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CLEVELAND BROWNS NFL INSIDER
Wright off to a strong start

Sunday, June 17, 2007
Tony Grossi - Plain Dealer Reporter

The best rookie at Browns minicamp wasn't either of the first-round picks, tackle Joe Thomas or quarterback Brady Quinn.

The one draft choice who stood out was cornerback Eric Wright, the second-round pick from Nevada-Las Vegas.

"If anybody stood above anybody, I think probably Wright's ability stood above because he does have good ability and that showed up," coach Romeo Crennel said.

Wright began the minicamp with the second-team defense and ended it sharing reps on the first unit. Some of that had to do with Leigh Bodden missing all five practices after off-season ankle surgery.

But make no mistake, Wright is off to a good start in challenging for a starting spot come September.

"I see a very intelligent player. He's very instinctual and he's aware. And he's very coachable," said secondary coach Mel Tucker Jr.

"He seems comfortable in the surroundings. He's not overwhelmed. He's not a guy that gets easily rattled."

Wright came advertised as a first-round talent who dropped in rankings because of an off-field transgression as a red-shirt freshman at Southern California. Wright transferred to UNLV, rather than serve a lengthy suspension, and played only one full season before leaving early for the draft.

Wright had only 10 career starts in college, six at UNLV. Thomas had 37 starts at Wisconsin. Quinn had 46 at Notre Dame. Yet Wright easily was the most impressive of the three in five noncontact practices.

"Just because I'm seemingly inexperienced doesn't mean that I can't play. I think I showed people I belong here," Wright said.

Thomas and Quinn, like the veterans surrounding them, fell victim to the numbing mental responsibilities of the new Rob Chudzinski offense. Thomas stayed with the second-team unit throughout the three days. Quinn was with the third team.

Wright flowed freely and easily into a secondary begging for a shutdown cornerback to stabilize the position opposite Bodden. Wright had at least three interceptions in minicamp.

Nobody is projecting Wright just yet as a starter.

"Right now, you can't see him making contact, making open-field tackles, playing run support, being a willing contact player," Tucker cautioned about the "touch football" element of minicamp. "Now, we know what he's done in the past and I don't expect to be disappointed in that regard. I saw [on college video] a player that will get done what we ask him to get done."

Minicamp observations:

Personal views after observing eight Browns practices - three in the OTA portion and five in minicamp:

The one veteran addition to the defense that could make the biggest impact is nose tackle Shaun Smith. At 6-2 and 325 pounds, he looks the part of a gap-clogging nose in the 3-4. Until this position is filled by a competent young player, the Browns can't realistically expect that much improvement in their run defense.

Coaches must have said a dozen times, "Everybody looks good in shorts." The cliche refers to the absence of a live pass rush and simulated physical contact, which tends to hide the deficiencies of players. The myth was debunked at minicamp. Personally, I have never seen so many thrown balls hit the ground in this touch football setting. Quarterbacks, backs and receivers were way off. When the ball was on target, receivers dropped it an alarming number of times.

Running back Jamal Lewis looked in great shape and should be a quantum improvement over Reuben Droughns. Still, the depth behind him is questionable.

Inside linebacker D'Qwell Jackson may be as big as he's going to get. He didn't seem much bigger than his rookie playing dimensions of 6 feet, 228 pounds.

Tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. was champing at the bit to get out there. Coaches probably will have to rein him in during training camp. He showed no sign of limp after his off-season microfracture knee surgery and appeared to be in his best shape in four years.

The release of Alan Ricard means that fullback Lawrence Vickers could play a large role in the new offense. Either that, or Chudzinski will lean toward multiple tight end formations. Frankly, there doesn't seem to be enough quality at receiver to line up three or four very often.

Derek Anderson clearly was the most impressive of the quarterbacks, but that figured to happen. Anderson's strong arm and pocket presence stand out in a minicamp setting. Charlie Frye never has been a great practice player, and Quinn suffered from the adjustment to his first pro camp. Still, the Anderson-Frye competition strikes me as similar to the Kelly Holcomb-Tim Couch battle of 2003, which was won hands-down by Holcomb.

