- Chubb left to be checked for a concussion. BND is saying he tested negative and is fine. It was on a hit from Mack Wilson around the shoulder area.
- Defense way ahead of offense, usual for 1st day of pads.
- Speaking of LBs, Zegura says they look really good, "flying around," first praised Mack, Phillips, and Sione, but then said Goodman, too. They should be two things for sure: Faster and better tacklers.
- More praise for Hodge but now also Taywan Taylor. We traded for that man and I keep forgetting him.
- Macro smiles: Only a dozen on league-wide Covid list. 3 came off and 0 went on. That's pretty excellent.
- Honestly, that's all I got, haven't seen much but wanted to tee up the thread.
Observations and stuff
A lot of play action, good.
All top 3 TE's getting a lot of receptions. Njoku with some drops. Harrison Bryant continues to impress. Moves smooth, looks the part. Hoop as advertised.
A few big injuries around the league ... but not us so far.
Defense won most of the day
Garrett, Joseph, Ratley, Jarvis, and of course Tretter didn't practice.
Olumba, 6-2 and 205, was the starting DB with Greedy. Ward was held out some "due to the slick track (rain)".
Wills looked good. Not outmatched.
Delpit to the 1's! (Joseph out w a foot)
AVP has called all the plays thus far.
New uni pants were on display. The brown striped ones, not the color-rushed ones.
Yer killin me Ocon. Cannot make up my mind which uniform combo I like best. Since I am an old guy ( just had the 40th anniversary of my 23rd birthday ) I will revert to the Brown on top of white.
The most encouraging sign that we are righting the ship is that when a supposed starter misses some time, his drafted replacement actually looks the part and is productive. When you add that to the kids drafted to be immediate impact players also fit that category - we are on track. That kind of track record also means you have a better than average chance to hit on your marquee free agents.
Did I mention how stoked I am for this season? 😀
Gribbs and Gibbs "game balls" of today
D: The LB's and man-o-man Grant Delpit looks the part
O: Taywan Taylor
Jarvis (hip) and Joseph (foot) were on simple rest days as they're eased back in to it. No set backs. Part of the plan.
Grossi saying the offense had a "horrendous day".
Here’s the video of Mack Wilson taking down Nick Chubb which injured his head/neck.
https://twitter.com/moreforyou_cle/status/1295549324710027265?s=21
I'm going to be a nervous wreck about this offense until we either host a playoff game or completely flame out, whichever comes first. I require the purest browns pravda to sate those nerves, exclusively of passing highlights, and taken intravenously.
This was so much easier when we sucked. Ohhh god.
I will say, even though we didn't live up to it, I loved last season's hype-train. A total blast, until we were kicked in the teeth in the opener.
Fasten your seat belt, bro.....
Zac Jackson (The Athletic) saying ...
Thus far, the Browns mostly have been in a package with four defensive backs and three linebackers: Wilson and Sione Takitaki outside and B.J. Goodson inside.
Delpit is going to be on the field when the real games start, but we still don’t know if that will be as the free safety or elsewhere (but he'll be there)
He echos Grossi. The offense looked bad, and Baker was double clutching and throwing high often, in a oddly short 80 min practice.
Much more of this and JC's knee will start feeling a whole lot better in a whole lotta quick...
Insiders saying JC"s knee is "just bad knees, needed a clean out". That's good news, as is his history of gutting it out.
Such a smart, forward-thinking draft pick. A guy who has more value to an OZB scheme than to anyone else, you get incredible value for your 5th. I'd say the Browns, already impressed, think of him like a 3rd rounder... pretty high for a center, a guy you think will become a starter.
And because Tretter is unlikely to be a dude who plays into his mid-30s, he'll become that starter on a rookie deal. I doubt he waits more than two seasons.
Not to always be a Baker apologist, but he was awesome the day before and it was rainy yesterday. Defense is always ahead in the early padded practices. Not worried at all.
If we can run the ball... and we can... we'll be able to pass it at a very high level. That's the offense.
Everyone going ape-shit over Wills getting bested by OV on the Wilson/Chubb takedown clip. Meh.
People need to stop forgetting who Olivier Vernon is. The guy was injured last year, and he's not elite, but he's a damn good pass rusher who is on a mission to prove his worth.
I expect Wills to struggle throughout camp. He'll be better for it.
His "welcome to the NFL moment, rook".....
I think hot negative takes early in TC have become the bane of my football existence. Along with injuries. Really hope Mack's knee is okay.
So, the downers so far...
Chubb, buy hey, we have Kareem, and Nick will be back
Mack Wilson - I'm watching that mechanism of injury and it can go either way. He could have popped is ACL (I'm leaning away from that based on the film), or sprained the poster capsule of his knee with a little LCL involvement as well (& then that's probably involve some posterolateral meniscus). If LCL and posterior capsule sprain, he could be back in 4-6 weeks.
Offense is struggling. We can only hope it's due to the weirdest installation of all time, due to CoVid.
We're now down 3 starters, 2 of which are being replaced by rookies (Phillips and Harris)
Wills - videos of AC and OV besting him are out there. Callahan has some work to do. Teller and Harris doing fine though.
