Jacoby Brissett trusts in Kevin Stefanski's plan to get him ready for the Sept. 11 opener. (TheLandOnDemand)
Jacoby Brissett expected to get his first preseason action Saturday against Bears
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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.
Takeaways from Browns practice and interviews …
All along, Kevin Stefanski insisted he would follow “the plan” in preparing Jacoby Brissett to be the Browns’ starting quarterback to open the regular season and hold it down for possibly 11 games during Deshaun Watson’s NFL-imposed suspension.
So we’re down to 18 days before the opener in Charlotte, NC, against Baker Mayfield’s Carolina Panthers, and Brissett is the only quarterback on hand not to play in a practice game yet.
Preseason game snaps
Joshua Dobbs: 70.
Josh Rosen: 50.
Deshaun Watson: 9.
Jacoby Brissett: 0.
The plan is hard to understand.
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t make the plan, so that’s probably why,” Brissett said on Wednesday.
“It’s a part of the plan. We’ve been doing a good job on the field at practice, making it as game-like as possible. This week’s another steppingstone in the plan.”
Brissett’s reputation before signing with the Browns was that he was adept at taking over as a starting quarterback at a moment’s notice. He did it with the Patriots as a rookie in 2016, with the Colts his second season in 2017 and then again in 2019, and finally last season with the Dolphins.
This situation is different here, in that Brissett and his new team have known since he signed in March that he probably would be the team’s starter to begin the season. And even though this is Brissett’s fourth new team in seven years, the Browns have chosen not to play him – yet.
Isn’t that odd?
“Aw, no, I don’t think so,” guard Joel Bitonio said. “Some teams play everybody. Some teams like the Rams don’t play anybody. I think it’s just Coach’s preference. I know he has a plan this week. I’m not exactly sure what it is. I know everybody’s preparing to play this week.”
Bitonio said that Stefanski has not spelled out the quarterback plan in general to the full offensive team.
“No,” he said. “We know that Jacoby’s the starter. I think he’s preparing this week to play.”
Stefanski has declined to disclose it, but all indications are that Brissett and Joshua Dobbs will get the bulk of play time at quarterback in the last practice game Saturday against the Chicago Bears in FirstEnergy Stadium. Bears coach Matt Eberflus intends to play his starters at least a half, and he and Stefanski have consulted on their own “rules of engagement” for the game.
The question then becomes is one half of live game action enough to prepare Brissett for the real season?
After Saturday night’s finale, the Browns have three scheduled practices next week. Per the collective bargaining agreement, players receive three off days in a row on Labor Day weekend. Then they return on Labor Day Monday to begin the routine for a regular game week with a Monday walk-through, and full practices on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Is that enough time for Brissett to be fully acclimated as the starter?
“I do believe that for sure,” offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said. “I am not sure how much or if he will play this week, but we have calculated reps and started to get him more and more a few weeks back moving in the direction of him starting the season. He will have plenty of reps when the first kickoff happens.”
“I think we have a lot of work as an offense,” said quarterbacks coach Drew Petzing. “You’re never where you want to be. Even as the year goes on, you’re still trying to perfect things, so that process isn’t going to change from now until Week 1. Certainly, we have a lot of faith in all the guys in the room to go out and operate the offense necessary to win football games.”
Morning Danish
Two reasons why the Browns did not panic when they lost starting center Nick Harris to a season-ending knee injury are Michael Dunn and Hjalte (pronounced: YELL-duh) Froholdt.
Both players are natural guards but have impressed the coaches with their versatility to play center.
Dunn made his professional debut at the position last week against the Eagles and displayed tremendous agility pulling on a few run plays.
“That’s probably the toughest thing you have to do at center is snap and pull at the same time,” Bitonio said. “It was pretty impressive, those blocks he had on the edge.”
Froholdt, 6-5 and 310 pounds, also has taken snaps at the position. Until recently, he was merely a curiosity, a native of Denmark who was converted from defensive line at Arkansas.
When Bill Belichick drafted Froholdt in the fourth round in 2019, he became only the second native of Denmark to be drafted. The first was future Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen.
“He’s super strong,” Bitonio said. “He’s a little bit more compact, but super strong. If you look at his quads, we always joke around how big his legs are and how powerful he is. But he’s a smart guy, he can play all three positions inside. He can move people. He can move pretty well, too. I think a lot of our inside guys are pretty mobile. Honestly, we have a lot of guys on the inside who I think can be valuable to this team and he’s one of them.”
Bitonio credits line coach Bill Callahan for creating versatility on the line.
“He’s always working the backup guys. Even if it’s not in team periods, they always get reps at center before practice or after practice,” Bitonio said.
So Dunn and Froholdt give Callahan two backups to new starting center Ethan Pocic.
And that’s why the Browns have no intention to re-sign JC Tretter.
Brownie bits
It was a good day for receiver Anthony Schwartz. He caught at least five balls without a drop in team drills …
It wasn’t a good day for guard Wyatt Teller. After successive false start penalties, he was pulled off the field by Callahan …
Defensive end Isaiah Thomas (broken finger) was back with the team and participated with a wrap over his right hand …
Notables not practicing were Jadeveon Clowney, Jerome Ford, Chris Hubbard, Amari Cooper, Greg Newsome, Chase Winovich and Michael Woods.
