CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at Browns Stadium in a matchup of 2-3 teams.

The Browns might be without running back Peyton Hillis, who injured his left hamstring in the first quarter of Cleveland’s 24-17 loss to the Raiders in Oakland last Sunday.

Hillis’ career took a temporary turn when he tore his right hamstring three years ago, when he was a Denver Broncos rookie. He may well have been on his way to establishing himself as Denver’s long-term answer at tailback before the injury set in motion a set of circumstances that allowed the Browns to get him at moderate cost — trading quarterback Brady Quinn to Denver for Hillis and two late-round draft picks prior to the 2010 season.

(A recent cleveland.com story detailed Hillis’ career since his college days at Arkansas, and how he has had to prove himself time and again)

On Nov. 6, 2008 in Cleveland, Hillis got a chance to run with the football for Denver after four Broncos tailbacks had been injured. His numbers weren’tt spectacular– eight carries for 24 yards — but he picked up crucial first downs in short-yardage situations as the Broncos overcame a 23-10 Browns lead to win, 34-30.

Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository writes about Hillis’ current injury, and that his injury in 2008 changed things for the Broncos and Hillis. Prior to the game against the Browns, writes Doerschuk, Hillis….:

He had broken out as a receiver a week earlier, not getting a single carry, but catching seven passes for 116 yards against Miami.

He followed up the Cleveland game with a 10-carry, 44-yard game against Atlanta, then accelerated to 74 yards on 17 carries against Oakland.

Broncos fans were hooked when he hit Eric Mangini’s Jets for 129 yards on 22 carries one week later. He just kept getting better every week, even as opponents got more film to study.

He was on his way to another big game a week later, with 58 yards on his first eight carries against the Chiefs.

Late in the first half, he jumped to make a circus catch and was pounced on by defensive backs Jarrad Page and Brandon Carr. His right foot got stuck. His hamstring got mangled. He missed the last three games with the hamstring tear.

Then-Head Coach Mike Shanahan said at the time, “It’s always tough to lose a guy like that, but he will be good for the future. He’s proved that he can play tailback in the National Football League, and that one catch he made was probably as good a catch as you could make … unfortunately, he pulled his hamstring making that catch.”

The Broncos were 8-5 after the Chiefs game but lost their last three games without Hillis. Shanahan was fired. Under his replacement, Josh McDaniels, Hillis was healthy, but he carried just 13 times for 54 yards in the entire 2009 season.

Plain Dealer and cleveland.com Browns coverage includes Mary Kay Cabot’s story that Browns president Mike Holmgren says that contract talks with Peyton Hillis are at a standstill for now; Cabot’s update on the Browns’ injuries; the weekly video edition of the Browns Insider, with Cabot, Dennis Manoloff and Bud Shaw talking about the Browns; Plain Dealer Twitter updates from today when Mike Holmgren talked with the media; a Starting Blocks poll on the Browns-Seahawks game; Cabot’s Browns Insider; and, much more.

Goal to goal

Former Browns running back Jerome Harrison has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, though the long-term prognosis for his health and even his football career is good. By Adam Schefter, and according to sources, for ESPN.com.

Concern about injuries among the Browns’ defensive backs, and Browns notes, by Fred Greetham for Scout.com’s Orange and Brown Report.

Stop breaking down every word that Mike Holmgren says. By Criag Lyndall for Waiting For Next Year.

AFC North teams are setting the NFL standard for defensive play this season, Jamison Hensley writes for ESPN.com.

Browns notebook, highlighting running back Chris Ogbonnaya, by Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository.

Mike Holmgren tries to defuse any drama surrounding the Browns, Daniel Wolf writes for the National Football Authority.

Anthony Campomizzi, writing for Dawg Pound Daily, wonders if Browns quarterback Colt McCoy is regressing this season.

The AFC North quarterback watch — including the Browns’ Colt McCoy — by Jamison Hensley on ESPN.com.

Seattle Seahawks coverage on the Seattle Times.

ESPN reports that the trade of Jerome Harrison from Detroit to the Philadelphia Eagles may have saved his life.

Why?

Because doctors discovered a brain tumor that nullified a trade with the Detroit Lions, according to two league sources.

Without the deal being made, Harrison would not have undergone a physical. The tumor is now being treated, according to sources.

