Cleveland Browns Training Camp Report: Day 7

CLEVELAND BROWNS TRAINING CAMP REPORT - DAY 7 (8/5/16)

1. Scrimmage Day: Friday marked the only evening practice of camp, beginning at 6:00 PM. It will probably go down as the most exciting day of training camp — even more so than Saturday’s “Orange and Brown Scrimmage,” because head coach Hue Jackson had billed it as a true contact-involved scrimmage, whereas Saturday will be more of simulating the flow of a game (i.e. warm-ups, clocks, etc) rather than going full-contact. It rained pretty heavily from about 3:15 PM to 3:30 PM, which would’ve postponed a regular practice. Fortunately, the fields had time to dry and things got going.

2. Starting Out on the Bike: It’s been awhile since we gave a full rundown of who began practice on the stationary bikes, so let’s get a quick summary from Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 the Fan:

FB Malcolm Johnson also continues to miss practice with a concussion. DE John Hughes missed his third straight practice for personal reasons. Also, OT Michael Bowie has retired; we’ll have a post up on that later.

3. Browns’ First-Team Offense: The players on the Browns’ first-team offense, at least for part of the evening, was posted by Hyaden Grove of The OBR. Here is the chart:

QB: Robert Griffin III
RB: Duke Johnson
WR: Corey Coleman, Terrelle Pryor, Marlon Moore
TE: Gary Barnidge
OL: Joe Thomas, Joel Bitonio, Garth Gerhart, Austin Pasztor, Spencer Drango

Probably the biggest news there is the fact that Spencer Drango was manning the right tackle position for the second day in a row.

4. RG III to Coleman Start Scrimmage Hot: At around 6:42 PM, the sirens blasted, signifying the start of the scrimmage. Things began with the first-team offense going against the second-team defense, and right from the get-go, QB Robert Griffin III and WR Corey Coleman decided they were going to put on a show.

During one of the series, which featured the first-team offense against the first-team defense, Griffin found Coleman for a 55-yard bomb, going up against the coverage of CB Tramon Williams and S Jordan Poyer. With that play setting Cleveland’s offense up at the 4 yard line, Griffin finished the drive off with a touchdown pass to TE Connor Hamlett in the corner.

5. Gilbert’s Rough Start to Camp: I’ve tried to avoid discussing this for several practice sessions, but now that’s it’s been about a week, I can’t hold back any longer: CB Justin Gilbert has been having a rough start to camp. His technique has been panned as he’s been regularly beaten by receivers this camp, and that continued during Friday’s scrimmage.

Things started with WR Rannell Hall, who isn’t expected to make the roster, beat Gilbert twice in 11-on-11 drills. Several reporters pointed out that QB Josh McCown seemed to be targeting Gilbert whenever he could.

6. McCown Picked With First-Team Offense: After QB Robert Griffin III scored a touchdown with the first-team offense earlier (to Hamlett), the Browns let QB Josh McCown run the first-team offense for the first time in camp, and he promptly did this:

Hmmm...maybe we should scrub all references to that and say that he threw a touchdown of his own. After all, we’re trying to drive up his trade value, right?

7. Austin Davis Leads a Drive: When it came time for QB Austin Davis to lead a drive, he got the offense going quickly. Davis reportedly found rookie WR Jordan Payton wide open for a 55-yard gain, with some of those yards coming after a broken tackle. Davis capped off the drive with a dump-off touchdown pass to RB Raheem Mostert.

8. The Coleman Show Continues: Most of the stuff in today’s report is in chronological order. With the ones vs. ones again, two storylines from earlier converged: WR Corey Coleman putting on a show, and it being at the expense of CB Justin Gilbert. This time, it sounds like Gilbert shouldn’t be panned too much, but it still happened against him:

The play was around 40+ yards for the touchdown. Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, who was attending practice today, came away very impressed by Coleman too:

Some other rookie receivers contributed on the day too. QB Josh McCown found WR Ricardo Louis for a 25-yard touchdown. QB Cody Kessler connected with WR Rashard Higgins on a couple of comeback routes, per Hayden Grove of The OBR.

9. Measuring Long-Distance: The big question surrounding K Travis Coons all camp is whether he can make the long distance kicks in his second season with the club. He had an opportunity to kick a 50-yard field goal during a two-minute drill; although he made it in the end, the interim miss can’t be forgotten:

10. Brownies: Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews was in attendance today to view his son, C Mike Matthews. ... Head coach Hue Jackson said he wasn’t pleased with the running game during Friday’s scrimmage (see tweet below). ... TE J.P. Holtz made a one-handed touchdown grab. ... Desmond Howard, who was born in Cleveland, OH and currently works for ESPN, was at camp today. ... RB Isaiah Crowell said he played at 220 pounds last year but wants to stay around 214 pounds this year.