Browns minicamp is in the books; Is the hype warranted?

The Cleveland Browns were immersed in their minicamp this week. Several players had returned that missed out on voluntary OTA’s over the previous couple of weeks including stars Myles Garrett and Nick Chubb.

It’s good to see these players and the rest of the team back working hard and trying to get better. However, this was just practice, and while there was a lot of excitement when we saw our favorite players catching passes and our quarterback throwing rockets then all seemed well. It is, though June and not September when the real games count but it was nice to have the guys back in town.

Here are a few observations that have been made over this past week at minicamp,

 

Deshaun Watson

The euphoria over Deshaun Watson, and the overhypeness of the moment is in full bloom this spring. It probably has to do with the fact that sports bloggers don’t have a lot to write about with the Browns these days because this is only minicamp. However, when your beat writers are recording that Watson had gone 9 of 10 on throws in the red zone in seven-on-seven team drills, that’s a little bit over-the-top crazy.

Watson has been a pro for many years, and it should be expected that he can make passes down in the red zone. Maybe it’s because the previous quarterback that we had in town, Baker Mayfield wasn’t as good as Watson, and that has only amplified what we are seeing from the new guy.

Regardless, Watson did seem more ready in this camp and looks to be in more gear with his coach Kevin Stefanski in what they want to get out of their offense. It will hopefully be a much brighter season with Watson looking closer to the player we remember him being like when he was down in Houston playing for the Texans.

Nick Chubb

It felt kind of sad seeing Nick Chubb on the sideline at minicamp this week without his former teammate Kareem Hunt by his side. Over the past three seasons, it seemed that the two teammates were destined to be partners and run over defenses for a long time. Unfortunately, Hunt has been allowed to become a free agent and is still waiting to sign with a new team.

In the meantime, Chubb was out there prepping for a big year after legendary Browns running back Jim Brown passed a few weeks ago. It’s certainly reasonable to believe that Chubb will catch and pass former Cleveland running back Leroy Kelly this season and be second only to Brown in terms of yards gained.

The Browns will have to make a decision in the future if they want to keep Chubb or let him go. The more Chubb closes in on Brown’s record the more pressure it will put on the organization to give him that third contract. I’d love to see that, and I think that he’s earned that from his team.

If Chubb gets another five seasons with the Browns and if he stays healthy, he could have a remote shot at Brown’s record of 12,312 yards. Chubb sits at 6,341 yards going into this season.

Hoop it up

I had forgotten that Kevin Stefanski had brought his kid’s basketball rim to Browns training camp a year ago. This week we saw some video of Myles Garrett dunking a basketball on this rim, and I questioned if it was a good idea considering that anything could happen in terms of injury.

I forgot that Stefanski‘s father was an NBA executive and is currently the senior advisor of the Detroit Pistons, so basketball runs through the family.

While the idea of having the rim for the players to play games at is good on one hand for team building, on the other hand, you’re creating a situation that could cause an unnecessary injury.

Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.

This is what surprises me about Stefanski’s logic in these moments. I think he’s sending mixed messages. While he wants to be a player-friendly coach, some of his past positions on matters have been received by the masses differently.

When Myles Garrett suffered a minor injury playing pick-up basketball in recent years, Stefanski was quick to say that Garrett’s days as a basketball player were coming to an end.

And yet, here we are with a basketball rim at training camp. Did Stefanski forget he told Garrett to stop hooping it up? I doubt that.

For a coach that is very tactful and reliant on running a very detailed plan, giving players a hoop to risk injury off the football field seems to be illogical.