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With Edwards AWOL, Bryant could break through
Saturday, July 30, 2005
By Steve Doerschuk Repository sports writer
BEREA — It will become clear some September Sunday.
Maybe, probably, theoretically.
On the first day of Browns training camp, though, first-round pick Braylon Edwards wasn’t Trent Dilfer’s favorite target.
Of Edwards’ holdout, the 33-year-old quarterback said. “I don’t waste one second of my time on it. It’s his issue.”
Browns President John Collins said the club was doing what it could to work out a deal. Indications were Edwards might be signed by early next week.
When it happens, one of the big issues of camp will play out.
How well will Dilfer throw? And to which past Biletnikoff Award winner will he throw it more often?
Edwards, the best receiver in college football in 2004? Or Antonio Bryant, who won the Biletnikoff back in 2000 yet is less than two years older than Edwards?
Keep an eye on Bryant. He is a bit smaller than the 6-foot-3, 211 pound Edwards, but only a bit. His talent is in the same ballpark, based on his 1,302 receiving yards and 19.1 per-catch average as a 19-year old Pitt sophomore.
As Bryant enters his fourth pro season, it could be a matter of opportunity meeting maturity.
Here is what Bryant says about seeing himself as an NFL star: “Humility before honor. God brings you to a certain level of maturity. I feel like I’m understanding things a lot better, seeing things a lot clearer in certain situations. ... As I make better decisions, better results will happen for me.”
When Bryant angrily threw a jersey at his head coach in Dallas, Bill Parcells was not amused. Bryant was traded to the Browns on Oct. 19 for fellow former Round 2 pick and wide receiver Quincy Morgan.
Now, Bryant is trying to impress a different boss, Romeo Crennel, a former Parcells confidant. He is vying for time against Edwards, fourth-year pro André Davis and fifth-year pro Dennis Northcutt.
“I agree with the philosophy Coach Crennel presented to us,” Bryant said. “It’s about competition. It makes us all better.”
Bryant’s stats in 10 games with the 2004 Browns — 42 catches for 546 yards — weren’t bad for a guy in such an odd spot. First, he was getting used to Jeff Garcia, and Garcia got hurt. No sooner did he get going with Kelly Holcomb than Holcomb went down. Then, he was stuck with a rookie, Luke McCown, who had no chance behind a crumbled line.
Now, he’s back with a veteran in Dilfer. Everybody wonders if Dilfer might be all right.
Bryant was talking about Dilfer but might have been talking of himself when he said, “When you don’t know what a certain person is capable of doing ... that’s the person you have to fear.”
During spring sessions, Crennel indicated Edwards would have to fight his way up the depth chart, that Bryant and Northcutt were the team’s top two wideouts.
After the practice Friday that kicked off training camp, Crennel sized up his wide receiver corps anew.
“There’s some talent there,” Crennel said. “We have some speed, some guys who have produced. There should be good competition. We have to find out who’ll catch it over the middle, who will block.”
Davis, Round 2 pick in 2002, is at a crossroads. He has heard rumors he might be dealt to Seattle, but...
“I don’t believe in the rumors because there were rumors about me going to Miami last year and nothing ever happened,” he said. “So right now, I’m gonna be a Cleveland Brown player.”
In Games 4 through 6 last year, Davis totaled 293 receiving yards. But he came down with turf toe after a 99-yard catch and run against the Bengals, and the rest of his season was shot.
“I don’t want to say ‘what if,’ but I was on pace to do very well last year,” Davis said.
That was when the head coach’s surname also was Davis. Now, it’s Crennel.
“It is kind of starting over again,” André Davis said. “We have new coaches, new plays, new players. It’s a matter of building chemistry.
“When we know each other’s thoughts, that’ll be the time when we’ve all made it.”
Davis claims not to have been disappointed when the Browns spent a No. 3 overall pick on a player at his position. He said his reaction was, “Oh, man, we’re gonna be real good this year.”
But the deep subject at the start of camp was less certain than that emphatic observation.
It’s the season of tense, secret thoughts and closed-door conclusions.
Davis smiled when someone asked how he thinks his 2005 fate will shake out.
“I don’t know,” he said.
