Here is your round-up of Day 2 of Cleveland Browns minicamp, which primarily features a lot of quotes from head coach Eric Mangini:
- Steve King of the OBR reports that "this has been the most physical rookie minicamp the club has had in years, or maybe even ever." While there hasn't been any tackling, the amount of bumping is higher than ever before at this point.
The Browns run a tackling drill where, in a 20- by 15-yard sectioned-off area, a running back takes the ball and charges toward a defender coming from the other direction.
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[part of] Mangini's Opening Statement: "In talking to the guys after practice, I thought that there were some really positive signs. I think one of the best examples was at the start of 7-on-7 where, defensively, we missed an adjustment on the first play. It was a pretty difficult adjustment, and the information had just gone in. If there is a new formation, you’re really hoping that you get it but we didn’t.
On the second play of 7-on-7 there was another more difficult adjustment based on a new defense that we put in. I thought the guys did a great job communicating that out. It shows that we can get those things that are more challenging and now we just have to do that on a more consistent basis. The offense started to use some extra cadence variation, a little bit of hard count and was able to cause a penalty in the first play of team that we had. Those things are really positive things and they are all important things as we move forward." -
(On why he took a center in the first round in both New York and Cleveland) – "When we took Brick (D’Brickashaw Ferguson) and Nick (Mangold) that first year, we felt like we had two pillars on the offensive line for a long time. At left tackle and center, not that every position on the offensive line isn’t critical, but the left tackle is a critical position because usually it is protecting the quarterback’s blind side.
You get most of the speed rushers on that side; you get most of the elite pass rushers in the NFL lining up over there. With the center, there is so much involved with running that unit, those five guys. It’s another critical position. When we got those two guys that first year, we thought it was a great way to lay a foundation from what we were doing in the future." - (On how he plans to use Joshua Cribbs in his offense) – "I couldn’t give you a definitive way that we are going to use him. I think some of that is up to him. What I mean by that is what he is able to do. What role he is able to carve out, whether it is exclusively on offense, whether it is exclusively on defense, or whether it’s a little bit of both. The most important thing to me is that he is able to carve out a role. He has met with some of the offensive coaches and some of the defensive coaches. I actually owe him a quiz because he said he has a couple of the defenses down cold. We shall see."
- Terry Pluto picked undrafted free agent player Bryan Williams as a player who impressed him. He also cites Joshua Cribbs as being a "favorite" of the new regime.
- Pluto called WR Brian Robiskie "polished and savvy". He also noted that WR Lance Leggett, who was on the practice squad last season and showed some promise back in the preseason, has looked good. Leggett was one of the few non-rookies to participate at mini-camp.
Here is your dose of links to expand on the information above:
- Excited faces brings optimism to Browns minicamp (Terry Pluto, Plain Dealer)
- Mangini minicamp press conference trancript
- Camp notes: left and center (Steve King, OBR)