After signing offensive guard Scott Young to the 53-man roster last night, the Cleveland Browns named seven players to their practice squad today. I'm pleased with several of the players that we were able to stash away:

BROWNS THAT MADE PRACTICE SQUAD

1. WR Steve Sanders
2. WR Lance Leggett
3. DL Melila Purcell
4. S Travis Key

OTHERS THAT MADE PRACTICE SQUAD

1. RB Omar Cuff
2. OL Christian Gaddis
3. LB Titus Brown

That means the Browns have one spot remaining on the practice squad -- one that you would expect to go to OG Nate Bennett in a day or two.

Here is some quick background information on the new players, courtesy of the OBR:

• RB Omar Cuff (5-10 and 195 lbs): "Was an undrafted rookie free agent out of Delaware who spent training camp with Tennessee. Cuff ran for 4,364 yards and 65 touchdowns during his collegiate career at Delaware."

• OL Christian Gaddis (6-4 and 300 lbs): "Spent last season with the Buffalo Bills and appeared in one contest. Gaddis was originally an undrafted rookie free agent with Buffalo in 2007 out of Villanova. He spent ten weeks on the Bills practice squad before being signed to the active roster on Nov. 14, 2007. "
• LB Titus Brown (6-3 and 245 lbs): "Was an undrafted rookie free agent out of Mississippi State who spent training camp with the Miami Dolphins. Brown was a four-year letterman at Mississippi State with 170 career tackles and 18.5 sacks."

Players who did not make the Browns' practice squad (and who were considered potential candidates) include DL Chase Pittman, RB Travis Thomas, LB Chase Ortiz, and DB A.J. Davis.

It's one of the more exciting days as a fan to find out who will be available on gameday during the regular season, but for those who have been cut, it has to feel like a downer. Overall, my projections were pretty good, but there was a shocker -- the removal of wide receiver Travis Wilson. You have to wonder if that one dropped catch against the Bears cost him everything.

FINAL TRANSACTIONS (TO GET ROSTER DOWN TO 53)

Players Waived

1. WR Travis Wilson - I wouldn't be surprised if he still gets brought back at some point though, if we run into another injury.
   
2. WR Steve Sanders
3. WR Efrem Hill
4. WR Lance Leggett
   
5. TE Brad Cieslak - Good luck to wherever he goes next.
   
6. TE Kolomona Kapanui
7. OL James Lee - I hope to see him on the practice squad.
   
8. OL Jonathan Palmer
9. DL Melila Purcell
   
10. LB David McMillan - A shame he never caught on.
    
11. LB Chase Ortiz
12. DB A.J. Davis
13. DB Jereme Perry
    
14. DB Travis Key - Big-time playmaker in little time with the Browns; hope to see him on the practice squad.
    
15. DB Brandon Mitchell
16. K Jason Reda - If Dawson gets hurt, I think he did enough to get the first phone call.
    

Waived-Injured

1. RB Travis Thomas
2. OL Derrick Morse
3. OL Marvin Philip
4. DL Chase Pittman

Terminated-Vested Veteran

1. LB Shantee Orr

Injured Reserve

1. OL Lennie Friedman

Here are some of players who were on the bubble and made the final 53-man roster:

POSSIBLE SURPRISES (THEY MADE THE FINAL ROSTER)

1. WR Syndric Steptoe - His strong preseason effort paid off, and I'm sure his progress on kick returns helped him in case Joshua Cribbs gets banged up again.
   
2. WR Paul Hubbard - This is probably a fairness issue -- they gave Travis Wilson several years to develop before cutting ties with him, so why not give Hubbard at least a year to progress?
   
3. OL Nate Bennett - With Lennie Friedman being placed on the injured reserve (speaking of which, when did he get banged up?), Bennett takes his roster spot. I don't think anyone could've projected this one unless they had inside information on Friedman.
   
4. OL Isaac Sowells - My reasons hold true. Take that, doubters! ;)
   
5. DL Louis Leonard - He adds some versatility, because he can play nose tackle or defensive end.
   
6. DL Ahtyba Rubin - Showed more progress in his first camp than Babatunde Oshinowo seemed to.
   
7. DB Gerard Lawson - He had some trouble tackling in the final preseason game, but I thought his awareness level was a little higher than the rest of the guys trying to make the team. He's also taken a few reps at kick and punt return -- if Cribbs is out Week 1, the Browns could put Steptoe at kick returner and Lawson at punt returner (or Lawson could do both if Steptoe is out for a week too).
   

