worked hard and really put the team first,” Berry said. “I think that type of mindset and that type of attitude is exactly what allows you to battle through difficult challenges and difficult circumstances and ultimately what you need to win games as you go from week to week in the second half of the year.”
Monday night’s win over the Bengals seemed to change everyone’s outlook on the remainder of the season, including Berry’s approach to the trade deadline.
“I would say that candidly it probably maybe had a little bit of a mild influence,” Berry said. “I wouldn’t say that it moved the needle significantly in one direction or another. I had probably a pretty good idea in terms of how we wanted to approach obviously yesterday with a couple of different opportunities, but to suggest it didn’t have some type of mild impact I think would be disingenuous.”