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Benard played a stand up DE in college .... so this will be something new, yet somewhat familiar for him.

Hopefully he can be effective there, because if he can't, we will have missed a fine opportunity to trade him at the peak of his value.

I think he was saying that we should have traded him if he can't play defensive end.

Exactly.

I don't think you are understanding what we are saying. Yes, he played DE in college. He's not on the block. If he can't play DE we will probably cut him.

BEREA -- Observations from Browns training camp ...

* First day in pads. No apparent casualties, except for a minor leg injury for tight end Jordan Cameron. It's going to be paramount for the coaches to monitor players' conditioning. It's very much on the mind of coach Pat Shurmur now that his schedule calls for a number of successive practices with pads.

* Running back Montario Hardesty was held out of a lot of work. No worries. They're not going to overwork him after his injury problems. When he's out there, Hardesty looks fast and strong as a runner.

* Quarterback Jarrett Brown will wow you with his arm. Also is an outstanding athlete who can move and throws fairly accurately on the move. A team official called him the "perfect" third quarterback, a guy with lots of talent who can be developed over time. There will be a learning curve with the West Coast offense, but I don't forsee the team acquiring another young quarterback.

* Nice to see safety T.J. Ward step in front of a receiver and make the interception on a Seneca Wallace pass. Ward almost had another one later in team drills.

* I'll be writing more about this in the print edition, but Marcus Benard and Austin English are now full-time defensive ends. Shurmur and coordinator Dick Jauron -- and also GM Tom Heckert -- want their pass rushing ends in the 255- to 265-pound range. Benard packed on some weight, but wouldn't say exactly how much. He looks bigger. It's possible the Browns still pick up a veteran defensive end, but if not, it's Jayme Mitchell, rookie Jabaal Sheard, Benard and English.

* Quarterback Colt McCoy aired it out from 45 yards on a pretty pass to Demetrius Williams, who sneaked behind the secondary. Ball was well-thrown and caught.

* Rookie safety Eric Hagg was no match for the White Rhino. Peyton Hillis blasted through Hagg's tackle attempt near the line of scrimmage.

* Quarterback Seneca Wallace obviously looks more comfortable and decisive in the offense he learned six seasons in Seattle. My prediction is that Wallace will have a really productive summer in the preseason games.

* I'm hearing the holdout with rookie Phil Taylor is his agent is trying for a fully guaranteed contract. Some rookies have gotten them.

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All I'm saying is that I hope that Benard can make the transition to 4-3 DE in Jauron's system, but that there are a lot of questions.

His value is fairly high right now. He is coming off a productive year as a pass rushing OLB. He had 7.5 sacks despite limited opportunities. He has value as a pass rusher in a 3-4 defense. Those are not easy to find.

Hopefully he will transition to a traditional 4-3 DE. He won't have as much room to work with as he did at OLB, or when he played a stand up DE in college. That will be a big difference.

• Pat Shurmur isn’t talking about Brodrick Bunkley. If a trade has been agreed to, an i hasn’t been dotted.

• Shurmur finally is talking about John Greco, the former Boardman High School lineman who was with him in St. Louis last year.

Greco (6-4, 315) is a fourth-year pro who has been on the field in actual games at both guard spots and at left tackle. From what we’re hearing, he’s a better pass blocker than run blocker.

Shurmur says he’ll have a chance to compete for a spot, presumably at right guard, but can be “that sixth or seventh guy” if he doesn’t start.

• Best guess now: He’s the sixth man, with Shawn Lauvao starting at right guard.

• Tony Pashos seems to be coming along fine and moving well at right tackle.

• Greco isn’t the only Boardman guy in the house. Bernie Kosar showed up for the first practice in pads. He stood on the sideline with the writers, not on the field as the insider he was at times when Eric Mangini was the coach.

