Cleveland Browns Training Camp Report: Wednesday 8/5 8:45 AM Practice

Written by Daniel Wolf

Article originally posted on Dawg Scooper: An Unofficial Cleveland Browns News Source

This morning at Cleveland Browns training camp there were no long touchdown plays, and it was another even battle for the quarterback position, but wide receiver Braylon Edwards was suited up and practicing in full pads for the first time in camp.

The biggest event of the morning was Shaun Rogers, who had to "run" a lap after jumping offsides during drills that had the offensive line against the defensive line.

Rogers immediately started heading for the sidelines to begin "running" his lap and the crowd started cheering for him and he made a motion to the crowd to acknowledge them.

He wasn't really running, but more like power walking with swinging his arms like he was running.

It was really funny, the crowd was clapping and laughing and Rogers was playing to them.

As he came back around the field, Rogers gave another salute to the crowd who were all cheering for him completing his lap.

During drills, Special Teams Coach Brad Seely was working with long snapper Ryan Pontbriand and punter Dave Zastudil on field goal placements with kicker Phil Dawson watching.

There were other familiar drills like seven-on-sevens without the wide receivers and defensive backs, kickoff return and coverages, filling the gap drills with the defensive lineman and sled pushing drills with the offensive lineman.

Rookie center Alex Mack was manhandled a few times by Rogers, but otherwise was solid in his blocks. It looks like Mack still has a lot to learn during camp.

During a drill where the receivers were up against the defensive backs, Edwards caught an amazing fade route in the back corner of the endzone for a score and it was very reminiscent of the Edwards from 2007.

Edwards did show a lot of speed and cutting ability and did not show any signs of the mysterious injury that has kept him out of camp until today.

Linebackers Kamrion Wimbley and Alex Hall both showed tremendous power and speed while rushing the passer and they both look like they are hungry to get opposing AFC North quarterbacks in the dirt.

Once 11-on-11 scimmages started, the players were pumped and ready to showcase their talents to the coaches and crowd.

Rookie running back James Davis still showed great ability and is still living up to the hype that keeps building. Hopefully, he can maintain this high level of play come gameday.

Jamal Lewis was stood up a few times at the line of scrimmage, but he was still able to push the pile forward a couple yards with his powerful legs.

Jerome Harrison only had a couple short yard gains.

Wide receiver Mike Furrey caught a few short possession passes, but most of the other receivers were pretty quiet today.

The tight ends were quiet too, but Martin Rucker did catch a nice sideline pass that gained about 10 yards and Robert Royal caught a short touchdown toss from Brady Quinn.

Josh Cribbs seems like he can't break into open space out of coverage, but took a reverse around the end for about 10 yards.

The defensive line was getting a really good push all morning long and collapsed the pocket many times on all the quarterbacks throughout the practice, but the offensive line did hold its own many times too.

Rogers single-handedly broke through the line multiple times and in one instance, was pushing Mack back with one arm and grabbed running back Davis with his other for the tackle. He was dominating much of the morning.

In the defensive backfield the corners and safeties had great coverage all morning which prevented the quarterbacks from really getting any good looks at the receivers. Solid man-to-man coverage.

Now the quarterbacks, backup Richard Bartell did have to run a lap, and was getting minimal reps along with fellow backup Brett Ratliff.

Most of the reps went to Quinn and Derek Anderson, of course, and they really didn't show any signs of a clear cut front-runner in this competition.

Several Browns fans in the crowd were saying that they are starting to get a little concerned that one of these guys are not stepping up their game in this battle.

This may also be due to the defense looking much better and stronger than past years.

All in all, Quinn and Anderson need to start making better reads and improving their accuracy because there were too many balls getting thrown away or falling to the ground incomplete.

Towards the end of practice, the team went back to seven-on-seven drills without full offensive and defensive lines. The ball was placed at the one yard line and the rest of the defensive unit was behind the endzone screaming and making noise to try and disrupt the quarterback's play calling.

The crowd (and defensive team) really seemed to enjoy this drill and what was really strange is that Wimbley was lining up as the tight end.

Does this mean that Wimbley will be on goal line formations and that he could possibly be a target in the endzone with some kind of gadget play? Possibly down the road, but for now he was just a blocker.

In conclusion, during these last seven-on-seven goal line drills, both Quinn and Anderson were able to find a check down running backs at the edge of the endzone for scores to Davis (Anderson), Vickers (Quinn) and Lewis (Quinn).

(Next report from camp will be from the Thursday practice which is at 1:30PM)