No, that's not Joe Flacco wearing No. 15 at Browns rookie camp. It's rent-a-thrower Jacob Sirmon, an undrafted tryout invitee from Northern Colorado. (TheLandOnDemand)
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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 rookie camp Day 1 …
The Browns had to invite an undrafted free agent quarterback to throw to receivers at their rookie minicamp because second-year QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson was not eligible to participate and has not been medically cleared to throw.
DTR suffered a hip subluxation in the Christmas Eve game against the Houston Texans. He may be ready for voluntary OTAs starting next week. The Browns wanted to be conservative with his rehab.
“I don’t know that he’s eligible to be a part of rookie camp. I don’t know if he’s ready to be throwing,” coach Kevin Stefanski said.
The invitee throwing to receivers is Jacob Sirmon, a 6-4, 235-pound passer from Northern Colorado. Sirmon started his college career at Washington, transferred to Central Michigan and played his last two years at Northern Colorado.
The Browns have four quarterbacks under contract – Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Tyler Huntley and DTR. There are no immediate plans to bring a fifth quarterback to training camp.
“We’ll see,” Stefanski said. “If we have a fifth quarterback that we deem worthy, then yes.”
Sirmon was assigned No. 15, the same jersey Joe Flacco wore during his four-game winning streak in December that took the Browns into the postseason. Flacco was not invited back and signed in free agency with the Indianapolis Colts.
Press conference winner
Way too early “most impressive Browns rookie” award goes to …
… defensive tackle Jowon Briggs, the last pick of their draft.
Briggs notched this distinction before any of the rookies stepped on the field when he met reporters for the first time since he was drafted.
Consider that:
* Briggs, 23, is married with one son and two daughters.
After his first son arrived, Briggs transferred from Virginia to Cincinnati to get help with the baby from his parents who live there. Briggs then worked at a chicken fast food restaurant to feed his family. His typical day with football, school and work lasted about 16 hours. He graduated in three years with a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a grad certificate in software development.
* On the field, Briggs compiled 12 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss playing virtually every position on the defensive line in five seasons at Virginia and Cincinnati.
He made the “freaks list” of The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman for doing 39 reps on the bench press at UC’s pro day.
“I’ll tell you what, [39] reps on the bench press actually felt serene compared to what those kids put me through on a nightly basis,” he said with a laugh. “But that’s why, you know, my wife’s a superstar.”
At 6-1 ½ and 313 pounds, Briggs projects as a nose tackle in Jim Schwartz’s scheme. “It's just really big for me coming from a freaking, lateral passive-type defense to be able to really just pin my ears back and go. I've never really had the chance,” he said.
* Briggs grew up in a family of music. Both parents and four older sisters all played instruments and sang. So did Briggs.
“Our house was like a cacophony of noise all the time,” he said. “I fooled around on the piano. I have a saxophone at home. There's a flute floating around. There's bass guitars, electric guitar. My son broke, my electric guitar, so I got to get a new one. I had an acoustic guitar, gave it away to a friend at UVA as a keepsake. But yeah, just making sure that I kind of keep that around. I like my kids to be able to pass that down as well. So I think it's important.
“I’ve sung at multiple [events], singing for national anthems, singing at a lot of different solos and different concerts. Even going into college, I had a lot of different solos, a couple of different solos at UVA. I was in a couple of different courses there. I went on tour in London to sing with the acapella group at UVA as well, called the Hullabaloos. Great time, great guys. Once I got to UC, they actually have a pretty well-acclaimed music program called CCM. So, I sang through there and all their courses till I graduated. Then this last year it’s pretty much just been a ball.”
The bottom line is Briggs sounds like he has it all together.
“I was big on being really eclectic,” he said. “My thing was be eclectic and find what you’re really, really good at. I was good at, you know, singing. I was good at academics. I was good at football. I was good at track and field. You know, I was good at loving all my family and working. So, I took those basically five, six things and then just put my all into it.
“You know, I love working out, even from high school and into college, you know, getting more workouts and extra workouts. I love nutrition, so just taking care of my body, making sure that, you know, I look the way I should move and I move the way I should look. So, just making sure I have that. And, you know, family, of course, just making sure I have time for them as well. Football, man, I can talk about football for hours, whether it be watching film. I mean, I don’t play video games or anything. So, whether it be staying up late watching film with my son, drawing up stuff on the board or, you know, even just getting out and walking through and doing a couple of club rips on something. So it was really just a matter of trying to put my all into those five to six things that I really decided to do. And that’s pretty much what I’m doing now, too.”
High expectations
Second-round draft pick Michael Hall Jr., who flashed his quickness off the snap of the ball in defensive line drills, was asked what kind of questions he’s asking since he arrived.
“Just asking coaches what it takes to be the rookie of the year,” he said.
And the answer he received from new defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire?
“It takes a lot of hard work and dedication,” Hall said. “You gotta be the last guy out and first guy in. Got to be early to meetings and everything. Just have to stay after practice and be a student of the game, but just eager to learn more. Never be satisfied, never be comfortable. Always asking more questions.”
So Hall’s goal is to be defensive rookie-of-the-year?
“Yeah, of course. I feel like anyone has that goal. You’d be a fool not to in this business,” he said.
Brownie bits
Third-round pick Zak Zinter participated in all offensive line drills without any problems. Zinter, Michigan’s stalwart right guard, suffered a broken left leg in two places in the Ohio State game in late November …
Sixth-round pick Nathaniel Watson played six seasons at Mississippi State. The college teammate of Browns cornerback Martin Emerson elected not to transfer despite playing through three coaching changes. “Just my loyalty, which speaks for itself,” he said. “With the transfer portal and everything that’s going on in college, you have a lot of kids that want to dip out, chase the money a lot. And me personally, with some of my other fellow teammates from Mississippi State, we had elected just to stay and ride it out till the wheels fall off. So that’s what we did.” Watson received extra attention from special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone, who figures to mold him immediately as a core player …
Construction of the Browns’ new, expanded weight room is underway and should be completed by training camp. It will comprise the bottom floor of a three-floor addition extending from the existing field house. The second floor will be a high-tech, virtual “walk-through” room with simulators. The third floor will be used as a VIP viewing area during training camp …
The Browns signed five of their six draft picks. Hall is the only one unsigned. There are eight undrafted free agents on hand and seven tryout invitees. There are also six players on hand from last year’s roster, bringing the minicamp roster to 27.