Tag: offseason activities

Report: Browns to hold first OTA practice today in Berea

The Cleveland Browns, at least some of them, will be back in town for OTAs today according to a report. Will the stars show up?

The Cleveland Browns got a look at a few of their players during rookie minicamp but there has been some uncertainty around when veterans would show up for organized team activities.

The players and team had been discussing what OTAs would look like after the NFLPA encouraged players to avoid them this year. For now, all team activities are considered voluntary so skipping them would not be disciplined. Many players have chosen to skip OTAs in the past including Odell Beckham Jr. but this would have been the first year a majority of the players skipped if they followed the NFLPA recommendations.

So far, we have a report that OBJ will be in attendance and a social media message from Myles Garrett to “Tell Stefanski we on the way.”

We now have more information about the start of OTAs as it looks like we will have players in Berea today with media access tomorrow:

 

Garrett’s social media post may be the only star player confirmed to be there this week. It will be interesting if Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry, Beckham, and the rest of the stars join Garrett this week.

It will also be interesting to see if J.C. Tretter, starting center and president of the NFLPA, shows up or if he holds the NFLPA line related to staying away from OTAs this offseason.

For now, Browns fans can get excited about some of their team getting on the field together. With high expectations and quite a few new players, the Browns can benefit from as much time together as possible.

Coming off a winning season and getting a second year within the systems put in place last year, the Browns get a chance to build on something as OTAs open up.

Browns find value in small group rookie minicamp; Long term option?

The Cleveland Browns found a lot of value from having a small group of guys in during rookie minicamp. Could this new normal stick around?

The Cleveland Browns usually have players all over the field during their first rookie minicamp. From drafted players, undrafted players, and tryout players, minicamp can get quite crowded in Berea.

“Usually.”

This year, the Browns only had 18 players in for camp:

Drafted players: Greg Newsome II, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Anthony Schwartz, James Hudson, Tommy Togiai, Tony Fields II, Richard LeCounte III, and Demetric Felton

Undrafted players: Marvin Wilson, Romeo McKnight, Kondre Thomas, Emmanuel Rugamba, and Tre Harbison

Tryout players: Johnny Dizon, Josh Love, and Riley Neal

Already on roster players: Malik McDowell and Kyle Markway (since released and replaced by Connor Davis)

With such a small group of guys, the Browns had to get creative at times. As seen on Building the Browns, anyone available to take a snap was used at times including defensive coordinator Joe Woods playing quarterback.

While that doesn’t seem like a positive, the small numbers were mentioned as positive multiple times. From head coach Kevin Stefanski, Woods, Hudson, Newsome, and others have all noted the benefit of having one on one time with the coaches.

Hudson, in particular, is able to benefit from a lot of time with Bill Callahan and Scott Peters. The “Master Class” details shown in this week’s Building the Browns episode included keeping his ankle outside of his knee as he is kicking out and how to explode into an oncoming player.

As everyone is noting the positives of the smaller class, will the Browns go back to a larger group next year as, hopefully, the pandemic will no longer have a large impact or will this become the new normal?

The team will likely weigh the benefits of their drafted and undrafted players getting one on one time versus getting a chance to see a lot of tryout guys and field full-team drills. There are benefits to both but the amount of time spent lauding the amount of coaching that was able to happen could mean the Browns move in this direction in the future.