Larry O. with a mild groin - so the D line is now down 3 (Larry O, Myles, and Billings) at the moment.
The good & fun stuff news ...
The LSU boys, Phillips and Delpit, are looking really good. Phillips filling holes nicely yesterday + an interception. Delpit simply stands out when out there. The DB room in general is looking just fab, with the Delpit, Redwine, and K-Jo reports. Just great depth.
Jordan Elliott is walking back these 2nd string guards into the backfield.
Ken Carmen has started the "sign Clay Matthews III"" talk lol. Would be fun. It's a perfect spot for a veteran LB tbh. Alec Ogletree, Derron Lee, and Kareem Martin are other names being tossed around. A trade for Kwon Alexander is being spit-balled by the Twitter GM's.
Taki is looking super yoked, and starting at SAM. BJG @ MIKE. Mack @ WILL, but it'll likely be Phillips now (I hope, as I like that kid).
DJP - zero drops. Nice.
Josina saying OBJ is a man possessed. LFG.
Myles is maybe just a day or two away
J'Mon with the catch of the day
Harrison Bryant - ok, I'm getting this pick now, as the praise for this kid just keeps coming, and he's a converted OT. KS has to be digging a looks-the-part TE who can catch and block - what HC wouldn't I guess - ha. Add that Njoku is weirding out some on his Zoom call, and having his traditional drops.
My #1 desire is to hear the offense has a day. Zegura pointing out in 2014 and especially 2015, the defense "won the day" for weeks in a row, like 20+ practices worth. Woof!
Mike Garafolo is reporting that Mack Wilson's injury is a significant knee hyperextension. Ouch.
Now, i am not a doctor, and I don't even play one on a forum board - but that just sounds to me like a minimum 2 weeks away from the field.
Jacob Phillips - answer the door. Opportunity is knocking.
https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1295877604835295233
Yeah, 2 weeks would be the incredibly lucky end of this thing. I'm hoping MKC's mention of season ending surgery is just one of her occasional link-bait tweets, which she does now and then.
I'm kind of hoping, I think, there is an element of pouting involved to this knee. Kind of like when a WR misses the catch, slowly gets up, and 10 minutes later he's back in the game. He was demoted to 2nd team yesterday as Chubb-punishment. I have no doubt he injured his knee, but he's an emotional player, so let's hope there's a degree of "fuck this shit and now it's my damn knee" moment that played into it. Yes, I get this is wishful thinking.
Well, even a bad hyperextension is better than a tear. I also hope the mention of surgery was just that, tossing out the outside possibility. Seems more like a 4-week recovery, from what I'm reading. I gotta think we'll look for some help.
In a weird way, it might push someone like Willie off the team: You bring in a solid veteran (we have assets and cap), Mack comes back week 2 or 3, it's too crowded.
Harrison Bryant just looks so good on the field to me, I really don't care if he tests meh. It's a lot like Mack Wilson: Nothing about the way they move is unathletic. Not one bit. They're both naturals.
Ongoing issue with DPJ seems to be separation, he's not sudden. It's been a bit of an issue already, I hear. Higgins figured out the craft, DPJ can too.
Yeah, we're really strong in the defensive backfield. And I'll toss in that the PD said we're all sleeping on Clayborn and that won't last long.
It's crazy how many very successful receivers throughout history of the NFL were knocked for lack of separation. Wasn't Jarvis? Anywho, DPJ is using his frame and is high-pointing his catches thus far. Add that he has a reputation for catching outside of his radius, and most importantly, CATCHES THE DAMN BALL. He was the Sparq-iest WR of the draft, edging out Ruggs III, Claypool, and Nims. If he has any football intuition at all, he can make this work. Looking around, he had the same Sparq score as DK Metcalf.
Side note: our own Taywon Talyor was very Spraq'ed as well, 4th in his class.
I guess Bryant and Hoop got most of the TE looks yesterday.
I missed this, but Porter Gustin replaced Chad Thomas with the 1's yesterday. Probably just camp stuff to give the coaches a look.
I do think they dig Gustin, keep seeing him slated to make the 53. Nice late season find, love stories like that.
Yeah, they do hammer separation but it's pretty valid. OBJ with the injury just could not separate and it was a central part of the 2019 nightmare: Our biggest get, our elite WR1, just couldn't get open. Like 92nd.
Agree DPJ is different, a big guy who can sky and highpoint, can carve out a place in the red zone... but he'll need to learn to route, too. Everybody's fast at this level but you gotta find a way to get in and out of cuts, set up DBs, all of that. Higgins was damn near out of the league and he got bigger, faster, and became a badass route runner.
Both guys catch it. I like them and Hodge as the keepers. Wonder if Taywan or Ratley forces his way in. Bet a lot depends on how strongly they believe both Landry and OBJ will be on the team in 2021.
If not, you might keep an extra guy to fill up the on-deck circle, see all four every day in practice.
OBJ was seen jogging off the field before practice was over...no word on why
Porter Gustin isn’t out of nowhere either. He was a 5⭐️ recruit.
You keep seeing Jed getting beat, but Gustin whipped around Conklin yesterday for a virtual sack.