Plain Dealer’s Cleveland Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot talks with Colt McCoy, Alex Mack, Buster Skrine and Joshua Cribbs before the team heads to the west coast for their game Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur and players reacted for the first time to Marcus Benard’s motorcycle accident which occurred Monday after practice.  Benard, who is still in the hospital with a broken hand, was placed on the Reserve/Non-football Injury List, ending his season.  The team signed Auston English from the practice squad to the 53-man roster to replace him.

Cleveland Browns Head Coach Pat Shurmur and players discuss the rumors surrounding Peyton Hillis with his illness two weeks ago and his contract.  Also, updates on injuries to Joe Haden and Alex Mack.  Hosted by Plain Dealer’s Cleveland Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Welcome to today’s edition of Starting Blocks TV, hosted by Bill Lubinger and Branson Wright.

The Browns open their 2011 season at home Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. How will the Browns defeat the Bengals? That’s the question in today’s Starting Blocks poll.

Today’s guest on SBTV is Plain Dealer Browns writer Tony Grossi, who has an interesting stat that backs up why he believes the Browns will win Sunday.

Tony also answers fan questions from his weekly Hey, Tony! feature. This week’s questions are about Browns fullback Owen Marecic; how the practice squad works; whether Chester Taylor would have been a good fit for the Browns; and about new QB Thaddeus Lewis. (FYI, you can read a story about the practice squad in that Lubinger did last year.)

Have a great weekend. Don’t miss the special Plain Dealer section previewing the 2011 Browns and the NFL season, coming out Sunday. SBTV will return Monday with Plain Dealer Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot breaking down the opener against the Bengals.

CLEVELAND — The Browns third “Camp Colt” will be June 9-11 at the University of Texas, receiver Josh Cribbs told the Plain Dealer.

The camp is being organized again by quarterback Colt McCoy, who hosted the first one at his alma mater April 21st through April 23rd. The second  one was two weeks ago at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea.

Cribbs, who attended the first two sessions, will miss this one because of a prior commitment — his birthday bash back home in Washington, D.C.

Some of the other players attending the second camp were receivers Mohammed Massaquoi and  Brian Robiskie, tight ends Ben Watson and rookie Jordan Cameron, and quarterback Jake Delhomme. Cornerback Joe Haden also made an appearance despite the fact it was an offensive skills camp.

All of the rookies have been invited again, but it is unknown which will attend. The agent for receiver Greg Little, the second-round pick out of North Carolina, will advise Little not to participate in on-field drills if he goes. Agent Andy Ross said Little has been in frequent contact with McCoy and other offensive players.

In addition to offensive drills, the players have been watching films of the West Coast offense and working out together during t he three-day sessions. They also participate in off-the-field activities to help build camaraderie.

McCoy stressed after each of the last two camps, “It’s definitely a working trip.” He also said the sessions have helped the offense get a good jump on the season in the absence of organized team activities and minicamps.

Vince Grzegorek, Cleveland Scene
Who shall ride to the rescue after decades of incompetent misuse of Cleveland’s priceless lakefront? Perhaps the Cleveland Browns, according to the Plain Dealer.

Sketches provided to the paper show a greenworld of — gasp! — actual stuff surrounding Cleveland Browns Stadium. The team, which has been meeting with Cleveland officials, envisions a “mixed-use project,” with buildings, a possible location for a Cleveland Clinic center, new parking, and pretty, pretty trees.

“We would like to be known as a catalyst,” Mike Holmgren said to the PD. “We’re not developers. We’re in the football business … but we have a wonderful stadium down there and a great piece of property.”

Much of the land is owned by the city, but the Browns have hired a firm to study what could be done with the dormant space. Attorney Fred Nance, spitting his best PR, says it’s a way for the Browns to give back to the community, what with the community paying for the stadium and all.

In a separate piece, the PD’s Steven Litt cautions that the Browns and the city need to encourage public input, something that has been missing so far.

So far, the team’s concepts grew out of private meetings with the city, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and neighbors on the waterfront, including the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center.”We tried to keep those [discussions] quiet so nothing got out that would upset people,” Browns President Mike Holmgren said Tuesday at The Plain Dealer.

Good to see that the Browns take the same path on public projects as they do injury reports.

The public wants what the public wants, and at the forefront of those demands is likely to be a “promenade” at the water’s edge, says Litt.

Of course, the public also wants other things around the stadium, too, which have nothing at all to do with development. Cleveland Frowns nails it:

“Which is all a huge coincidence, because we have a vision for the Lakefront, too. Crucial to our vision are about two feet of snow, sixty-mile-per-hour winds, 30,000,000 metric tons of whiskey and domestic draft beer, 100,000+ tubes of Chap Stick, and a Cleveland Browns playoff game played on the Lakefront in January with the Science Center windmill spinning off its hinges in the background. As far as we know, no artists rendition of this vision exists as of yet, but if it could become a reality for even one day, it’s really hard to say that the Lost City of Atlantis wouldn’t spring right from the bottom of Lake Erie in all its original glory, ensuring millennia of peace and prosperity, and making these architect drawings in the PD a huge waste of time.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers, the premier pass-rusher in the draft, will visit the Browns on April 11 or 12, one of his eight pre-draft visits, an NFL source told The Plain Dealer.

