BEREA, Ohio -- Mike Pettine is thoughtful and honest with his answers to the media. He also, it seems, talks to his players while he's talking to us.

He can send a message without sending a message. He'll air out an open-for-interpretation quote like a lob into triple coverage.

This week, there are two examples of what I'm talking about that illustrate Pettine's media savvy. Both involve the offense -- specifically, running back Ben Tate and quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Let's try a little exercise. Listed below are quotes from Pettine and my interpretation of the quote. Don't want to psychoanalyze here but I feel these quotes are worth noting because they drip with subtext. Check the portion of the quotes in bold.

Pettine to Texans media on a conference call Wednesday, when asked about how Manziel is around the facility:

"Johnny Manziel the football player has been great for us. He comes in the building, he prepares, he helps Brian [Hoyer] out as far as his preparation as the starter, he works hard in practice, he works hard in the weight room, he works hard in the meeting room. If you lived under a rock and you didn't know who he was and you just kind of spent some time around the building, he's just another guy on the team. There is nothing in the way he carries himself that you would think that there is any diva like qualities or anything like that. He's humble and he's a worker. You could tell. His game has come a long way since the beginning of the season. Just coming off the practice field now; he had a heck of a day throwing when he was taking the reps as the backup and also some of the scout team reps."

My interpretation: Pettine is complimenting Manziel, but he's also making a distinction between Manziel the football player and something else -- Manziel the persona, Manziel the off-field storyline, Manziel the jersey-selling driver, Manziel the Golf Digester. He's either doing so to punctuate to media of the Houston Texans, Manziel's de facto hometown team, Manziel is doing right in Cleveland. Or -- wait for it -- he wants to make sure Manziel is focusing on just that, being the football player.

Pettine to Cleveland Browns media, when asked about Ben Tate's frustration with the three-man running back committee:

"Ben is a competitor. While I don't think it's good practice to air how you feel publicly, it's understandable. If you sat with every player and said, 'What's your agenda? What's your goal? How do you think your playing time should be handled? What do you see your roll as?' We're not going to bat 1,000. There will be times when we have to choose as a staff what we feel is best for the team over what the individual feels is best for him, and I think this is an example of that. Ben is a guy that wants the ball, wants to be out there, wants to be the guy, so it's understandable when we started Terrance over him and had the results that we had."

My interpretation: Look what we did with Terrance West starting last week (94 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries), something you'll probably be salty about, Ben, but that's sort of what we want -- a salty Ben Tate entering a reunion with his old team. That will get him going after a nearly-month-long slump.

A 16-game season is about timing and motivation, something Pettine seems to understand when addressing the media.