Almost every day I spend covering the Browns at team headquarters, FirstEnergy Stadium or on the road, there are too many news items, notes and observations to fit into the newspaper. So this blog is designed to feature the nuggets that don’t appear in print. They’re like deleted scenes on a Blu-ray/DVD or the youth football players who ride the pine during the game but get to shine afterward in an extra session often called “The Fifth Quarter.”
Here are some leftovers from Monday’s coverage in Berea.
Time to snap out of it
Center Cameron Erving’s snapping issues could cost him his starting job with the Browns if they persist.
When Erving fired a shotgun snap over the head of quarterback Robert Griffin III and the ball rolled out the back of the end zone for a safety, the gaffe gave the Philadelphia Eagles a five-point lead with 10:49 left in the third quarter and proved to be the turning point in the Browns’ 29-10, season-opening loss.
Erving isn’t a first-time offender, either. He also snapped the ball high early in the second quarter during a failed fake punt against the Eagles. Running back Duke Johnson jumped to catch the snap and was subsequently tackled for a 6-yard loss. High snaps plagued Erving in training camp and the preseason, too.
Browns coach Hue Jackson made it clear he’s losing his patience with Erving, a first-round pick in last year’s draft who started at center in the NFL for the first time Sunday.
“I don’t know if you get too many chances to keep snapping it over the quarterback’s head,” Jackson said. “I think he knows that. It is unfortunate. It is something that can’t happen in a game. It is embarrassing, and it is not right. But at the same time, I think for the negative that Cam did, he is doing some good things, too. Early in the game, for the most part, our protection was flawless.
“Cam is working at it, I’m sure. We are going to do everything we can to help fix that. I don’t want to coach the center and the quarterback snap, but if I have to take my jacket off and go down there and start coaching it, then I am going to.”
Erving, 6-foot-5 and 313 pounds, is tall for a center, but Jackson dismissed the notion that his height is a factor in the high snaps.
“Cam can do it. It is unfortunate the snaps show up, and it is something he has to correct,” Jackson said. “I’m disappointed in that, but I’m not down on the player. He has to get that fixed and has to get it corrected. It will hurt our football team if it keeps happening. There is no doubt about that.”
Second-guessing yet?
Based on the stellar debut of Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, it looks as if the Browns may be haunted by their decision to pass on him in April’s draft by trading the No. 2 overall pick to Philadelphia.
He completed 22-of-37 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 101 against the Browns.
Yet Jackson insisted the Browns haven’t second-guessed their choice to forgo Wentz.
“No, we haven’t. That is one thing I can tell you for sure has not happened,” Jackson said. “He had a good game, a great game if you guys want to term it that, and I respect that. He is a fine young man, and they have good coaches and a good organization, and he is going to do well for them.
“But that was one game. He played well. We will look back and see where he is over a period of time, but the Browns have to get better. That is what we have to do. We have to play better, and I think we all understand that.”
Meanwhile, virtually everyone else is already second-guessing the decision. Especially because the Browns opted to roll with free-agent acquisition Griffin, who’ll miss at least eight games and perhaps the rest of the season after suffering a fractured coracoid bone in his left shoulder Sunday.
“The problem with it for me is Hue comes in and they have a new franchise, a new regime, they’re going to change the whole makeup and they’re going to move forward and we’re going to build something here – well, you’re building it without a franchise quarterback,” NFL Network analyst David Carr said on the air. “If you thought Robert was the guy, then you probably need to do some more homework because he hasn’t made it through a 16-game season. He hasn’t been able to be on the field consistently.
“I’m a huge fan of Hue Jackson. I love what he does creatively on the offensive side of the ball, but I think he might have gotten caught up in the RG3 hype a little too much, and he thought he could be a guy that could be consistently there. It doesn’t look like he’s going to be that guy and now you’re trying to build a franchise without that cornerstone who played you [Wentz], a guy you had a chance to pick up was on the field.”
NFL Network analyst LaDainian Tomlinson added: “How do you keep on making these mistakes as the Browns organization? You have a chance to draft Carson Wentz, who we think is going to be a really good player. Go back to 1999 when the Browns got back in Cleveland, you drafted Tim Couch instead of Donovan McNabb. Thus, you’ve had 25 starting quarterbacks over that time period.
“[Eagles head of football operations] Howie Roseman was on Good Morning Football last week talking about how they love Carson. They thought he was a franchise guy and they loved everything about him. But on the other hand, the Browns are saying we don’t think he’s going to be a top-20 quarterback. That’s my point. How does this keep happening? You obviously have a problem evaluating quarterbacks in that organization.”
Man down?
Jackson insisted the Browns had 11 players on the field during their failed fake punt despite the TV copy and coaches film on NFL.com appearing to show only 10 players.
“No, we were not a man down,” Jackson said. “We had 11.”
Quotable
Jackson on whether his world has been rocked by the way the Browns started their season: “No, my world had not been rocked yet. It would take a lot to rock my world this way. Am I disappointed? Yeah, I’m disappointed for our players and for the organization and for the fans. We want to put a better product out there. I think our players want to play better, and my job is to help them play better. I’m disappointed in that, but I’m not discouraged by any stretch of the imagination. I’m not. As a matter of fact, I’m more determined to get this fixed and to do better and have our players play better. That is what I told them today. I’m more determined than ever before to get this right because at the end of the day, that is what I came here for. I said it before, I don’t like losing, and at the same time, I know in order to win you have to do the right things to give you a chance to win and we have not done that. Until we do that on a consistent basis, will we have an opportunity to win? That is what we’re chasing.”