After dropping all four passes that came his way in 2012, fullback Owen Marecic is putting in the work to turn things around for 2013, according to ESPN Cleveland's Tony Grossi. Grossi reports that when the final minicamp practice ended a couple of weeks ago, a player stayed late for extended work on the JUGS machine. It was Marecic.
"That’s not what I want to be, I don’t want to be characterized that way," Marecic told Grossi, in regards to being known as a guy who can't catch the ball. "It’s something that I know I can do, I just have to do it."
Marecic has caught the ball fairly well in college, previous training camps, and even his rookie season in 2011. He'll have a lot of work to do to overcome the struggles he had a year ago, though, and that isn't just limited to catching the ball: he needs to hit his blocks a lot better too.
Previously, we heard that running back Chris Ogbonnaya was getting some reps at fullback in the offseason programs. Grossi confirmed that Brad Smelley and Kellen Davis also lined up there a couple of times, and Rob Chudzinski has yet to confirm whether the team will keep a pure "fullback" or opt to go with a multiple-role player instead.