BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Browns offseason program entered the next phase this week with the start of OTAs.
Here’s the top Brownie Bites from the second OTA Wednesday, the first open to reporters.
Watson plan – As expected, Deshaun Watson spent the session taking reps without throwing a football. Watson threw Tuesday and Stefanski liked what he saw. “I think he looked like himself to me,” Stefanski said. “I've been able to watch him the last couple of weeks now that we've gotten into phase two. So I've seen him throw, he's making great progress and we will continue to just follow the medical team on this, but he looks like himself.” The rest is part of Watson’s rehab plan as he continues to work his way back from surgery to repair a broken glenoid in his right throwing shoulder. “We're rotating days for now,” Stefanski said. “That will change as we get into minicamp, as obviously we get into training camp. But for right now, he'll be throwing every other day.” Watson made good use of his time as he watched behind Jameis Winston and Tyler Huntley as he took a few snaps without throwing and the rest were “mental reps,” which Stefanski believes to be just as valuable as live reps. “I really think you can add another element of watching it while it's happening live,” Stefanski said. “So our guys really do lock in and try to get that mental rep. Now you're going to go into the meeting rooms and watch it again, so you're going to get another rep. But I just think all of it adds up. We don't want to be passive observers out here on the football field if we're not in.”
Pin and pull – Wyatt Teller’s highlight real should come with butter and maple syrup. He’s become the king of the pancake block in the Browns pin and pull scheme for interior linemen, an element he’s excited is staying in the Ken Dorsey and Kevin Stefanski playbook. “At the end of the day, while our OC has changed, our offensive line coach has changed. Our head coach is the same, and it's his offense, right,” Teller said. “The X's and O's haven't changed. Now the words we're going to be using, the way we're going to be utilizing stuff, that's the difference in the OC, stuff like that. But I truly believe that Kevin's damn good at what he does, and I have full faith in him. This offense, it's going to be just from the little glimpses. It's potent if we have the right people in the right places.” Teller understands the changes that were made this offseason, but he believes the elimination of self-inflicted wounds will elevate the offense more than any playbook or terminology alterations. “If we execute, we're going to be a really hard team to beat,” Teller said. “If we turn the ball over, which we're all a part of it. Sometimes I wish that, I made a joke earlier today that I was like, I just wish I was a little bit faster. Maybe I would've stopped one of the picks this year or something, whatever. Who knows if I was chasing after the ball or something. But we’ve got to be a little bit more sound team.”
Seeing red – The Browns defense took a quantum leap under new coordinator Jim Schwartz last year finishing No. 1 overall, but the focus is on being even better than they were a year ago. Cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. eyed a key metric Wednesday. “I would say red zone, red zone defense,” Emerson said. “We were in top three, top five in a lot of categories. I want to say red zone, we finished 26 in the league last year, so coming into this year, that's a big goal for us. If we can make opponents settle for three points instead of getting seven, we save four points for the offense, and four points in this league, that's a big difference and that's my goal for this defense, one of our goals.”
New do for unfinished business – Defensive end Za’Darius Smith cut his dreads and walked into the offseason program with a new hairstyle. “Just woke up one morning, man and thought I was ready for a change,” Smith said. “I said that now that I'm 30, I want to go with a new look. I've been talking to my parents, my mom and my kids and they all was agreeing with me. So I'm glad I did it. I look better, I look younger, I look slimmer.” The reviews from teammates, family and friends has been positive. “They like the new look,” Smith said. “They didn't know who I was, but a lot of people had jokes but it's all love man. Like I said, this is the brotherhood. You can come in how you want to and be yourself here, so just happy to do that man. And just excited about the new haircut.” Smith is glad to be back with the Browns are re-signing this offseason. “The culture, the chemistry with this team, man, everything. The brotherhood, man, the team camaraderie,” Smith said. “I had chances to go other places, but I felt like I didn't want that man. I felt like we didn't get the way we wanted to last year, man, and we got something that we need to finish here and hopefully we can get that done this year.”
End with a bang – Wednesday’s workout ended with the highlight of the day – rookie linebacker Nathaniel Watson picking off quarterback Tyler Huntley in as red zone drill and running the other way with the football. The entire defense ran down the field and celebrated with Watson.
Voluntary means voluntary – OTAs are voluntary and attendance is not required until the minicamp in mid June. A few big names not seen on the field Wednesday were Myles Garrett, Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore, David Njoku, Joel Bitonio, Dustin Hopkins and Dalvin Tomlinson.