I don't see a lot of speed on the Browns' offense.

Even though Seth McKinney has the benefit of NFL experience, it has to be disconcerting to the Browns if 2006 fourth-round draft pick Isaac Sowells doesn't make a strong run at the starting right guard spot. Sowells was touted as a second-year starting candidate by General Manager Phil Savage when he was drafted.

ESPN's John Clayton observed for two days and struggled to find a lot of positives on the field. No doubt the Browns will enter the 2007 preseason low on the national radar screen. The fashionable "up-and-coming" teams are the Jets, San Francisco and Arizona.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tgrossi@plaind.com, 216-999-4670

© 2007 The Plain Dealer

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"I see a very intelligent player. He's very instinctual and he's aware. And he's very coachable," said secondary coach Mel Tucker Jr.

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That's high praise!

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Wright had only 10 career starts in college, six at UNLV. Thomas had 37 starts at Wisconsin. Quinn had 46 at Notre Dame. Yet Wright easily was the most impressive of the three in five noncontact practices.

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That's misleading. How can Joe be impressive in Tony's eyes? They aren't hitting and Grossi doesn't know enough about the game to know if Joe is technically sound or not. He thinks offensive linemen just come up and put their hands on the ground during these camps. *L*

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ersonally, I have never seen so many thrown balls hit the ground in this touch football setting. Quarterbacks, backs and receivers were way off. When the ball was on target, receivers dropped it an alarming number of times.

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Part of that is confusion due to the new offense. They are thinking too much. And part of it is that our quarterbacks and wide receivers are pretty bad.

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Running back Jamal Lewis looked in great shape and should be a quantum improvement over Reuben Droughns. Still, the depth behind him is questionable.

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If we can get any kind of passing game going at all.......I think Lewis will have a big year.

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The one veteran addition to the defense that could make the biggest impact is nose tackle Shaun Smith. At 6-2 and 325 pounds, he looks the part of a gap-clogging nose in the 3-4. Until this position is filled by a competent young player, the Browns can't realistically expect that much improvement in their run defense.

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How can he know this when they aren't hitting? Makes no sense.

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ESPN's John Clayton observed for two days and struggled to find a lot of positives on the field.

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That's because there aren't many. I'm telling you guys, just like I do every year.........this team is not that good and you are setting yourselves up for the big fall again. Of course, you'll probably take down RAC w/you.

I think this is one of the first Grossi articles I have seen where his opinion is clearly marked as just that (personal observations), instead of being buried inside his story and sort of disingeuously presented as part of the story. News is news, opinion is opinion.

I'd really love to see Wright & Shaun Smith step up and be starters by the opener.

I dunno Vers,

We won four games last year, charlie frye single handedly lost 2. If he can cut out those mistakes and we can run the ball better I can see us winning seven games, and I AM being optimistic, but thats just my take.

Vers, I don't think all of us are as optimistic as you think we are.. myself, I'm kinda thinking they will struggle for the first 5 to 7 games, then hopefully a gelling effect takes place... Frankly, that's the best I can hope for.. Lots of new faces but more importantly, we have a new offensive system going in.. You don't have to be a football guru to know that it takes time, patience and practice to see it come together.

When it does (some would say IF it does) then we will see what team we REALLY have.

I'm only optimistic if Jamal Lewis returns to '03 form. Otherwise...meh...

Running the ball would do so much for us.

My goal for our team is 7-9 this year. I don't think that's expecting a lot. Our O-Line is improved, and we should see it toward the end of the season especially. RB is improved. QB has to be improved. WR improved. Defense improved. So yeah, we better see some improvement

I will be happy with 6-10 or better just because our offense is soooo inexperienced and if we go 6-10 with frye as our QB then Quinn gets to start, if we got 6-10 with Quinn as our QB its fine because hes a rookie.

