It’s almost time Browns fans, quarterbacks and rookies report to Berea today and the rest of the team reports Tuesday July 28. The players union and the league worked out a satisfactory testing program, cutting the roster to 80 players and no pre season games. The last hurdle seems to have been the revenue sharing and next years salary cap, which as of this writing has been resolved. The cut down to 80 players will not happen until August 16, so Browns fans can play their favorite game, adopt your favorite undrafted rookie in training camp. My biggest concern however, is the lack of any pre season games, which would be a definite disadvantage for teams with new coaching staffs, like the Browns. Hopefully, the team will scrimmage enough to work things out. We’ll all find out how well those zoom position meetings went.
Thursday it was announced that the Browns hired Kevin Rogers as senior assistant to the staff. Rogers worked with head coach Kevin Stefanski on the Vikings from 2006 to 2010 as quarterbacks coach. It seems strange that the Browns would hire another coach this close to training camp starting, however with the prospect of no pre season games, it makes sense. Coach Stefanski will need all the help he can get installing his offense. Stefanski considers Rogers a mentor. I’ll be writing an article for http://www.clesportstalk.com detailing the effect of no pre season games on the 2020 Cleveland Browns. Watch for it next week.
In other sports news, today is opening day for the Cleveland Indians. Late July and it’s opening day, wow. The tribe should make the expanded 16 team playoffs solely based on their starting rotation. In an era where switch hitters are a rarity in baseball, their first four hitters are switch hitters. My only concern would be the bullpen. Their greatest strength is their manager Tito Francona. Francona knows how to handle a bullpen and revolutionized how it is used. In 2016 he would bring in reliever Andrew Miller at any time during a game. Since being hired by the Indians in 2013, Cleveland leads the American league in wins with 639. Go Tribe.
So as we move forward, it’s apparent the NFL is determined to play games and stay on schedule as much as possible. Damn the pandemic, full speed ahead. Now that the union and the league have worked out the last of their differences, training camps will open on time next week. We’re still a long way from playing games, but football this fall would be a welcome sight. Everyone stay safe and Go Browns.