Harrison is not expected to play again this season, but his long-term prognosis both for life and his football career appear to be good, sources said. He is visiting with more doctors Thursday.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Running back Peyton Hillis won’t play tonight, but neither will Montario Hardesty.

Hillis tweaked a hamstring muscle at the conclusion of Wednesday’s practice and Hardesty is still being eased in after ACL surgery last year.

That means the Browns’ running backs against the Detroit Lions will be Brandon Jackson, Quinn Porter and rookie Armond Smith.

Also scratched from the game were safeties T.J. Ward (hamstring) and Usama Young (hamstring). The top backups are Ray Ventrone and Mike Adams. It’s possible rookie cornerback James Dockery also will see time at free safety.

Other players declared out for the Browns: Left guard Eric Steinbach (back), wide receivers Mohamed Massaquoi (foot) and Carlton Mitchell (finger), linebackers Chris Gocong (neck) and Scott Fujita (thigh), and tight end Benjamin Watson (hamstring).

Old home week: The Lions have a lot of former Browns on their training camp roster.

• Eric Wright is the starting right cornerback and Brandon McDonald is third at the position.

• Corey Williams is the starting right defensive tackle.

• Running backs Mike Bell and Jerome Harrison are third and fifth, respectively, on the depth chart.

• Kirk Chambers is listed third at left tackle and Isaac Sowells is fourth at right tackle.

BEREA, Ohio — “There’s a defense?”

That was the joke Pat Shurmur made at the news conference introducing him as the new Browns coach. The perception was that this Mike Holmgren hire was all about offense.

Offense dominated Shurmur’s introduction and it has dominated the early stages of his first training camp.

The surprisingly efficient performance in the debut of Colt McCoy’s direction of the West Coast offense dominated discussion following the Browns’ opening preseason win over Green Bay last week.

But as the Browns prepared for tonight’s second practice game against the Detroit Lions, the defense was gaining notice, too.

“It’s coming together, probably quicker than I imagined,” linebacker Scott Fujita said. “But what really matters is the first week of the season. We have to get on the same page as quickly as possible for that game.”

The defense has to overcome more injuries than the offense to take its next step. Fujita (thigh bruise) is one of at least three starters expected to miss tonight’s game. The others are linebacker Chris Gocong (neck) and free safety Usama Young (hamstring). Strong safety T.J. Ward (hamstring) also may be held out.

The injuries give precious playing-time opportunities with the first unit to undrafted rookie Brian Smith (for Fujita), third-year backup Kaluka Maiava (Gocong) and undrafted rookie James Dockery — possibly — for Young, if Ward is out.

Speaking mostly of the young linebackers — five undrafted free agents are scrambling to back up the starters — Fujita said: “Some of the young guys who came in undrafted, some of them are really sharp guys like Brian Smith. These are good young players who I think are going to turn out well in this league.

“Obviously, experience-wise, it doesn’t appear there is a lot of depth, but these guys are coming along fast and that’s without an off-season program and really just two weeks of work with these coaches.”

The same applies to rookie defensive line starters Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard.

Taylor was credited with no tackles in three series against Green Bay, but he influenced a holding penalty on Packers center Scott Wells. Sheard assisted on one tackle and should have been credited with a half-sack of Matt Flynn that went entirely to Jayme Mitchell.

“The game was kind of fast. It was a different tempo. I kind of got the jitters out,” Sheard said.

The Browns’ defense limited the Packers to 78 yards rushing, sacked backup QBs Flynn and Graham Harrell five times, and forced a fumble that linebacker Titus Brown returned for a touchdown.

“There was a lot of good physical play,” Shurmur said. “We played a lot of man-coverage and you didn’t see guys running wide open. I thought the coverage was tight. For the most part, the receivers were challenged and we did create some pressure and disrupt the quarterback. Those were all good things. I’m pleased with where they’ve come in less than three weeks.”

The credit has to go to new defensive coordinator Dick Jauron and his staff, which includes only one holdover from the Eric Mangini staff, defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson.

Even though the defense is switching systems — from the 3-4 to the 4-3 — it gets largely overshadowed by the offense. This is true even at practice, where the offense has a built-in advantage.

