Cleveland Brown rookies arrive tomorrow (Thursday) for the first day of training camp. The team is loaded with young players and will be welcoming three first-round draft picks this week. The team is looking for players who will stay for the long haul.
The Browns need a franchise quarterback and they could have tried with the number one draft pick last month. But team vice president Sashi Brown told the Cleveland Press Club the failure rate for Q-B’s is high.
“It’s one of these things where there’s just not a supply of talented quarterbacks.”
The Browns chose defensive end Myles Garrett number one but also grabbed quarterback DeShone Kizer from Notre Dame late in the 2 nd Round. Brown says they looked for players who have overcome adversity.
“We place a lot of emphasis on finding young men who were either walk-ons or not the most highly recruited guys, who beat guys out on the depth chart at their college.”
Strong personal character is a priority on the team that saw several notable players lost to drug or alcohol problems in recent years. Brown says the team tries to prepare rookies for a life where they are no longer the star they were in college.
We pound the fact that they need to think beyond football. We have 90 guys right now. We’ll have 53 when we start in September so half the guys on our roster right now won’t make the team.”
One positive note, the Browns did sign two highly rated offensive linemen as free agents in March.