The Browns made a pair of roster moves on Tuesday afternoon.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they claimed tight end Dae’Quan Wright off of waivers from the Eagles. They put defensive back Damarri Mathis on injured reserve in a corresponding move.
Wright signed with the Eagles after going undrafted out of Ole Miss. He had 39 catches for 635 yards and five touchdowns during his final college season.
Mathis was carted off with an injury at Browns practice on Tuesday. He tore his ACL at a Panthers practice ahead of last season, so it may be back-to-back lost years for Mathis.
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Multiple reporters on the Browns beat noted how the end of Monday’s practice was sloppy, with head coach Todd Monken becoming animated over the offense’s pre-snap penalties and inability to execute the operation.
On multiple occasions since getting the Cleveland job this offseason, Monken has explained how he hates “shitty football” — instances where the team is not functioning with operational issues that are controllable. That was at the heart of his reaction on Monday, which he explained in his Tuesday press conference, saying he got “emotionally hijacked.”
“I said it to the offense. I said it to those guys. I told them that in that moment, what I should’ve done, and what I didn’t do,” Monken said. “And as I’ve said to them and us, we’re human. I got fired up. I was pissed. That was awful. That was shitty football. And that is going to get me fired up. And I have to own some of that. Obviously, we haven’t coached it well enough. There were other aspects about the two-minute that got me fired up that obviously [were] a reflection of coaching.
“Those things — we’re getting plenty of effort. Guys are fighting their rear end off. We’re tough. So, we’ve got that, OK. How are we going to do the little things well? And that’s coaching. That’s me, and that’s our staff.”
Monken, however, also said that he really liked the rest of Monday’s session, particularly considering it came after an off day.
“That part of it, really, I was jacked about the way our team practiced,” Monken said. “Coming off of six days, one day off, and how they attacked it yesterday. I mean, you couldn’t have asked for better energy, attitude, body language — it just wasn’t good at the end for one side. But up until that point, I thought our guys practiced their rear ends off, and I thought it was outstanding for having a day off the day before.”
Monken and the Browns will have their first preseason game against the Bears in Chicago on Saturday afternoon.
Browns rookie offensive tackle Spencer Fano got into a scuffle with defensive end Jared Verse at training camp on Saturday and it earned him something much better than a reprimand from head coach Todd Monken.
Monken told reporters at a Monday press conference that Fano will now be the left tackle for the starting offense. Fano was a first-round pick, so he was always ticketed for the first team but Monken cited the way he handled himself against Verse as the final push he needed to move ahead of Dawand Jones.
“We were already leaning that way, and Saturday solidified it. . . . You want to see the competition part; you want to see a guy not back down,” Monken said, via a transcript from the team. “If they don’t stand up for themselves, then you’re really concerned.”
Fano isn’t the only rookie who got good news on Monday. Monken said that wide receiver Denzel Boston has also been bumped up to the first team.
“He’s made a bunch of plays. I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it,” Monken said. “He’s made a bunch of plays. We want to move Jerry [Jeudy] around; I think Jerry is at his best when he’s on the move. He’s elite, he can separate. And I think Denzel has shown that when he’s in the boundary, and you [see] contested catches, a lot of our three-by-one stuff may go to there.”
The Browns also drafted wide receiver KC Concepcion in the first round and all three rookies should wind up playing significant roles as the Browns try to put together a winner in Monken’s first season.
The Browns veered off script for Saturday’s practice when they gave Deshaun Watson the first-team reps at practice after saying it would be Shedeur Sanders’s day to work with that unit, but head coach Todd Monken said at a Monday press conference that nothing has changed in terms of the competition being open.
Monken said that Sanders worked with the first team during a walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s practice and that they went with Watson to balance out the total number of reps with the first team. Monken said Sanders is slated to get that role in Monday’s practice “unless I change my mind on the way out” and that the job remains up for grabs.
“As long as we’re still sharing reps, it’s a competition,” Monken said.
The Browns play their first preseason game on Saturday and Monken said that they haven’t picked a starter for that game. He said the current plan is for both players to start one of the first two games this month.
“After those two games, we’ll be closer to at least having a better idea,” Monken said.
The Browns also have a joint practice with the Bills next week and that will provide more competitive reps for the Browns to use to finally select their quarterback for Week 1.
The Browns have been rotating quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders with the first team from day to day at training camp, so any deviation from that schedule is sure to grab attention.
Such a deviation came on Saturday. Head coach Todd Monken said before practice that it would be Sanders working with the first team, but multiple reporters shared that Watson received all of the work with the first team.
Monken did not speak to the media after practice. A team spokesman said, via multiple reporters, that Monken changed the plans because he wanted to see Watson with certain personnel groups.
Earlier this week, Monken clarified a report that both quarterbacks will get a start in the preseason by saying that “if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other” without targeting any date for the competition to end. The Browns play their first preseason game next Saturday, so the identity of the first guy up as the starter should come early in the week.
