BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With the sun set on blast furnace and humidity on sweltering, the Browns wrapped up their preparations for Saturday’s preseason opener in Jacksonville Thursday afternoon.
To beat another round of expected storms, head coach Kevin Stefanski moved practice up 55 minutes so they could work outside after having to squeeze Wednesday’s work in on 50 yards of indoor turf.
“Acclimating to Jacksonville weather is important,” Stefanski said.
The good news for players was that they weren’t in pads and the second half of practice was basically a glorified walk through.
After their work was done the entire team went over to thank fans for coming out early for the practice.
Hamstrung 7 – A total of seven players are dealing with hamstring injuries with cornerback M.J. Stewart, who is competing for time at nickel in camp, joining the growing list Thursday.
“Soft-tissue injuries are prevalent across the league in the first weeks of training camp,” Stefanski said. “That is what the data suggests.
Obviously, we do not want anybody to get injured, and we try to prevent as many as we can. There is something about playing football, though, where you react and you burst, which is different than training. You can train quite a bit and be in great shape, but then all of the sudden, the ball is in the air and you have to burst for it. That is oftentimes what happens with soft-tissue injuries. It is something that we spend a lot of time on trying to prevent.”
The injury has also kept safety Grant Delpit, defensive end Myles Garrett, safety Ronnie Harrison Jr., receiver Alexander Hollins, linebacker Montrel Meander and receiver Anthony Schwartz off the field.
“I would love to tell you that we could prevent all of them; I do not think that is realistic,” Stefanski said. “It is the normal course of training camp, and you have to practice football in order to get ready to play football. Again, hate that it is out there. I do not think that we are different than most that we are dealing with some of it right now, but I am hopeful over the course of the next few days that guys start to come off of that group.”
Play of the day – The defense forgot tight end Austin Hooper was on the field and Hooper, who was wide open, reeled in a 10-yard touchdown from Baker Mayfield during an 11-on-11 end of game :08 seconds left on the clock situation to “win it.”
Just for kicks – Both kickers went 4-of-5 in the team field goal period.
Cody Parkey hit from 33, 36, 39 and 50 but missed from 45 wide right. Chase McLaughlin was successful from 33, 39, 45 and 50 but wide right from 36.
“We will alternate the kickers with each opportunity,” Stefanski said of the plans for Saturday night. “Coach Prief has done this before, and it makes sense to do it that way because if you do it by game, you do not know the opportunities that one guy is going to get versus the next game.”
Role reversal – Offensive starters got to play some scout-team defense late in practice during a half-speed period.
Mayfield “played” some safety and delivered a playful bump to fullback Johnny Stanton IV after one play.
Odell Beckham Jr. was at cornerback, Nick Chubb at safety and Wyatt Teller lined up at nickelback. Mayfield playfully chided Chubb and Beckham for “allowing” a touchdown on a deep throw to receiver Davion Davis.
Injury report – S Grant Delpit (hamstring), Tony Fields II (foot), DE Myles Garrett (hamstring), S Ronnie Harrison Jr.
(hamstring), WR Alexander Hollins (hamstring), DT Malik McDowell (rib), LB Montrel Meander (hamstring), S Sheldrick Redwine (ankle), WR Anthony Schwartz (hamstring), CB M.J. Stewart Jr. (hamstring), CB Denzel Ward (soreness) did not practice due to injury.
Puppy pound counter – A total of 43 puppies have been adopted at the Browns Puppy Pound at training camp this year. Since the program’s launch in 2015, 615 puppies from the Northeast Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) have been adopted by Browns fans at training camp.