• With Bunkley not in yet — if he’s coming at all — failing to sign first-rounder Phil Taylor is becoming an issue. The holdup seems to be guaranteed money. The longer he holds out, the less he deserves guaranteed dough.

• Pat Shurmur is one of the taller head coaches. He looks like a shrimp next to defensive end Jayme Mitchell.

“We were talking the other day,” Shurmur said. “He was in a chair. He got up and just kept going and going and going.”

Mitchell seems sure he’ll be a high-quality starter. We don’t know why Eric Mangini didn’t play him after Tom Heckert dealt for him last year. Mitchell doesn’t know, either.

He’s a sixth-year pro.

• Joshua Cribbs had an MRI to examine a knee injury. He said they found “nothing.” We’ll guess that excludes kneecaps and sound ligaments and tendons.

He said he’ll be full go in practice soon.

• Usama Young says the Saints saw him as a quality player who wasn’t going to beat out two really good starters. He makes it clear he wants to start at free safety for the Browns.

We talked to T.J. Ward after bumping into Young. It’s not at all clear to Ward who will start at free safety. Ward and Mike Adams became friends last year.

This isn’t one of those deals where a new guy comes in and all the players say, great … the new starter.

• Nothing wrong with a little depth.

• Part of Young will always be a cornerback. He was as surprised as the next guy in New Orleans when coordinator Gregg Williams approached him one day and said, “You’re a safety now.”

• Ward says he wants to give the Browns what the guy with the hair gives Pittsburgh.

“I want to be the best safety in the league,” he says — he thinks he’s much more than a hitter.

• Ward reported in great shape.

“Don’t want to hit camp with a dull knife,” he said. “But that’s workout shape. Football shape is another thing.”

CAMP SCENES

• Monday, Monday. There was no tackling on the first day in full pads, but plenty of thumping was heard.

• Shurmur said “guys got a little chippy.” One of the youngsters, offensive tackle Brandon Braxton, might have gotten too chippy for his own good. After an 11-on-11 skirmish with rookie Round 2 pick Jabaal Sheard, Braxton gave Sheard a quick slap on the helmet. A very brief skirmish ensued.

• We don’t have instant replay. Here in Berea’s big room with no windows, we’re debating on the length of a bomb completed by Colt McCoy. A couple of guys say 45 yards. We think it was in the air for about 60 yards … a very pretty ball, too … in the air, way up there, a long time.

• The bomb was a completion to No. 88, sixth-year pro Demetrius Williams, who got way behind cornerback Coye Francies and safety Bubba Ventrone. Williams had to slow up just a bit, but it was still an easy completion.

• The pass rusher, Mitchell, doesn’t care about the yards. He says McCoy has “a hell of an arm.”

• With Eric Steinbach nursing a knee injury, Pat Murray lined up with the “ones” at left guard. Murray, who played college ball at someplace called Truman State, was in Berea all last year, on the practice squad.

• We watched No. 17, undrafted rookie Chris Matthews (his unofficial nickname is “Hardball”) running routes when somebody said he’s about the same size as that other No. 17. The we looked it up. He’s 6-5, a couple inches taller than Braylon Edwards.

• Whatever his current number, the Jets weren’t eager to place it on their roster. But … Plaxico Stinking Burress?

• In one pass-rushing drill, I couldn’t tell whether a coach told offensive tackle Phil Trautwein to ease up on Sheard, or Sheard blew by like Trautwein was standing still just because he’s that good. That was an outside rush. Moments later, Sheard beat Trautwein on inside rush.

• Cribbs was in uniform, albeit very limited. He might be the friendliest man in Berea. During water breaks, most guys take a knee and sweat into the ground. During one break, we saw Cribbs chatting up Phil Dawson. Then he went over to Peyton Hillis, who had taken a knee, and gave him a playful chuck on the left shoulder pad.

