Cleveland Browns' Camp: Hitting Is Good

Hopefully, there were a lot of Browns players nursing bumps and bruises the last few days.

Unlike the day cares run in Berea in the recent past, head coach Eric Mangini opened a real NFL training camp this past Saturday.

Reports out of Berea all have pretty much said the same thing: There was more hitting in two days of Mangini’s camp than there were in three weeks of Romeo Crennell’s Happy-Fun-Time-Spectacular.

While Crennell’s intentions were to protect his players and keep them fresh for the season, we all know the reality was Cleveland consistently entered the season unprepared for the physicality of an actual NFL regular season game.

Mangini summed it up on Monday at his press conference, saying, “It’s (hitting) what we do. It’s a contact sport and you have to practice contact. You try to do as much of it as you can without getting to the point where you’re adding risk and also trying to maintain the guy’s bodies and things along those lines.”

When you break it down, if a player wishing to make an NFL team can’t take the rigors of a training camp, I don’t want him on the team. If the beating they need to take in training camp means they run out of gas in December, they’re not good enough.

Training camp is where you separate the men from the boys, not coddle the weak links along, hoping they’ll somehow perform in an environment you haven’t even remotely prepared them for.

Besides, most football fans I know would rank missed tackles among their top pet peeves when watching a game.

“It’s called TACKLING!!!” I would constantly scream at the TV the last few years as the opposing team’s running back would explode past our defenders for a 30-yard gain.

Hopefully, I won’t be screaming that very often this year.

It’s important to get players used to the physical pounding they’re going to take during the season, or, as we’ve become all too familiar with the last few years, the players end up getting the stuffing knocked out of them for the first few weeks until their bruises heal and they can take hits again.

By then, it’s usually too late.

Stray Observations:

The discipline being enforced to date also is encouraging. Of particular note was the sloppy play of the offensive line on Sunday, resulting in a couple of extra laps for the entire offense.

Too many penalties last year were of the drive-killing variety. Mangini looks to be on top of this situation.

Syndric Steptoe dropped four passes on Monday, not good for a guy brought in under the old regime. With two wide receivers drafted in the second round in addition to the free agent signings, Steptoe has to step up, or he’ll be off the team.

No Steptoe would be incredibly sad for me as I love his name. I love typing it, I love saying it, I love watching the announcers say his name during games. I want this guy to be a Pro Bowl receiver so I can keep writing about Syndric Steptoe for the next five years.

Syndric Steptoe, Syndric Steptoe, Syndric Steptoe, Syndric Steptoe.

It’s the little things, I guess.

Speaking of wide receivers, Braylon Edwards continues his Lance Armstrong impression on the sidelines while the quarterback derby continues on the field. Mangini continues to be silent on the nature of Edwards’ injury and his comeback timetable.

I’m not attaching any significant importance to the injury until the first preseason game. If Edwards misses that game, then it’s time for some hardcore reporting to find out exactly what happened.

As for the quarterback competition, reports from The Plain Dealer and Mangini’s press conference statements reveal nothing of note for either quarterback. They have good drills, they have bad drills.

The first preseason game, again, will tell us more.

James Harrison continues to impress, as does Abe Elam, who was brought to Cleveland from the Jets in the draft day trade that netted the Jets Mark Sanchez.

“There are so many things I like about him as a person,” said Mangini about Elam on Monday. “And the other thing I like is he’s gotten better as a player.”

Mangini went on to describe Elam as the kind of player who constantly is looking for ways to improve his game and framed him as a team leader.

Three days into camp and I’m officially excited. I see more reasons for hope this year than I have in a long time.