This is a battery you won't see again in 2022 -- center Nick Harris snapping to quarterback Deshaun Watson. (CBS Sports)
Like everyone else, Browns are struggling with how to avoid preseason injuries
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Second thoughts on the Browns’ 24-13 victory over Jacksonville Jaguars …
NFL coaches grapple with this training camp conundrum every year.
What’s the best method to condition your team in the summer heat, toughen it, and prepare it for the regular season? How do you balance too much work, too much hitting, against the risk of injury? How much play time in the preseason games is too little or too much?
Kevin Stefanski is a smart man surrounded by smart men on his staff and in the front office. And he hasn’t come up with the right answers, either.
In the last two weeks, the Browns have lost two important players for the season – return specialist Jakeem Grant to an Achilles injury and center Nick Harris to a knee injury. Each time, Stefanski was doing the right thing with his players.
Stefanski’s practices have been notably absent of live hitting all summer. Players sometimes get their most productive work in simple, mental walk-throughs. The 7-on-7s and team drills many times are less than full speed. I haven’t seen a big hit in camp all summer.
Stefanski’s script was to ramp up slowly so that the intensity peaks this coming week in the joint practices against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday and Friday prior to their meeting in preseason game 2 on Sunday. It made sense.
Then Grant got hurt at practice. His injury was non-contact. His Achilles tendon blew up running a route in a one-on-one passing drill. Totally random.
In the first preseason game Friday night in Jacksonville, Stefanski was meticulously selective in whom he played. The big guns stayed out. Those who played needed the work.
Deshaun Watson needed the work after not playing for 19 months. Harris needed the work as he takes the starting center reins from departed JC Tretter after two years of grooming.
And then Harris busted his right knee on the second play of the game. Totally random.
On Saturday, Stefanski announced that Harris likely will need season-ending surgery, pending verification from a second opinion.
“All of these injuries stink,” Stefanski said. “You do not like anybody to get injured. Nick certainly is a guy who has been working so hard this offseason.”
The Browns are a lesser team without Grant and Harris.
Grant, who had six return touchdowns in six NFL seasons, was the first true return specialist the Browns acquired since Travis Benjamin scored their last return TD in 2015.
Receiver Ja’Marcus Bradley was first up to audition as his replacement in Jacksonville and the results were meh. D’Ernest Johnson, Demetric Felton, Donovan Peoples-Jones, perhaps Michael Harley, are candidates to audition, too. None is the special returner that Grant was.
In Harris’ place now comes Ethan Pocic, a solid veteran pickup of GM Andrew Berry in free agency. “We went out and got him for a reason. Excited about what he did last night,” Stefanski said.
Pocic, 6-6 and 320 pounds, is much bigger than the squatty Harris and less athletic. Bigger isn’t always better in the wide zone scheme run by line coach Bill Callahan.
Pocic’s value was his versatility to fill in at any of the three interior positions. He has 40 career starts at center and guard with the Seattle Seahawks and will be competent in a starting role. But Harris’ athleticism in the Browns’ wide zone scheme was something that excited line coach Bill Callahan. Now the Browns will have to adjust.
“We will definitely play to our players’ strengths,” Stefanski said. “No two players are the same. They sometimes share similarities and those type of things, but we will ask Ethan to play like Ethan and not play like somebody else.”
I wouldn’t expect the Browns to recall Tretter, 31, who is still unsigned. He only plays center and for the last several years he hardly practiced because of chronic knee injuries.
The Browns need to groom a younger player to fill the swing role as a backup for the interior positions. The most likely candidates are Blake Hance, Michael Dunn and rookie Dawson Deaton.
Adjusting on the fly is in the job description of head coach and GM. They can do that well.
The problem is figuring out how to manage training camp and the preseason.
The baton is passed
We might be able to add Watson to the list of players lost for the season, too.
The quarterback should learn his suspension fate from NFL appeals officer Peter C. Harvey this week. Or Watson will agree to a settlement that could get him back on the field late in the year.
Watson’s side has reportedly floated an offer of eight games suspension and a $5 million fine. The NFL wants an indefinite suspension with a minimum of one year and a hefty fine. It would appear that the middle ground is in the 12-game range with a higher fine than $5 million.
If Watson doesn’t accept that, the next step is a fight in the federal court system, which would keep the ominous story in the headlines for months.
Acknowledging that Watson will be lost for some extended time, Stefanski has now reached the point of readying Jacoby Brissett to take over as Browns starting quarterback.
Starting at Sunday’s practice, Brissett will get the majority of snaps with the No. 1 offense.
“Yes, and that has been the plan really from the beginning, just to at some point let Jacoby get the majority of them,” Stefanski said. “[We will] still work Deshaun, still work Josh Dobbs and still work Josh Rosen, but Jacoby will get the majority starting this block.”
Brissett may not play in the game against the Eagles, however. Stefanski wants to reserve Brissett’s playing time for the dress rehearsal preseason finale Aug. 27 against the Chicago Bears.
What does Berry do in the doomsday scenario of a full-year suspension of Watson? What about a 12-game suspension?
According to my sources, the Browns still have made no contact with the San Francisco 49ers or agent Don Yee in regards to best-available-quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Quick hitters
Yes, it’s a small sample size, as Stefanski pointed out, but the preseason debut performances in Jacksonville of 2022 draft picks running back Jerome Ford (fifth round), cornerback M.J. Emerson (third), defensive end Isaiah Thomas (seventh), and place-kicker Cade York (fourth round) raise the possibility of the 2022 draft being Berry’s finest work. But the Browns need receiver David Bell (third) and defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey (fourth) to step up for the team to win the AFC North division title …
On the other hand, Berry’s trade-down from the second round was one that will be interesting to gauge going forward. The Browns moved from No. 33 in the second round in exchange for No. 68 (Emerson), No. 108 (Winfrey) and No. 124 (York). By doing so, the Browns passed up Georgia receiver George Pickens, who was taken No. 52 overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pickens looks like the fast, rangy receiver the Browns don’t have …
Shoutout to off-radar players who looked good in Jacksonville: Quarterback Josh Dobbs (10 of 13, 108 yards, 1 TD, 126.4 rating), linebacker Dakota Allen (team-high eight tackles, including one for a loss), and punter Corey Bojorquez (two punts for a 59.0 gross average).
