Are the mounting injuries—which seem to be mounting with the frequency of Jenna
in her prime—and uncertainty at several key positions beginning to wear on
general manager Phil Savage?
In a story in this morning’s
Dayton Daily News…
(Note to the DDN: turn down the freaking sound on your #&*@$!
Hyundai ads. Don’t need for it to sound and feel like an NBA game when
clicking on a story.)
…the normally affable Savage grew testy when asked by reporters about the team’s
backup quarterback situation. What follows is
Savage’s “diatribe” toward the media, as relayed by The Daily News’
Sean McClelland:
“I'm not going to assess the whole team for you guys after one preseason game. I
don't really care after one game. This is a little bit ridiculous. I mean, I'm
walking off the practice field and all of a sudden I'm having a press
conference. It's ridiculous. ... To get surrounded like this after one preseason
game? What do you think it makes these (players) feel like? It's wrong. It's
wrong. You don't judge players after one practice or one game. You do it over
the course of all the games. ... I talk to you guys way too much.”
*****
The Browns are “cautiously optimistic” that cornerback Gary Baxter will
be available for the club’s regular season opener against the Saints.
Baxter suffered a slight tear in his right pectoral muscle during Thursday’s
preseason opener.
Baxter himself is supremely confident that he’ll be in uniform and on the field
Sept. 10.
“You guys can bet
I’ll be ready for the season opener,” Baxter said. “Right now, all I can do
is get better, and it will not slow my progress from me getting better.”
Head coach Romeo Crennel told reporters following practice—a practice in
which Baxter was limited to –that Baxter will not need surgery to repair the
damage.
(Of course, Crennel told reporters earlier in the week that offensive lineman
Bob Hallen had “back issues”, and we all know how that circus played out.)
With Daylon McCutcheon likely to miss the entire preseason following
late-July knee surgery, the Browns will likely be scouring their list of
available defensive backs.
For the time being, though, Pete Hunter—he of the scorched-by-Hank Baskett Hunters—and Antonio Perkins will split time as the starter
opposite Leigh Bodden.
*****
According to one Browns insider, the injury to Baxter could be a blessing in
disguise.
Say what? Or, as Gary Coleman was wont to say, “Whatchoo talkin’
‘bout, Willis?”
Baxter has been suffering from a knee injury that was slightly worse than what
either the Browns or Baxter letting on. With this latest injury, the
insider suggested, Baxter will be forced to downshift a gear or two, which will
facilitate not only the healing of the pectoral muscle but also the knee.
There was some fear that Baxter’s knee injury was of the lingering variety; now,
that fear has been somewhat assuaged by the expected rest that the CB will be
forced to receive.
Additionally, Baxter has, by all reports, had a tremendous camp, which leads
observers to believe that he’s fully recovered from his torn right pec of a year
ago and these latest injuries are mere blips on the radar.
*****
Getting back to the secondary as a whole, wide receiver Josh Cribbs tells
the Canton Repository that he intends to go to the coaching staff
and
volunteer his services to the depleted unit.
Such a move would not be unprecedented, especially to Crennel. Troy Brown, in addition to his starting job at WR, became a key contributor in New England’s nickel package during the Patriots last
Super-Bowl winning season in 2004. Brown had three picks and five passes
defensed during his stint at cornerback.
And, just who was the defensive coordinator who successfully integrated Brown
into the secondary? Crennel, of course.
Cribbs, a quarterback at Kent State, has made tremendous
strides in his second season in Browns camp as a receiver. The second-year
veteran currently sits third on the team’s WR depth chart, and is also listed as
the team’s number one kickoff returner.
*****
Don’t be surprised when, barring injury or a trade, Ross Tucker assumes the
starting center position from Alonzo Ephraim by the third or fourth preseason
game.
The coaching staff is surprisingly high on the journeyman’s potential and feels
that, in the long term, Tucker is a more viable option than Ephraim, who is more
comfortable at the guard position.
For a good read on Tucker, click
HERE
for the Elyria
Chronicle Telegram’s/Medina Gazette’s Scott Petrak
and his take on the newly-acquired center.
*****
On the heels of Willie McGinest being held out of the preseason
opener—and given the injurious twists and turns this training camp has taken—the
linebacker being absent from yesterday’s practice due to “personal reasons”
might cause some to tumble further into panic mode.
Not to worry, though, as the Akron Beacon Journal is reporting
that the veteran LB was
excused from practice to attend the birth of his daughter.
*****
Isn’t funny how head coaches and general managers huff and puff over the media
attaching rumors and innuendo to their clubs, yet have no problem stretching the
truth like two brothers fighting over the lone Stretch Armstrong doll?
*****
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“If you continually go out and lay an egg,” he said, “chances are you’ll lay an
egg during the regular season.”—head coach Romeo Crennel, on the
importance of preseason games.
QUOTE OF THE DAY, THE SEQUEL:
“Is a preseason game important? Yes. Is it crucial? No. I mean, can you guys
even tell me what the score was of any of our preseason games last year?”—general
manager Phil Savage, on the importance of preseason games.