BEREA - Travis Wilson is trying to show that he belongs. After spending his
rookie season mostly in obscurity, Wilson is trying to work his way to become
the Browns third or fourth receiver.
Wilson has been criticized for dropping passes in training camp, but he’s not
worried.
“I practice every day and have to be consistent day in and day out,” he said.
“It’s the easy ones that I’ve had trouble with sometimes, but that’s just a
concentration issue.”
At Tuesday’s practice, Wilson dropped a pass during a drill with the wide
receivers and coach Wes Chandler made Wilson drop and do 10 push ups.
“My number one job is to catch the ball,” he said.
Offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski has been on Wilson throughout training
camp and has been heard repeatedly saying ‘ Be focused’ to Wilson.
“Obviously, I feel the coaches have a lot of belief in me and are pushing me
to the max,” Wilson said. “It is the coaches job to make everyone better.
Personally, I think the coaches believe in me and are helping me to focus. It’s
when they stop talking to me, that it’s time to worry.”
Romeo Crennel seemed to have relegated Wilson to the dog house in his rookie
season after Wilson held out during training camp. However, this year he defends
the 6-1, 218 pound receiver from Oklahoma after a practice where Wilson dropped
a few passes.
“Sometimes that happens,” Crennel said. “We think he has some upside
and we’re going to keep working with him.”
He dismissed the notion that Chudzinski was picking on Wilson.
“Chud gets on everybody,” Crennel said.
Wilson caught just two passes for 32 yards last season. He appeared in four
games and started the final two. He feels that he never recovered from his hold
out. However, he said it really made him a better player.
“The holdout made me a better player,” Wilson said. “It made me more humble
and made me to work harder to try and earn a job.”
The recent holdout of Brady Quinn allowed Wilson to finally get the monkey
off his back.
“I was taking all the heat until Brady started (his holdout) this year,” said
Wilson. “Even before we broke minicamp , Coach Romeo had made a little comment
to the team about getting here on time, unless you want to be ‘hurting like
Wilson’. Quinn kind of helped me out a little bit by doing this.”