The Browns are getting a little national spotlight this week as they coach the South team in the Senior Bowl. Practices from Tuesday-Thursday were televised live, and NFL Network will also show Saturday’s Senior Bowl game.
A little more spotlight is coming, too. Though the numbers will continue to change -- and already did with this week’s signing of Jamie Collins -- the Browns came out of the 2016 season with the most free salary-cap space in the league. They have the No. 1 pick in April’s draft and four more picks in the top 65. No championships are won in March and April, but there’s plenty of TV time to fill.
Browns Coach Hue Jackson hopes that the cameras come back when the wins start coming. Thursday, he told reporters he hopes the Browns don’t have to appear on the annual HBO training camp series Hard Knocks.
“Oh, my God. I’m not interested in that,” Jackson said, per the Akron Beacon Journal. “I’m interested in just coaching our team and getting our team better.”
It’s not up to Jackson, though. If no team volunteers for the uncensored training camp show, the Browns can be forced to appear on Hard Knocks because they fit three league-established criteria...
1. They haven’t appeared on Hard Knocks in the last 10 years.
2. They haven’t made the playoffs in the last two years.
3. They don’t have a new head coach (it’s this part of the rule that likely kept the Browns off of Hard Knocks in 2014, when Johnny Manziel-mania was sweeping Cleveland).
The Ravens, Titans, Colts, Eagles, Bears, Buccaneers and Saints are the other teams that the league can force to participate in this year’s Hard Knocks show.