Leave your thoughts on the cuts here. I correctly projected 49/53 roster spots, which is 92.4% accuracy. Grade me with an "A" ;). I will be updating this post shortly with a little note next to some of the players.

Don't worry loyal readers: I haven't gone on a "trade them all" rampage like Jay / Ryan over at Let's Go Tribe just yet. Believe it or not, me posting this item has nothing to do with the Browns playing poorly in their second consecutive preseason game.

It's a fact that the first roster cuts are due in on August 26 (this Tuesday). So, considering our current roster, I want you to act like you are Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage. You only need to make five cuts, and it's very unlikely that we would go over that amount. In otherwords, please don't reply saying "I would cut ten people" unless you really believe you have a legitimate point.

Here are my first five cuts (these are the ones I projected prior to the Lions game):

1. DB Brandon Mitchell - With Jones and Pool nursing injuries, this one may not actually happen now. Sticking with my original instincts though.
   
2. RB Austin Scott - The team seems to prefer RB Travis Thomas just a little bit more, though honestly I could care less which back goes first.
   
3. DL Brian Schaefering - I saw him for the first time against the Lions. Too many players are ahead of him in the running though, and it makes sense to dump the bottom of the depth chart if you're looking to give former draft picks Melila Purcell and Chase Pittman more reps in the preseason finale.
   
4. OL Jonathan Palmer - I'm not really fond of Isaac Sowells or James Lee at this point, but Palmer is probably behind them on the depth chart too, leaving the competition down to just two men for the backup tackle role.
   
5. TE Kolo Kapanui - Yet to really make any impact; appears as though four tight ends are ahead of him on depth chart.
   

While not required, please feel free to elaborate on some of your cuts. If you list a third-string player who never gets in on the action, I think it'll be self-explanatory. But, if you're going to cut a player like Travis Wilson or David McMillan right away, please explain why since those cuts, if necessary, can be made after our fourth preseason game. Your argument doesn't have to be sane to be acceptable; just provide a basis of where you're coming from and I'll be pleased ;)

P.S. My review of the ever-so-boring Lions / Browns preseason contest is due some time Sunday. Check back often.

Anderson's short-game indeed seems to have improved, and he's outdone Quinn through four days. Credit: Official Site

Considering the time of this posting, it wouldn't make a lot of sense for me to make two different posts -- one for Day 4's morning practice and the other for Day 4's evening practice. Instead, I'll combine the two into one post, with the appropriate subheadings.

TRAINING CAMP REPORT - DAY 4 [MORNING] (7/26/08)

1. Winslow Held Out: We've seen this in each of the past few seasons now: Kellen Winslow receiving a day off. Romeo Crennel stated that Winslow was perfectly fine to practice, and it was merely a coach's decision to allow him to rest his surgically-repaired knee. The Plain Dealer reports that Winslow spent the morning practice acting as a coach / mentor for rookie tight end Martin Rucker.
   
2. Heiden Twists Knee: After it looked as if tight end Steve Heiden was back to 100%, he twisted his knee in the morning session and was forced to leave practice.
3. McKinney Twists Ankle: Boy, what's with the burden of the bad news from the morning, eh? Although Rex Hadnot returned to practice, now it was Seth McKinney who had to leave with a twisted ankle.
4. Stallworth Debuts: While it wasn't a full debut for receiver Donte Stallworth, he was in pads and participated fully in the individual drills. He did not participate in team drills, and the team did not provide a timetable as to when he'll be ready to do so.
5. Rogers Continues Dominance: One of the most impressive players in camp thus far is Shaun Rogers. After an interception yesterday, he had a nice upper edge on offensive lineman Eric Steinbach on at least one play. Here's a quote from a user over at the OBR who saw the play personally:
   

   "Rogers knocked Steinbach back a foot and had him off balance with one arm. Rogers punched him with his a left hand to the ribs which knocked him off the line and then ripped with the right arm to easily get by Eric and finish the play."

   Sounds great. Do it to the Steelers now.
6. Daily Wilson: No where near the negatives as last year for receiver Travis Wilson. In the morning session, he made a nice catch on a hitch route with a defender blanketing him.
7. Throw Left, Not Right: In a drill where the quarterbacks would roll out to a certain side and throw the ball, Brady Quinn had mixed results. While he struggled going to his right (2/5 success rate), he did fine going to his left (5/5 success rate).
8. Gotta Love Smith: You have to love how defensive lineman Shaun Smith gets people riled up in a good way. Today's conflict was reportedly with center Hank Fraley. Watch out, Hank.


