PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- They are a defensive line Odd Couple, with right end Courtney Brown in the role of Felix Unger and left tackle Gerard Warren portraying Oscar Madison, and whether the highly touted tandem can get even with the ledger book for past shortcomings will go a long way toward determining the fate of the Cleveland Browns in 2002.

There is, as should be the case, heavy scrutiny this summer of an anemic Browns offense which statistically ranked last in the league a year ago. While the microscope isn't quite as focused on a talented defensive line, a unit where the four starters all underachieved at various points of their respective careers, Warren is quick to acknowledge it should be.

It is, Warren insisted, a group that should be mentioned among the best in the league this season, one that should serve as a catalyst for the Browns' first playoff appearance of the franchise's second NFL incarnation.

	Gerard Warren recorded five sacks in his rookie season.

"Oh, no doubt, we should set the tone," said Warren, the team's first-round selection in the 2001 draft, after a Friday combined practice here with the Buffalo Bills. "We should create the kind of (chaos) the rest of the team feeds off, and I think people are looking at us to do that, really."

The more veteran members of the foursome are left end Kenard Lang, acquired via free agency this summer from the Washington Redskins, and right tackle Orpheus Roye, who came to the Browns from the Pittsburgh Steelers as an unrestricted player in 2000. In all, the Browns invested $32.78 million in signing bonuses for the four linemen.

But the highest profiles, and deservedly so, belong to Brown and Warren, who between them collected about $22 million before ever playing a single NFL snap.

The former was the first overall player chosen in the 2000 draft, the latter the third pick in the first round of the 2001 lottery. Both were deemed future stars and compared by scouts to linemen who will someday be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, with Brown often likened to Bruce Smith and Warren thought to be the second coming of Warren Sapp.

So far, more so in the case of Brown, the comparisons have been flawed. That's why it is imperative the two start delivering dividends this season.

The two represent the kind of inside-outside combination that every defensive coordinator covets: Brown the upfield pass rusher and Warren the interior bopper. "You think about those two and you think thunder and lightning," said Browns defensive boss Foge Fazio.

You also think the most classic Neil Simon characters. Brown is soft-spoken, and clearly uncomfortable in interview situations, a laconic player who talks in clichés and prefers to speak of "we" rather than "I." He is a neat freak, having exited the practice field Friday, when the heat index here reached 100 degrees, with his uniform jersey still tucked in his pants. Every move Brown makes seems overly calculated and too precise.

On the flip side, Warren is a caricature, a kind of Fat Albert persona who counters the "yes sir" personality of Brown with his own "yeah, man" aura. He is the hip-hopper of the two, a guy who within minutes of the conclusion of Friday's workout had stripped down to a T-shirt which read: "Dawg Days." The bet is that Warren, who accumulated more than his share of team- and league-imposed fines as a rookie for a variety of indiscretions, has to have a cleaning service come in weekly to tidy up his apartment, just so he can find his shoes every day.

"It's amazing," Fazio said, "that two guys with such (similarly) great talent can be so different in terms of their personalities." A former Penn State star, Brown is such a solid character -- the kind of well-mannered person you might want your daughter to bring home to dinner, but a taciturn young man whose demeanor reflects a dispassionate playing style -- it is difficult to be critical of him. But during his two-year career, a tenure marked by injuries and inconsistency, Brown has hardly been the kind of playmaker scouts universally believed he would be.

	“	It's not like he's running out of time or anything, but this is the time now for him to step it up, and we're counting on that. There are no more excuses. You can see at times just how good he can be, like in the Chicago game last year, but then something always seems to happen. We thought the Chicago game was going to be a launching point but then he got hurt. We have to have him playing at a high level. ”
		— Butch Davis, Browns coach on Courtney Brown

He has played in just 21 of a possible 32 games, missing 11 contests with knee and ankle injuries last season and performing injured much of the time in his 2000 rookie campaign, and totaled 90 tackles, nine sacks, two forced fumbles and 12 pass deflections. But even when he has been completely healthy, Brown has only rarely been a difference maker, a defender who can dominate a contest.

Brown has recorded sacks in just six of 21 games, with six of his nine quarterback kills coming in two great outings, three sacks each against Pittsburgh in 2000 and Chicago in 2001. Those performances offered fleeting Kodak moments of what Brown can be, and while no one expects many three-sack games from any pass rusher, he has to compress the pocket with more frequency for the Browns to improve their pass rush.

Part of his charge is to stay healthy ("Something that's not in my control," Brown said on Friday), which would go a long way toward elevating his performances, but Cleveland coach Butch Davis didn't parse words in noting that the right end is under the gun.

"It's not like he's running out of time or anything, but this is the time now for him to step it up, and we're counting on that," Davis said. "There are no more excuses. You can see at times just how good he can be, like in the Chicago game last year, but then something always seems to happen. We thought the Chicago game was going to be a launching point but then he got hurt. We have to have him playing at a high level."

For his part, Brown is uneasy discussing the past, and deftly dodges most questions about the high expectations with which he entered the league.

Warren, conversely, is a veritable quote machine who will talk about himself, teammates, Afghanistan, chop blocks and terrorists ... sometimes in the same sentence and without having to stop to inhale. He posted 61 tackles and five sacks as a rookie but his season was marked by streaks of immaturity that occasionally landed him in hot water. And it wasn't until he moved to left tackle at midseason that Warren began landing regularly in opposition backfields, where he flashed a disruptive bent.

"The light went on at the middle of the season," Davis assessed. "He discovered what it means to play at this level. The guy is a mauler and the brawler, the kind of player that you want at tackle. He can dominate and, the fact he's a much more mature kind now than he was a year ago, well, that will help."

Indeed, the Buffalo interior linemen had a difficult time controlling Warren during the weekend workouts, and the suspicion is that the second-year tackle is going to draw a lot of double-teams in 2002. Warren is a bit of a marked man -- the league altered its rules to protect quarterbacks this season, in large part because of a shot Warren delivered to Mark Brunell in 2001, after the Jacksonville star had thrown an interception -- but it matters not to the former University of Florida star.

Double-team him, triple- him if you must, Warren is hell-bent on wreaking havoc in '02. He is, in essence, Oscar Madison with a feigned mad-on, a guy on a mission, and who is unabashed about discussing his goals for the year. Asked if he was buying into all of the playoff expectations the pundits have laid out for the Browns, he scoffed and noted that a postseason berth that did not include a Super Bowl appearance would simply mean some unfinished business.

He laughs -- actually a big-man's belly-rolling roar -- when he's discussing the disparate natures of himself and Brown. But he "wants to go to war" with his teammates and wants the two to share a dream experience in 2002. In his quieter moments, Warren said, he thinks about playing in the Super Bowl in San Diego and then in the Pro Bowl as well.

"The way I see it," Warren said, "I can just go straight from San Diego to Honolulu. Jump on the plane with a Super Bowl ring and then go collect a lei, OK? And I see me taking Courtney along with me, too."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.