• The cornerbacks were working on press-coverage technique. Cornerback Ramzee Robinson pretended to line up at wide receiver against Coye Francies. At the snap, Robinson would make a quick move outside. Francies’ right arm would instantly go up under his foe’s left shoulder pad. Another snap. Inside move. Left arm quickly up under the right pad.

• Francies is hanging in there. He was a Mangini pick, in Round 6 in 2009.

• Gotta love watching those undrafted rookies. DE Kyle Anderson, who played at Geortgetown, Ky. (some of my Canton South comrades have wound up there over the years) charged and twisted against undrafted rookie offensive lineman Jarrod Shaw as if going after a guy who snatched his grandma’s purse.

• Former West Virginia QB Jarret Brown’s rocket arm has been “a pleasant surprise,” Shurmur said.

On one 11-on-11 play, the 23-year-old Brown sprinted left and on the dead run threw a 20-yard sideline strike to rookie Juan Nunez.

• So many new faces to get to know. So many here for just the next few weeks.

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Kind of wondering what the story is with Bunkley...

Good read

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Kind of wondering what the story is with Bunkley...

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I first started to wonder what the problem was when I saw t6hat he was not listed on the roster today

Outflippenstanding coverage from Doerschuk...As in the past...

Post deleted by Referee2

I thought that was signed free agents, not traded players.

The OL we traded for was in camp and working.

Ok, I am officially confused

Is bunkley in camp? Is he working? or is he just sitting around until thursday?

Brodrick Bunkley a no-show in Browns camp

Posted by Mike Florio on August 1, 2011, 2:16 PM EDT

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Two years ago, defensive lineman Richard Seymour took his sweet time reporting for work with the Raiders after being traded there by the Patriots. Now, another defensive lineman has yet to appear in his new place of employment after a trade.

Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Broderick Bunkley, a first-round draft pick of the Eagles in 2006, has not shown up in Cleveland after being traded to the Browns on Saturday for a fifth-round draft pick.

Per McLane, “[N]o one knows if [Bunkley] ever will.”

The procedure that would apply depends on whether the trade hinged (as trades normally do) on the player passing a physical in his new city. Since the player has to report before he can pass a physical, the trade isn’t over until the player shows up.

If there is such a condition, the Eagles and Browns could re-work the deal, like the Broncos and Bucs did several years ago after Jake Plummer was traded to Tampa and never showed up. (The Bucs later obtained a partial reimbursement of signing bonus money the Bucs never paid.)

Whether the rights are held by the Eagles or the Browns, the only way to squeeze the player is to send a so-called “five-day letter.”

“The club sends a letter to the player warning him that, in five days, the club has the right to place him on the reserve/left squad list,” NFL spokesman Michael Signora told PFT during the Seymour episode. “It explains to him that if they do place him in that category, he cannot play again this season, etc. After sending that letter and the expiration of the five-day period, the club does not have to place the player on the reserve/left squad list, but it may do so.”

The devil will be lurking in the details on this one. There’s a chance that the Browns gave up a fifth-rounder for nothing, and there’s a chance that the Browns ultimately will give up nothing, with Bunkley’s rights reverting to the Eagles.

Either way, Seymour ended up showing up in Oakland. And now he’s happy there. So maybe Bunkley should give the Browns a chance. It’s not as if he has many other options, if he wants to play football for money.

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Demetrius Williams, who got way behind cornerback Coye Francies and safety Bubba Ventrone.

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How is Ventrone even still on the 90-man?

OK,, so which report is accurate?

As soon as I saw FL Dawg's post I knew you would respond sooner or later.

I found this interesting .......

PigskinALinkADoodleDandy

• Pat Shurmur made this somewhat crystal clear about D’Qwell Jackson:

“He’s the middle linebacker (very slight pause) for now.”

Shurmur said Jackson, whose weight is in the 230-235 range, is plenty big to play the middle in this scheme.

“In the middle with the big bodies … he knows how to sort it out … he’s very instinctive,” Shurmur said.


Maybe there's something in the works?