Smith and Fraley lock up. Credit: Official Site

9. Anderson's Consistency: A note that seems consistent throughout camp thus far: Derek Anderson seems to be ahead of Brady Quinn, as he should be after last season's effort. Anderson's throws in the short game appear to have less zip on the with improved accuracy.
10. Getting Names Out There: It's not always about the Winslow's and Edwards'. At tight end, Brad Cieslak, who I said to watch out for in my training camp preview, is playing fundamentally well. Darnell Dinkins still has no hands as a receiver, but that's not his "specialty". With the blocks that Charles Ali has been delivering, it's no wonder he made the final roster last year. It'll be tough to cut Ali, but not so much Dinkins.
11. Thomas & Scott I didn't seem to give Notre Damer running back Travis Thomas a shot in my training camp preview, but so far, he's draw some favorable reviews in comparison to Austin Scott. Scott was also hit hard on screen passes twice -- once by Shantee Orr and once by Mil'von James. The two of them should be fighting for a practice squad spot.
12. Pittman Making Bid: Second-year man Chase Pittman is making his bid for one of the few backup defensive lineman spots. So far, he's made more noise than Melila Purcell has.
13. Linebacker Report: A better defensive line is indeed allowing more freedom for our linebackers. Even veteran Willie McGinest has looked pretty darn good. Alex Hall continues to draw favorable reviews for having the size of Kamerion Wimbley with potential too. Most impressive of all though could be *gasp* Andra Davis. Davis, who is battling with Beau Bell for the starting role, seems to have lost weight and is delivering better shots / tackles than he has in the past.
14. Dropped Passes: Both Paul Hubbard and Syndric Steptoe dropped passes during practice. With Joe Jurevicius out, none of these "young guys" seem to have taken advantage. Heck, even someone like Efrem Hill, with a great camp in the next few weeks, could earn a roster spot still.
15. Speaking of Hill: He flourished in camp last season, and he's making plays again this year. Hill stretched out to make a nice catch over the middle on a pass from Ken Dorsey, according to the official site. I'm telling you -- don't rule out this guy making the final roster if he keeps this up.
Animated as always, special teams coach Ted Dashier calls out rookie Beau Bell for not being ready. Credit: Official Site
16. Animated Dashier: The ever-so-animated special teams coach Ted Dashier ripped into rookie Beau Bell for not getting out with the second-team special teams unit quick enough. If you've heard of Dashier's reputation, then..."enough said"...
17. Highlight Play: On a deep corner pattern, Braylon Edwards beat defensive back Steve Cargile on a pass from Derek Anderson.

And now, for the evening practice (with shorter details):

TRAINING CAMP REPORT - DAY 4 [EVENING] (7/26/08)

1. Less Intense: Part of the reason for a shorter evening report was due to the fact that it was less intense. Also, several veteran receivers received the evening off.
2. Veteran Breaks: The veteran breaks went to Jamal Lewis, Willie McGinest, Corey Williams, and Robaire Smith. None of them missed practice because of an injury.
3. Injury Breaks: These are the players that sat out with an injury: Seth McKinney (ankle injury from morning), Steve Heiden (knee injury from morning), Jason Wright (hamstring), and Marvin Philip.
4. Winslow Collides: Tight end Kellen Winslow, who was rested as a precaution in the morning, returned for the evening. According to the Plain Dealer, there was a scare though after Winslow collided with cornerback Brandon McDonald and was down for 20 seconds before getting up fine.
   
5. Baxter at Corner?: Reportedly, Gary Baxter was working a few drills with the cornerbacks, as opposed to the safeties.

Yep, that's it folks. Here is your link collection of sources for the morning and evening sessions:

Camp notes: the heat is on (Official Site, King)

Browns morning practice notes (Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cabot)

Can Browns pay Sean Jones? (Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cabot)

Stallworth improving, trying to catch up (Official Site, Jackson)

AM Update: Stallworth, Hadnot back (Official Site, Jackson)

Confident McDonald thinking big (Official Site, King)

Camp observations (Dawg Talkers)

Saturday morning in Berea (OBR Forums)

Saturday PM: Who practiced, who didn't (Orange and Brown Report)

The Browns will be back on the field for an afternoon session on Sunday from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM.

After gushing last week so much over the work of local sportswriter Terry Pluto, I'm surprised that BringBackKosar hasn't stated that I've found a new man-crush. Or, maybe it'll be more appropriate after I praise Pluto's work from June 1, in which he included some interesting statistics regarding how often some of our defenders saw action on the field.