“In the West Coast system, in practice, it’s all timing,” cornerback Sheldon Brown said. “The ball comes out fast. So as a defensive back or a linebacker, in 7-on-7s, the offense is going to win. They should look good . . . should look smooth. That’s the way the practice should go, if you’ve been around a West Coast system. If the ball’s on the ground [incomplete], then you know the timing’s not there.

“For us on defense, it’s the game time [that is important]. The team things in the game. Get balls on the ground, get people around the ball. When they catch the ball, you have to get the ball from them — force fumbles, make turnovers.”

Unlike the offense, whose personality Bill Walsh blueprinted decades ago, the complexion of the new Browns defense has yet to establish itself. Fujita and Brown both say it’s too early to tell.

But Brown, for one, has an inkling of what Jauron desires it to be.

“I would imagine he wants to be a defense that’s physical, creates pressure through schemes and systems, week to week change up game plans,” Brown said. “He just probably wants to be the most physical team on that day. That’s probably going to be his mentality.”

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tgrossi@plaind.com, 216-999-4670

On Twitter: @TonyGrossi

Free-agent fullback Lawrence Vickers can’t be sure of his future with the Cleveland Browns, not after they took Stanford’s Owen Marecic in the fourth round of April’s NFL draft, and not after general manager Tom Heckert’s comments following that.

Vickers, who has played five seasons with the Browns since they selected him out of Colorado in the 2006 draft, recently told The Plain Dealer that he wasn’t disappointed when the team nabbed Marecic, apparently to replace him. Vickers was just perplexed.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ but at the same time, I laughed,” Vickers said. “I don’t know what their plans are.”

The Browns have a new coach, Pat Shurmur, and a new offensive scheme, the West Coast, and they’re looking for the right fit at fullback. After drafting Marecic, Heckert said of Vickers’ future in Cleveland: “When the league starts (after the lockout), we’ll see.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Vickers fears his reputation as an explosive “knockout fullback,” won by opening holes for Jamal Lewis in successive 1,000-yard seasons and paving Jerome Harrison’s path to 561 yards in the final three games of 2009, has clouded respect for what he can do with the ball in his hands.

Vickers played in a variation of the West Coast offense at Colorado, gaining more than 500 yards rushing and receiving in his college career. He has caught 41 passes with the Browns, 23 of them in two seasons (2007 and 2008) in former coordinator Rob Chudzinski’s offensive scheme.

“I am a West Coast fullback. That’s what they don’t understand,” said Vickers, who didn’t receive a contract tender before the NFL lockout started and hasn’t spoken to Shurmur or Heckert about his standing with the team. “… Maybe if I wasn’t knocking people out, maybe I’d still be known as a versatile fullback. Anybody that watches football knows.

“The last two years, I haven’t caught the ball. I wasn’t a part of the offense. So I made a way for me to be on the field. That’s what a football player does. Anybody that can make his presence on the field without the ball is a helluva guy.

“I played in the West Coast offense at Colorado,” Vickers added. “When I first came to the NFL, my first carry was at tailback. In Chud’s offense, look at how many passes I caught. People have short-term memories. I forgive them for that. What I’ve done for you lately is knock people out. That’s only because that’s all that was left for me to do.”

Vickers said the Browns under former coach Eric Mangini were “a team where they don’t even use a fullback. Mangini’s era wasn’t really a fullback era. I played just on (the belief that) ‘this person has to be on the field.’ Everything I got wasn’t given. I took it. Our offense was based on New England’s. They don’t even have a fullback.”

Vickers understands that teams must make decisions, and he doesn’t begrudge the Browns their choice of fullbacks.

“I’m not disappointed, because I understand business totally,” he said. “In business, you’ve got to make decisions that are for the business. If it is the end of me, kudos to Cleveland. I’m not angry. My own personal goal was to be in one spot for my whole career. I love Cleveland. I wanted to be like Kevin Mack, who spent his whole career there.

“If it is my departure in Cleveland, I’m going out with a bang. The team is on the rise. Am I mad at Tom or even Mike (Holmgren)? No. I’ll see them. I’ll shake their hands.”

Vickers hopes the team will want him back, even as he realizes it probably won’t.

“I just hope I don’t have to come to Cleveland in a different uniform, because it’s gonna be bad (for the Browns),” he said. “Those (Browns linebackers) are my guys. They know they will come with it and I will come with it. It’s gonna be one of those all-time Cleveland games.”