Freddie Kitchens and John Dorsey talk Browns on the eve of training camp

At noon on Wednesday, Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens and general manager John Dorsey sat down for a press conference in Berea on the eve of training camp. Technically, players have reported already for conditioning tests and such, but it is the eve of camp opening to the public. Here are our cliff notes from what was said and some other nuggets:

BROWNS PRE-TRAINING CAMP NOTES

1. Quarterback RV Returns: We won’t be able to see it on Hard Knocks this year, but the quarterback RV is back, which Baker Mayfield got last year for the quarterbacks at the request of veteran Drew Stanton. Also, enhancing the orange and brown theme around Berea, some crosswalks are being painted orange.

2. Mike Daniels’ Release: The Packers just released former Pro Bowl DT Mike Daniels, and the connections to Green Bay with Cleveland’s front office are obvious. Dorsey said it was too early for him to comment on a player who wasn’t officially released yet, but added that Daniels is a good football player.

3. Duke Johnson to Report to Camp: Dorsey says that RB Duke Johnson will report to camp, and that he had a very good talk with agent Drew Rosenhaus in Berea the other day. If there’s any suspicious about whether he’ll be traded, Kitchens nipped that in the bud by saying that Johnson will have a “significant” role in the offense.

4. Kareem Hunt Update: You may remember there was another small incident with RB Kareem Hunt recently in Downtown Cleveland. The team reviewed it, and basically acknowledged that it was not an issue, although they still talked to Hunt about it. Dorsey also said that he thinks the NFL agrees with him that the incident was a non-issue.

5. No Issue With Todd Monken: You may remember a report a few weeks ago that Mike Silver put out on the NFL Network, saying that the installation of the offense under coordinator Todd Monken wasn’t going as smoothly as the team had hoped. Kitchens shot that down, and Dorsey backed them up that he hasn’t seen any issues either.

Kitchens again confirmed that he will call plays on gameday, saying that he’s both a member of the offensive and defensive staff. He also praised the coaching staff that he has, saying they were selected because they are all good teachers.

6. Praise for Mayfield: Dorsey praised the maturity of QB Baker Mayfield, the way he is able to motivate his teammates, and his competitiveness. Kitchens also pointed out how Mayfield didn’t get to work with the starters in last year’s camp, so that will be a huge key for him this year to build chemistry with them.

7. Landry Ready, a Few Players Idle: When training camp starts on Thursday, Kitchens said that WR Jarvis Landry will be ready to go. He said a few players will be sidelined with nothing major, but we’ll have to find out who is in that group.

8. Contract Talks for Damarious Randall: According to Dorsey, he has had good talks about a contract extension with safety Damarious Randall. However, he said that it will take a little bit of time to work out.

9. And Lastly...: ...we have Super Bowl expectations.