Browns Training Camp Notes – 8/16/2011 – Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr Edition

Berea was buzzing because Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr were visiting Browns practice.  It was actually quite funny to me that everyone was dying for a photo op of Tressel and Lloyd Carr talking to each other as they were about 40 yards apart for most of practice.  I’m not sure what, exactly, they thought was going to happen.  When Tressel found his way to Lloyd Carr, he smiled, shook his hand, patted his shoulder warmly with the other and they chatted pleasantly.  Not sure why anyone expected anything else other than that.  Then again, here I am talking about it.

As for the Cleveland Browns and what is happening there, we’ll start with the injuries.  The Browns have a lot of minor injuries that are affecting the practice field.  Usama Young, Scott Fujita, and Chris Gocong were all out today.  Fujita and Young are nursing minor leg injuries and Gocong continues to rest after his week-old stinger.  Coye Francies was banged up in the first pre-season game and he appeared to be fighting hard through some limping on the practice field.  With the exceptional amount of competition among the corners, it makes some sense.  Mohamed Massaquoi was in regular shoes again today and doing lots of pushups, for whatever reason.

Which brings me to Montario Hardesty.  It is kind of crazy how much attention gets paid to Hardesty considering he hasn’t played much and his ability is still largely unknown.  Add onto all this that the Browns went out and got Brandon Jackson to play running back this year, and it seems like the Montario Hardesty storyline would only be present if and when he is able to do anything.  But everyone’s in on it.  Hardesty was out running today and fell down after a run.  The fans and media all kind of audibly gasped as he hit the turf.  They murmured to each other has he popped up and ran back to the huddle like it was nothing.  Maybe it is just a hangover from the injury-plagued staph infection era of Browns football.

Josh Cribbs continues to get better and better as a receiver.  This is really only Josh Cribbs’ third year playing wide receiver, and much of last year he was plagued by injuries.  So far this season Josh has been healthy and he is really starting to put some polish on his game.  He has shown some really great hands and is running his routes more crisply than ever before.  In addition to that, there is nobody on the field who is more friendly to the QB on broken plays.  Cribbs is always wary when McCoy has been flushed out of the pocket and he seemingly always gets himself into a decent position to bail his QB out in space.  We don’t expect NFL players to continue to improve into their late 20’s, but it seems that Cribbs might be an exception to the rule.

Finally, the battle continues at cornerback. Ramzee Robinson, Coye Francies and Dimitri Patterson seem to have a leg up as the backups to Haden, Brown and Buster Skrine.  As always, Mike Adams is a wildcard between safety and corner, although with Usama Young out, Adams has been playing safety.  After that, James Dockery is continuing to lay it all on the line.  He played corner, safety and worked with all the special teams units today as he angles to make this team in some capacity.

No news is good news on the offensive and defensive lines.  Kaluka Maiava, Titus Brown and Brian Smith are getting tons of work with the first team defense as injury replacements.  The Browns were working diligently to prepare for the GLC with Jarrett Brown running the “scout” offense.  Not sure we will ever see Stafford take off for a run out of the pocket, but at least Brown gave the first team defense the pre-snap look of the Lions.

Last, but not least, Cavaliers’ GM Chris Grant was hanging out today too, but he was completely overshadowed by Tressel.  That doesn’t happen to 6’9″ NBA executives very often, I don’t imagine.