The Browns plucked a defensive lineman off of the waiver wire on Friday.
They announced the addition of defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins to the roster. They had opened up a roster spot earlier in the day by placing offensive lineman Kendrick Green on injured reserve.
Jenkins was let go by the Jets on Thursday and he was in training camp with the Cardinals last summer. He also spent some time on the Falcons’ practice squad late in the regular season.
Jenkins played for Columbus in the UFL this spring. He had 22 tackles, six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in 10 games.
The Browns announced a handful of roster moves on Friday.
Guard Kendrick Green has been placed on injured reserve, which means he’ll either spend the whole season on the list or get released with an injury settlement once he’s on track to return to action. Green played one game for the Browns last season and played in 36 games for the Steelers and Texans earlier in his career.
The Browns also announced that they have signed offensive lineman Jack Conley and cornerback Jeadyn Lukus. Conley was on the practice squad in Cleveland last season and Lukus was waived by the Titans last weekend.
Wide receiver Jamari Thrash and linebacker Reid Carrico were waived to round out the Friday morning moves for the Browns.
For a decade, Hall of Famer Joe Thomas anchored the Browns’ offensive line at left tackle.
With training camp ongoing, Thomas has been at the facility this week to assist with coaching the rebuilt group at the behest of head coach Todd Monken.
Monken revealed to reporters after Thursday’s practice that he offered Thomas a full-time job after he was hired in January.
“Well, when I was interviewing for the job and then when I got the job, I reached out to Joe,” Monken said in his press conference. “Joe, obviously, played for [offensive line coach] George Warhop as well. And I said, hey, we’ve got a spot for you if you want to help us coach. And he said, ‘I’d love to coach.’ He said, ‘I don’t think I want to commit to an everyday contract.’ I said, ‘That’s fine. Anytime you want to come out and help our guys, you’re more than welcome.’ And we certainly would welcome him.”
With the Browns bringing in offensive tackle Spencer Fano with the No. 9 overall pick of this year’s draft, Thomas likely had some useful pointers for the rookie to excel as he begins his first season.
The forgotten man in the Cleveland quarterback rotation is forcing himself into the conversation by performing well in practice. But Dillon Gabriel has yet to officially enter the competition to win the starting quarterback job with the Browns.
Does he feel disrespected by that?
“Never disrespected,” Gabriel told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t take things personally, it’s a business. I’m focused on what I need to do to get better, and that’s all I’m focused on. I’m present with that.”
Gabriel also was asked whether he believes earning more reps gives him a chance to seize the job.
“I’m really just focused on mastering my reps,” Gabriel said. “I really appreciate [pass game coordinator] Danny Bryer and [senior director of player development] James Cook. James Cook and [offensive skill development specialist] Demetric Felton are big on walkthroughs in the morning, which helps set me up for a good day. And afterwards with Danny Bryer, a guy I’ve really leaned on, getting coached up — three or five reps, talking through it as best I can and improving. And same with [assistant quarterbacks] coach [Matt] Baker, he’s been really good for me.”
Contributing to the perception that Gabriel is an afterthought is the manner in which he was strong-armed into giving up No. 8 to Jared Verse. Dillon was asked about his new number, 6.
“Yeah, I don’t really care about numbers,” Gabriel said. “My freshman year in high school, I remember I got pulled up to varsity wearing 96. . . . No, no attachment to any numbers. There may be some cool things to certain numbers that everyone tells themselves once they get a new number, but for the most part it’s just a number.”
That’s the right attitude. Although some players believe their number becomes part of their identity, it’s simply a mechanical feature allowing the officials and the opponent to more easily track the player. There’s no real reason to become emotionally invested in it.
Players change teams. When they do, they change uniforms. Changing the number on a uniform is no different. For Gabriel, the far more important number is the one he’ll eventually be assigned on the depth chart.
Browns head coach Todd Monken opened a Wednesday press conference by responding to a question about the team’s plans for their starting quarterback in their first two preseason games.
Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network reported on Tuesday that Monken told him either Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders would start the preseason opener against the Bears on August 15 and that the other one would start against the Bills on August 22. On Wednesday, Monken said that was not an entirely accurate representation of the team’s plans at this point.
“Basically talked about that the quarterbacks are gonna play in the preseason,” Monken said. “Obviously if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other and then we would go from there. That was really what the conversation was. He wasn’t wrong in what we talked about, which you’ve all known that they’re gonna play in the preseason. Someone has to go out there for the first snap thus they would be the one that starts. At this point we’re so far from that, that it’s not really as important as what it got made out to be.”
Monken said that Watson and Sanders will continue rotating with the first team as long as the competition continues and gave no indication that there’s a specific date he has in mind to make a decision on a starter. It seems likely that both Watson and Sanders will wind up starting a preseason game if that continues for a few more weeks, but it’s not the sure thing it may have seemed on Tuesday.