Although he was on the field often, Bodden's injuries eventually led to him getting burned on a consistent basis.

1. Leigh Bodden (98%): This was almost a wake-up call, or a slap-in-the-face. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't think about the fact that Bodden was actually on the field for the majority of our plays. Heck, in a casual conversation, if a Detroit fan would've asked me about Bodden, I might have mistakenly said that he missed some games the past couple of years due to injuries. While he missed three games in 2005 and seven games in 2007, he didn't miss a single game last season.

What does all of that mean in regard to this year's defense? Not a whole lot that we didn't already know, but still worth noting. Pluto also debunked the rumor that the Browns threw Bodden into the Shaun Rogers deal for nothing.

"Detroit wanted Leigh from the beginning when we started talking about Shaun (Rogers)," Savage said. "It was always Bodden and a pick, the question being what round. Leigh was in virtually every trade discussion with the Lions. He was a key piece for them."

With Bodden gone, Pluto also stated that the Browns are already leaning towards running a Cover-2 defense this season. If you're unfamiliar with defensive schemes, the Cover-2 approach focuses on keeping everything in front of you in the passing game to prevent teams from hitting the big play. That means that safeties Brodney Pool and Sean Jones would play center field towards the left and right sidelines, while it'd be the job of young cornerbacks Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald to make the sure-tackles on quick passes.

The drawback to the Cover-2 is that the middle of the field is typically more open, considering the safeties are providing support deep for the cornerbacks. A Tampa-2 defense -- which requires more savvy players -- would remove the issue of patterns over the middle by dropping a linebacker back there. Until the Browns actually prove that our front seven is good enough to stop the run though, we can't even consider a Tampa-2 type of approach.

2. Kamerion Wimbley (99%): Yikes...just think about that. 99 out of 100 times, Wimbley was on the field? Remember, this is a guy whose primary job was often to try and rush the passer. We're paying him a lot of money to do that, so some might argue that there's no sense in worrying about whether or not he gets tired. That's not the issue though -- we saw how effective the New York Giants pass rushers were when they worked in a deep rotation. After considering this, perhaps signing a player like a Rosevelt Colvin should be a little higher on our priority list.

3. Antwan Peek (54%): This figure wasn't surprising in the least; in fact, it seemed a little high considering all the time he missed. As Pluto noted, although Peek played in 14 games, he never could give his best effort on gameday. The few times he did receive playing time, I saw a lot of positives -- a reason why I'm really hoping he, of all our linebackers, remains healthy this season.

4. Willie McGinest (62%): This is clearly a mistake, especially for a player that's nearing the end of his career. McGinest was ripped by us many times last season for being in position towards the end of games to tackle a running back in the open field, only not to come through. If we have McGinest on the field 62% of the time again this season, the left side of our defense will be attacked by opposing running backs at a concerning rate.

5. Robaire Smith (81%): The more I think about it, the more I appreciate Smith's contribution to our defensive line last season. Pluto wisely pointed out that no other Browns defensive lineman even reached 50%. Smith gutted the season out, but was clearly overworked. With the much-needed depth we added in the offseason, lowering Smith's percentage will hopefully increase his effectiveness.

The youngster, Shaun Smith, will be heavily depended on this season to spell the other Smith, Rogers, and Williams.

6. Shaun Smith (44%): The other Smith will be our go-to-guy for depth this season, and getting him 44% of the playing time last season was critical. He's much further along in terms of experience than we expected him to be prior to last season starting. Instead of going into this year with a question mark in case either Shaun Rogers or Corey Williams go down, there is less need to panic.

Pluto adds that the fifth defensive lineman is shaping up to be a battle between Chase Pittman, Louis Leonard, Melila Purcell and rookie Ahtyba Rubin. That'll be something we'll have to zone in on during training camp, because at this point, I don't think we've seen enough from any of them to decide on a clear favorite. For the sake of a guess though, I'd go with Leonard, considering we grabbed him from the Rams last season.

Pluto's entire article is listed in today's link collection below:

Terry Pluto's Talkin' about Browns defense (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Passan: Bell, Rucker face long odds (Orange and Brown Report)

Deleted scene from LOST episode, The Economist (DocArtz)

Florio projects Browns to miss the playoffs (Sporting News)

Today, June 2, is my birthday. I'm happy that the weather has been very pleasant on my birthday for the second consecutive year in a row!