I just hope we keep them close and the team fixes some of their problems this year.

If we can't pull out a 500% season then I will not be happy !

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500% season

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That'd be 80 wins!

Until we show we have a decent DL and can stop the run I'm not looking for much improvement.

Right now I don't think that we've invested enough in our DL to show an improvement. But I could be wrong. Until we know what we have in the trenches on D I'm not too optimistic.

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The D-line has definitely been upgraded with Robaire Smith at DE and S Smith at NT.

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I don't know about this. Robaire Smith is an average end at best. And as for Shaun Smith--an undrafted free agent that spent many years just trying to find a team to get some play time. I wouldn't call him an upgrade just yet. He wasn't even a starter in Cincy, and we're calling him an upgrade?!

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RB is probably a push as is WR - no worse than last year.

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Jamal is lightyears better then Droughns. From everything I've heard the bone chips have healed and he's close to returning to his old form. Even if he isn't 100%, he's much better then Droughns.

I think the hardest thing for a lot of fans to accept is that improvement doesn't necessarily mean more wins. At least, not early on.

Last year we were a better football team that RAC's first year, even though we won two less games. This year, I think we'll be improved again. We just haven't improved to the point where we're going to win a lot of games. We haven't made that jump yet.

This year, I expect to see a talented football team learning to work together. next year, they should be a talented experienced team. It's coming. They are building it the right way.

Jamal already looks much faster than Droughn's ever did. Jamal is a great pickup and should be that quality back that we've been missing for a long, long time.

If Jamal Lewis is right about himself, we made the greatest pick up ever. He said he's in top form. If he's in top form, we could easily have a real running back. Running the ball is an O-Line/RB thing, they both compliment each other. We have upgraded both areas, and if Lewis isn't as worn down as we say he is he could go 1500 yards and a signficant amount of touchdowns. Our last RBs didn't get many touchdowns because we rarely got into the red-zone and when we did we got shut down. Lewis might be able to be that RB that doesn't get shut down, and with that our offense might give us the chance to win games.

With a greatly improved Oline and a secure secondary not ravaged by injury, we should be able to win 7-8 games. If the LB crew continues to improve and Lewis is a workhorse- 9-7 is within reach. Don't expect much improvement this year at QB.....just cut down on the turnovers to help get to a 9-7 record.

C'mon Browns fans,....I don't care how well informed someone may be about the strength of this team, predicting this season is impossible.

One thing that's for sure is that regardless if we finish 4-12 or 12-4, there will be strong supporting arguments as to the reason for that record..

Do you have really small feet?

Damn man........it's like you get your jollies at the expense of other's suffering.

I was really hoping I wouldn't open up this thread and see that it was Kenny Wright.

I said last year we would win 4 to 6 games... This year I expect us to win 5 to 8 games. We have a damn difficult first 4 games in which to get our feet wet, with the only weak team being Oakland, who has had a good defense for the past 2 years. We've only beaten them because their O was worse than ours... , and the fact that Moss was only there for the money...not to play ball.... We can stay with a lot of teams. It's a question of if we can move to the next level and win some of the close ones.... Like I said, 5 to 8 wins. I figure we'll probably be 6 - 10... Of course, I'm hoping for 8 - 8...

Question for you Vers:

I know you don't think this team has much talent and you lay the fault for that at the feet of Savage.

But do you feel that Romeo has done the best he can with what he's got?

I mean, talent or no talent, that's the real question. It doesn't really matter who's on the team, it's his job to get the most of the guys that he has.

Going 1-11 in the division and getting manhandled by the Bengals and the Steelers the last two years tells me he can't even get the guys up to make it competitive against our biggest rivals.

Maybe that's unfair to some extent. But I would put everything I own that there is a coach out there who could have done a better job than he has up to this point.

