There were some lofty expectations placed upon rookie running back Duke Johnson when the Cleveland Browns traded up in the 2015 NFL Draft to select him out of the University of Miami. The Browns have been vanilla on offense through two preseason games, partly because DeFilippo has been missing key components such as both Johnsons, Bowe and Pryor.
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“It’s helpful, it’s nice”. There’s no substitute for that.
Pettine wouldn’t guarantee any of the injured who took the field Saturday will practice today when the team works in pads at full speed.
“I’m very, very confident,” Bowe said, per Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer. Cam is going to be a good player for us..
Of course, having seen his play taper off over the course of the last three seasons since his final 1,000-yard receiving season in 2011, even if Bowe is healthy and has a resurgent year of sorts, it’s hard to imagine that the Browns have the offensive talent to make Bowe seem prophetic. All it takes is time. As long as he stays focused and stays into it, I think hes going to be OK because hes done a lot of things already.
If DeFilippo goes back and glances at last year’s film from Cleveland’s 22-17 victory over the Buccaneers, he’ll notice West caught his only touchdown pass of the season. Like Bowe, Johnson found a positive in the extensive time off. “Every day I wake up is football”, he said. “I come out here, I compete, I have fun, I play football”. “If you’re lollygagging, not paying attention in meetings, doing stuff like that, then it sets you back”. “I was running and I felt something, and we took precautionary reasons and they sat me out until I healed”. Neither Terrance West nor Isaiah Crowell has seized the starting job, so there is still time for Johnson to grab it.
The Browns are counting heavily on Johnson, considering all they have to go on is what they saw him do in college and in shorts and a T-shirt in spring practice. “He needs some live reps”. “That’s asking a lot of a rookie to put him out there week one with minimal full speed, full contact reps with the particular units”. “I wanted to see where these two backs were this past week”.
I think the concerted effort was to improve the depth of the offensive line based on what happened previous year, Pettine said. He didn’t fully participate at the scouting combine in February with a strained right hamstring. “I’ve had hamstring issues since I was in high school”.
“Never”, he said. “I’m a football player. But my preparation is something I’m big on and was doing to the next level when I was out”. I made sure I understand what I have when I have it, just in case Coach wants to do anything special with me.
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It gave me more time to learn the playbook the time Im not actually out here. I’m just going to come out here and try to show that every day. So, when you hear someone make bold claims about how his team will do this season, it shouldn’t be read as anything more than a typical training camp comment.