It's probable that Shurmur wasn't prepared to just hand DQ the middle spot on the first day of camp, esp. since they're using the 3-4 now and DQ has missed most of the past two seasons.

I'd say it has more to do with them wanting to bring in another linebacker (Tatupu, maybe) and move D'Qwell outside so Gocong doesn't start.

I recall reading someplace that the prevailing thought was DQ was more suited to MLB... but I could be wrong about that.

There are lots of differing opinions on which spot he should play. Definitely MLB or WILL though and right now the Browns have two SAM's in Fujita and Gocong. That's just bad.

This is hot off the presses... Steve Doershuck BTW.

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Browns General Manager Tom Heckert dropped by the Browns’ media room and was pelted with questions about what the team doesn’t have.

He seemed much more eager to talk about what the team does have. One of the “haves” was a surprise.

He thinks the wide receiving corps has a real player in Jordan Norwood.

“I’m telling you,” Heckert said, “Jordan Norwood can play. He’s going to be good for us.”

Norwood was a Penn State senior in 2008 who went undrafted in 2009. He was in Philadelphia’s training camp to start 2010 but was waived on Sept. 4.

Heckert grabbed him for the practice squad, and Norwood eventually was promoted to the active roster, but he never got in a game.

That will change in 2011.

The Browns are loaded with wide receivers in the 6-foot-2 to 6-5 range.

“Jordan sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn’t he?” Heckert said of the 5-11, 180-pound Norwood.

Bottom line: The Browns think he will get open and catch passes in the West Coast attack.

As for what the Browns don’t have, first-round pick Phil Taylor missed a third straight practice as a holdout.

Heckert said he is not concerned, noting Taylor is one of seven players drafted in roughly the same part of the first round who had yet to sign.

“We’ve been talking to him every day,” Heckert said. “We have a good relationship with him and with his agent.

“We’ll see what happens.”

Nothing is happening with a Brodrick Bunkley trade that had been reported by the Eagles, who said the Browns were giving up a Round 5 pick to obtain the defensive tackle.

Bunkley is not in Berea, and Heckert clams up as to whether a deal will be finished.

“You’d have to talk to Philadelphia on that one,” said Heckert, who was the Eagles’ general manager from 2006-09. “I’ve got nothing for you on that one. I am not talking about that.”

The Browns’ biggest question mark is how they will stock a defensive line in a 4-3 scheme after playing a 3-4 the last six years.

Heckert confirmed that 2010 sacks leader Marcus Benard, who was an outside linebacker in the 3-4, will play end in the 4-3.

“He’s gotten bigger, but he’s not huge,” Heckert said. “Quickness ... that’s his deal as a pass rusher.”

Benard can’t practice until Thursday because of rules pertaining to players who were free agents coming out of 2010.

Heckert laughed at a question about whether the Browns will use any extra money they have to spend under new salary-cap rules to give left tackle Joe Thomas a long-term deal.

“I think that’s pretty safe to say,” he said.

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Heckert laughed at a question about whether the Browns will use any extra money they have to spend under new salary-cap rules to give left tackle Joe Thomas a long-term deal.

“I think that’s pretty safe to say,” he said.

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I would hope so.

I really liked what he said about Norwood:

He thinks the wide receiving corps has a real player in Jordan Norwood.“I’m telling you,” Heckert said, “Jordan Norwood can play. He’s going to be good for us.”

Norwood was a Penn State senior in 2008 who went undrafted in 2009. He was in Philadelphia’s training camp to start 2010 but was waived on Sept. 4.

Heckert grabbed him for the practice squad, and Norwood eventually was promoted to the active roster, but he never got in a game.

That will change in 2011.

The Browns are loaded with wide receivers in the 6-foot-2 to 6-5 range.

“Jordan sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn’t he?” Heckert said of the 5-11, 180-pound Norwood.

Bottom line: The Browns think he will get open and catch passes in the West Coast attack.