Jim Schwartz had his defense fired up to compete against his former team, the defending NFL champions. (Cleveland Browns)
brought to you by Kaz Company - call 216-901-9300
You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Any time Shedeur Sanders is denied practice reps, it sends tremors through his vast legion of fans, which extends to national football insiders from coast to coast.
So when Sanders watched and stood behind the Browns’ offense while quarterbacks Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and, yes, Tyler Huntley took reps in the first joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles here Wednesday, the conspiracy theories ran wild again.
Why are the Browns doing this to Shedeur? Why are they sabotaging his inalienable right to quarterback this team?
Um, it turned out that Sanders suffered a mild oblique injury in early warm-ups and was held out.
Four hours after the practice ended, the Browns issued the following statement:
“Further medical testing and examination on Shedeur Sanders revealed an oblique strain. He is considered day to day, won’t practice tomorrow and is unlikely to play in the game on Saturday.”
Which means the Browns are likely to play only Gabriel and Huntley in the game against the Eagles.
Pickett is still not ready to participate beyond 1-on-1s and 7-on-7s because of his hamstring issue, which means he won’t play on Saturday.
“It’s no fun being hurt,” Stefanski said about Pickett’s obvious frustration. “Of course, he wants to do more. I want him to do more. But we’ll be appropriately conservative with that injury.”
Offense bad
Flacco took almost all the reps with the first team offense. Gabriel had a few with the first team and most with the second team. Huntley got in some reps with the third team.
It didn’t matter which quarterback threw the ball against the Eagles in 1-on-1, 7-on-7, and 11-on-11 periods. It was a sloppy day for all Browns’ offensive teams against the Super Bowl champions’ defense.
Offensive penalties, touch sacks and at least six dropped passes – from Jerry Jeudy to Cedric Tillman to Pierre Strong -- marked the Browns’ offensive day. The only thing we didn’t see was an interception, though an Eagles camp safety pried the ball away from Browns receiver Kisean Johnson after a catch and took it to the house.
Flacco, the adult in this QB room, still drew something positive from the 1 hour, 45-minute practice in suffocating heat and humidity. The feel-like temperature was 99 degrees.
“Ultimately, you’re here to find out a little bit about yourself, and grind a little bit and have a tough day,” Flacco said. “I really do think that when we look at the film, we’re going to be able to find out a lot about what we are, and then going through that together and having a good, tough, competitive practice, I think it was a good day for us.
“I think we found out, hey, we can push through some stuff. I think we also learned that, man, we need to learn how to push through a little bit better and stuff like that. Ultimately, it was good. I think it was a lot of good [that] came from this practice. You need to have these types of days where you come out here and grind a little bit. We were going at a pretty fast pace here, too, on our side of the field, so we were grinding. I think everybody on that field could feel that a little bit. And we want to be a team that plays with that, so that’s a positive.
“It was a good test for us, and I think we found out that, like, hey, we got some guys that can kind of push through this when we need to.”
The Eagles are not engaged in a “quarterback competition,” of course. Starter Jalen Hurts took about 90 percent of his team’s reps.
Flacco was asked how much the Browns’ desire to continue to share QB reps impedes acquiring a rhythm on offense.
“Yeah, that’s big,” he said. “It’s obviously advantageous to have a guy back there 90% of the time, and you get going with everybody. You get to hear the cadence, you get to see how he operates and see how he does through tough times and good times.
“That’s all great, but in this league, the situation isn’t always just laid out for you perfectly. You’ve got to be able to adapt, and there’s no excuses. Once it all starts, it’s about winning football games no matter what, and that’s the way I approach it.”
Numbers, please
Flacco was 6 of 13.
Gabriel was 6 of 19 with TDs in 11-on-11 red zone periods to Gage Larvadain and back Trayveon Williams. Gabriel was victimized by drops by Jamari Thrash, Jerry Jeudy and Pierre Strong.
Pickett was 5 of 6 in one 7-on-7 period. He spent a lot of time after practice working on his hamstring with a trainer on the field.
Huntley was 3 of 4 and suffered a drop by tight end Sal Cannella.
Sanders was 0 of 0 after suffering his oblique muscle injury in early warm-ups.
Gabriel, who is on track to start against the Eagles on Saturday, said, “I think always there’s things you’ll take away from practice that you want to clean up and get better from, but that’s with everything. Any practice game, walk-throughs, there’s good, there’s bad, and there’s things that you want to improve on.”
Yes, Gabriel speaks like a coach.
Defense good
Coordinator Jim Schwartz always is pumped up for practices against his former Eagles team and his defense responded from the start.
In 1-on-1s, cornerback Myles Harden, playing for Greg Newsome (limited with a shoulder injury) had an interception of Hurts and then had a good PBU v. DeVonta Smith on the second rep in a 7-on-7 period.
The tone set by those early plays carried the day.
Myles Garrett and Mason Graham affected Hurts a lot – Garrett had at least two touch sacks, and Graham influenced an interception by safety Ronnie Hickman. Linebacker Devin Bush also had an interception.
“I think guys had a great day,” said cornerback Denzel Ward. “It was hot out here and guys were still fighting and working hard. We needed a day like this in camp. I was glad we got it in. I’m looking forward to coming to work tomorrow.”
The performance of the defense from beginning to end on this day served to validate that the dominance it has consistently shown in regular practices hasn’t been solely the result of the Browns’ early offensive struggles.
The Eagles’ offensive line is generally considered the best in the NFL.
“It says a lot,” Ward said of the defense’s big day. “They obviously have a great team, just won the Super Bowl. So we were looking forward to coming and competing against those guys just to see where we are. We came up for the challenge and guys had a great day. But we have to go back and watch film and see how we can get better.”
Brownie bits
In his first comments since Myles Garrett was cited for speeding 100mph in 60mph zone on I-71 on Saturday morning – Garrett’s eighth speeding citation since he joined the Browns in 2017 – Stefanski didn’t mince words. “Extremely disappointing,” the coach said. “It’s been addressed with Myles and with the football team. He needs to slow down for his safety and the safety of others.” …
For the first time, Stefanski verified what was obvious but never stated by him before. “The plan was always to give [Gabriel and Sanders] a start in the preseason.” ...
Rookie tight end Harold Fannin Jr. had a very active day, perhaps his most targets in a Browns’ practice this summer.