But by then, Bowers could be such a hot commodity that the Browns won’t be able to touch him with the No. 6 overall pick.

Joe Flanagan, Bowers’ agent, released a statement Thursday dispelling false rumors about Bowers’ surgically repaired knee that have circulated since the NFL Scouting Combine last month.

Flanagan promised that teams attending Bowers’ pro day on April 1 will see for themselves he’s the best defensive player in the draft and that he’s fully recovered from surgery in January to repair a torn meniscus. He will also have the knee re-checked April 8 in Indianapolis.

Browns General Manager Tom Heckert told The Plain Dealer this week at the NFL owners meetings that he will attend the April 1 workout. The Browns then will spend more one-on-one time with Bowers in Cleveland.

If Flanagan is right about the knee, Bowers, who led the nation with 15.5 sacks last season and has been compared to Julius Peppers, could go as high as No. 1 to the Panthers.

Flanagan said in his statement: “Da’Quan’s knee has progressed ahead of schedule, in every regard, since the day he walked out of his procedure. There have been no ‘setbacks’ or ‘new concerns,’ and Da’Quan is very much looking forward to his workout on April 1.”

Flanagan said Bowers postponed his pro day from March 4 to April 1 upon advice from the top teams in the draft to give him more time to train and immediately notified all NFL teams.

“He’ll participate in all combine and defensive line tests and drills,” Flanagan said.

Bowers will then have the knee re-checked in Indianapolis and continue on the visit circuit. Visiting players can be interviewed and examined in host cities, but not work out.

“We believe this series of events will show that there exists no short- or long-term concern about his knee and also confirm that Da’Quan is the best defensive player in this draft, with as much upside as any prospect in a very long time,” Flanagan said.

Bowers is one of about eight players the Browns are considering with the No. 6 pick.

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

Published: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 7:28 PM     Updated: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 7:48 PM

 

CLEVELAND — The Browns have extended a second-round tender offer to cornerback Eric Wright, a league source told the Plain Dealer.

Tender amounts haven’t been set yet, but last year’s number for players with four accrued seasons was $1.759 million for the year. Under rules of the current collective bargaining agreement, a team signing Wright as a restricted free agent would have to give the Browns a second-round pick.

Under a new labor agreement, players with three accrued seasons might become eligible for unrestricted free agency.

Wright, a fifth-year pro,  finished the 2010 on injured reserve with a knee injury and didn’t have the season he hoped. But he said recently he’s confident he can come back strong in 2011 and be the premier cornerback the Browns expected him to be last season.

Wright, the Browns second-round pick in 2007, has said he’d like to finish his career in Cleveland. Browns general manager Tom Heckert said last week that he thinks Wright is a good corner and would like to have him back.

Wright, who struggled in Week 3 against Baltimore’s Anquan Boldin, ultimately lost his starting job at the end of last season to rookie Joe Haden. But he started the season with a pulled hamstring and then suffered a sprained knee in Week 10 in Jacksonville that was supposed to keep him out four games. He sat out only one week instead.

Wright played  at far less than 100% the next three weeks before re-injuring the knee in Cincinnati in Week 14. He missed the final two games, against Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 4:26 PM     Updated: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 4:34 PM

 

INDIANAPOLIS — Browns quarterback Colt needs to strengthen his arm and body to take his game to the next level, according to former Browns personnel executive Mike Lombardi, now an analyst with NFL Network.

 ”I think Colt did a really good job for a young quarterback,” Lombardi said at the NFL Combine  here. “I think durability, I think his body’s got to get bigger, his body’s got to get stronger, his arm’s got to improve. He’s got to follow the same thing that (Green Bay’s) Aaron Rodgers did. For him to take the next step, he’s got to really recondition his body. To play in the NFL, 16 games, 60 minutes and to take the pounding quarterbacks take, if your body’s not ready it’s not going to be able to do it.

 ”If you look at Colt McCoy compared to some of the other quarterbacks in the league, he needs to get more physical and stronger. If he can do that, what he did this year was impressive. Now he’s got to take the next step forward. That’s going to be difficult until he changes his body.”

 McCoy, who’s 6-1, 215 pounds, missed three games in 2010 with a high ankle sprain. He also recently revealed that the pinched nerve in his right throwing shoulder suffered in the national championship game bothered him during the season and continues to do so.

 But Browns President Mike Holmgren told the Plain Dealer Wednesday that McCoy is “the guy” going forward and that the Browns have no plans to bring in anyone else to compete for the starting job.