I for one as a fan will not be happy with any laid eggs this year. I don't care if we go 0-16 as long as we are competitive. But I'm tired of being embarrassed by our biggest rivals. That needs to stop this year.

I firmly, absolutely do not believe in continuity just for the sake of continuity. RAC needs to show his stuff this year. I don't want him to be fired because that means that we are very bad.

But he, just like everyone else on this team and in the organization, needs to show some improvement.

I agree with Peen, Just how many times can we use this rebuilding excuse, common, were on year three, it's time to see some improvement on the field and on the scoreboard,

Have we gotten so use to loosing it now ok, and we'll hope for better next year, I expect to see 8-8 / 7-9, anything less and we do need to think about changes.

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agree with Peen, Just how many times can we use this rebuilding excuse

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First off, Rebuilding a team in the mess Cleveland was in can never be called an excuse... it is what it is!

Secondly, they will talk about rebuilding until they complete the task.

I find neither to be a bad thing unless it takes them 10 years to rebuild,, now that would be just stupid... someone would have had to be totally incompetent and I don't think anyone over there is at that level....

Just so you remember, I was one of the few saying this team has little to no talent, and it needed to start building at the O-line area 1st. I said this back in 1999. I did want Tim Couch and then O & D lineman the rest of the way.


I just stated my opinion, I know I for one am tired of excuses, Tired of losing, tired of always saying next year, Tired of hearing we have talent but this guy needs another year of sitting and learning, this guy is ok, but he will get better, Yes we had no talent, I said it for year, I said it when people were trying to send Willie green to the pro bowl and Ross Verba to the HOF...wait that was himself,

My reasoning is a good coach can get ya lets say 2 wins per year, were capable of winning 4- 5 games just by schedule, we steal 1 game right there is 7 - 8 wins,

Now on the other hand a coach is also capable of losing ya 3-4 games a year, not having ya ready for teams ya should beat, which can change a 8-8 season into a 5-11 season or 4-12.

also not saying we should clean house and start over,

thank the lord that there are some enlightened souls on the board to save the rest of us from ourselves...how on earth could we ever get by without being informed that this team is not likely to be very good?...some folks think that not having 'x and o' knowledge means not being able to fairly evaluate our team...

in my HEART, i see our OL becoming above avg, our RB returning to youthful form, one of our young QBs stepping it up, our receivers being more efficient, our front 7 improving all around, our secondary being healthy and dominant...

in my HEAD, i know not all of those things are likely to happen...but unlike the pessimistic crowd, i don't see none of those things happening, either...there will be a mixture of failures and successes along the way...pure logic tells you to not account for the chance of success until it has happened, and pure fanaticism tells you not to account for the chance of failure until it has happened...

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thank the lord that there are some enlightened souls on the board to save the rest of us from ourselves...how on earth could we ever get by without being informed that this team is not likely to be very good?...some folks think that not having 'x and o' knowledge means not being able to fairly evaluate our team...

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And thank the Lord we have so many sarcastic souls on this board who add very little to the board other than mocking and belittling those that do try to help others understand the game. Can I hear a Hallelujah for the Moral Majority!?!


And listen here, wise ass. I do find it hard to believe that people know what the hell they are talking about when they say that RAC isn't making adjustments, his offense is not imaginative, the playcalling sucks, the defensive scheme is too bland, etc, etc.

They don't know that to be true, all they know is that they've heard those phrases over and over and the team is not doing well in a certain area, so they spit out those little one-liners in a desperate attempt to sound intelligent and get a coach fired. But go ahead, wise ass, keep picking on me.

And you know what guys. You don't even realize that the joke is on you when RAC says if a play works it's a good play, and if it doesn't work it's a bad play.

Oh......and that approach you just tried was as chicken- as it gets.

I think Wright will earn a starting spot if not at the start of the season sometime before mid way.
Funny , year after year we read these reports that don't instill confidence in the improvement but I'll reserve my thoughts to when they start hitting..