STEVE DOERSCHUK
BEREA — Here come the dog days, but ... who were those crazy cats?
During a break in the first of eight straight days of training camp practice, wide receiver Braylon Edwards hopped in the driver’s seat of a golf-cart-style equipment buggy.
As Edwards took a Saturday drive across one of the practice fields, laughing, an usher near the gallery ropes observed, “He’s driving that like he drives his Bentley.”
Teammate Joshua Cribbs hopped on and got a short slalom of a ride before Edwards — back from a short visit to the training room after getting a foot stepped on — tapped the brakes. Cribbs pretended to be thrown forward, personal-injury-lawyer style.
It was comic relief — there had been a false rumbling Edwards was hurt — in the longest work stretch of the year with no days off. There is no game to look forward to until the Aug. 18 Monday nighter against the Giants.
“You get through it any way you can,” center Hank Fraley said.
Fraley’s position coach, 52-year-old Steve Marshall, is a drill sergeant whose booming voice marks the dog-days beat. Players go back and forth from position drills to team drills. Marshall always makes the line drills fun for the crowd.
One Saturday exercise focused on part of the offensive line faking out the defense, impersonated by other O-linemen, with the real defensive players off doing their own drill.
“Waggle right ... gotta sell the farm now!” Marshall barked.
Marshall liked the way the first unit ran that.
On the next play, Marshall yelled, “Coach Sully’s the ‘mike’ (linebacker) now.”
That meant there weren’t enough players to simulate a defensive front. Line assistant Mike Sullivan, wearing a floppy hat, lined up as a blitzing linebacker.
Sullivan moved fast after the snap call, looking younger than 41, getting into the practice. The Sept. 7 season opener against Dallas means a little extra to him, since he was a sixth-round draft choice of Jerry Jones’ Cowboys in 1991 — Dallas didn’t keep him long.
Marshall moved on to another play calling for protection against a blitz, yelling, “Archie four, Archie four!” Rookie left tackle James Lee was supposed to pick up a blitz coming from the
outside.
“(Bleep)!” bellowed Marshall, proceeding to climb all over Lee. “Where you going? Who you got? The ‘will’ ... block the damn ‘will’!”
A horn sounds. Players scatter to new drills.
The one everybody watches is a seven-on-seven. Derek Anderson keeps getting almost all of the work with the No. 1 offense, but Brady Quinn’s workload is increasing. No. 3 quarterback Ken Dorsey’s reps begin to wane, which won’t help his touch coming off an 8-of-26, two-interception night against the Jets.
Anderson and free-agency pick-up Donté Stallworth seem to be getting the hang of each other. Stallworth catches one short dart in traffic then makes a magical move that reminds you he was a high first-round draft pick.
Later, Anderson hits Stallworth between defenders, gunning one through a window the size of a 24-inch TV screen. Stallworth makes a tough hands catch look easy before turning and running.
Quinn takes over and throws a quick pass over the middle to a running back. The ball pops out of Jerome Harrison’s mitts, conjuring memories of a Jets interception that ricocheted off Syndric Steptoe’s hands Thursday.
Quinn seems to be hanging tough and getting sharper with his cast of backup receivers. Plenty of camp talk centers around the theory Quinn isn’t in Anderson’s league in terms of a rocket arm. Some observers suppose Quinn hesitates to go downfield because he doesn’t have “the gun.”
After practice, coach Romeo Crennel touched on this theme, saying: “Basically, I tell (Quinn), ‘Take what the defense gives you. If the defense gives you short passes, throw short passes. Don’t try to force it down the field when they’re defending deep.’”
Crennel routinely says Quinn has plenty of arm. The brass has spent months building up Anderson’s confidence. Now it’s time to massage Quinn’s psyche.
In a post-practice thought addressing Quinn’s Thursday night game interception, Crennel said: “The impressive thing, I thought, was that after a bad play, he came back and drove his team down the field for a score. That’s what you want in a quarterback.”
Cribbs is embarrassed by last week’s wave of stories about his contract. Normally as chatty as any player on the team, he hurried out of the locker room after the Jets game.
Saturday’s practice indicates things are getting back to normal. Cribbs takes that cart ride with Edwards. Later, he lines up at quarterback several times in shotgun formation, which for a former four-year-starting-college QB is a blast.
On one play, Cribbs fakes to halfback Harrison and keeps the ball. On another, it isn’t a fake; Harrison races out with the ball.
On another, Cribbs dances a couple steps and flicks a perfect pass to running back Jason Wright. On another, as Cribbs takes a snap, a defensive player mutters, “Uh oh.”
This could turn into serious fun.
Hello, Mr. Rogers
Shaun Rogers is a huge defensive lineman but not a big talker. In his first comments after his debut as a Brown, he said he still needs to improve his pad level and recognition of plays.
He joked about a one-hour lightning-rain delay: “It didnt have nothin’ to do with me. I went inside.”
Of the progress of the defense, he said, “I think we can be good, man. Even great.”
Romeo Crennel said there wasn’t much to judge, since Rogers and the first-string defense played just one series.
“He was doing it the way we wanted him to do it,” Crennel said. “With repeated reps, I think he’ll be pretty decent.”
Goodbye, Mr. Baxter
n The Browns released cornerback-safety Gary Baxter on Saturday. He had been trying to come back from double patellar tendon surgery stemming from a 2006 game against Denver. His latest effort was stalled when he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. Crennel called it “a business decision” and said Baxter was understanding.
n Tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. was back on the practice field, taking pains to stretch a tight hamstring that knocked him out of the Jets game. Crennel was noncommittal as to when No. 3 wideout candidate Kevin Kasper will return from a leg problem.
n Crennel laughed at a question about the team needing to find ways to get rookie tight end Martin Rucker (five catches, 70 yards Thursday) the ball.
“I don’t really have to find ways to get him the ball. He has to find ways to get the ball.”
Rucker still has a long way to go before he can steal time from No. 2 tight end Steve Heiden.
Time change
The Browns have made two changes to the original training camp schedule. Thursday’s and Saturday’s sessions no longer are double sessions. Both will be conducted from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
That means there are just two double practices left in training camp, today and Tuesday (8:45-10:45 a.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m.). Monday’s practice, incidentally, is open to the media but not the public.