You can reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail:
steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
Saturday, July 30, 2005
By Steve Doerschuk Repository sports writer
BEREA — It will become clear some September Sunday.
Maybe, probably, theoretically.
On the first day of Browns training camp, though, first-round pick Braylon Edwards wasn’t Trent Dilfer’s favorite target.
Of Edwards’ holdout, the 33-year-old quarterback said. “I don’t waste one second of my time on it. It’s his issue.”
Browns President John Collins said the club was doing what it could to work out a deal. Indications were Edwards might be signed by early next week.
When it happens, one of the big issues of camp will play out.
How well will Dilfer throw? And to which past Biletnikoff Award winner will he throw it more often?
Edwards, the best receiver in college football in 2004? Or Antonio Bryant, who won the Biletnikoff back in 2000 yet is less than two years older than Edwards?
Keep an eye on Bryant. He is a bit smaller than the 6-foot-3, 211 pound Edwards, but only a bit. His talent is in the same ballpark, based on his 1,302 receiving yards and 19.1 per-catch average as a 19-year old Pitt sophomore.
As Bryant enters his fourth pro season, it could be a matter of opportunity meeting maturity.
Here is what Bryant says about seeing himself as an NFL star: “Humility before honor. God brings you to a certain level of maturity. I feel like I’m understanding things a lot better, seeing things a lot clearer in certain situations. ... As I make better decisions, better results will happen for me.”
When Bryant angrily threw a jersey at his head coach in Dallas, Bill Parcells was not amused. Bryant was traded to the Browns on Oct. 19 for fellow former Round 2 pick and wide receiver Quincy Morgan.
Now, Bryant is trying to impress a different boss, Romeo Crennel, a former Parcells confidant. He is vying for time against Edwards, fourth-year pro André Davis and fifth-year pro Dennis Northcutt.
“I agree with the philosophy Coach Crennel presented to us,” Bryant said. “It’s about competition. It makes us all better.”
Bryant’s stats in 10 games with the 2004 Browns — 42 catches for 546 yards — weren’t bad for a guy in such an odd spot. First, he was getting used to Jeff Garcia, and Garcia got hurt. No sooner did he get going with Kelly Holcomb than Holcomb went down. Then, he was stuck with a rookie, Luke McCown, who had no chance behind a crumbled line.
Now, he’s back with a veteran in Dilfer. Everybody wonders if Dilfer might be all right.
Bryant was talking about Dilfer but might have been talking of himself when he said, “When you don’t know what a certain person is capable of doing ... that’s the person you have to fear.”
During spring sessions, Crennel indicated Edwards would have to fight his way up the depth chart, that Bryant and Northcutt were the team’s top two wideouts.
After the practice Friday that kicked off training camp, Crennel sized up his wide receiver corps anew.
“There’s some talent there,” Crennel said. “We have some speed, some guys who have produced. There should be good competition. We have to find out who’ll catch it over the middle, who will block.”
Davis, Round 2 pick in 2002, is at a crossroads. He has heard rumors he might be dealt to Seattle, but...
“I don’t believe in the rumors because there were rumors about me going to Miami last year and nothing ever happened,” he said. “So right now, I’m gonna be a Cleveland Brown player.”
In Games 4 through 6 last year, Davis totaled 293 receiving yards. But he came down with turf toe after a 99-yard catch and run against the Bengals, and the rest of his season was shot.
“I don’t want to say ‘what if,’ but I was on pace to do very well last year,” Davis said.
That was when the head coach’s surname also was Davis. Now, it’s Crennel.
“It is kind of starting over again,” André Davis said. “We have new coaches, new plays, new players. It’s a matter of building chemistry.
“When we know each other’s thoughts, that’ll be the time when we’ve all made it.”
Davis claims not to have been disappointed when the Browns spent a No. 3 overall pick on a player at his position. He said his reaction was, “Oh, man, we’re gonna be real good this year.”
But the deep subject at the start of camp was less certain than that emphatic observation.
It’s the season of tense, secret thoughts and closed-door conclusions.
Davis smiled when someone asked how he thinks his 2005 fate will shake out.
“I don’t know,” he said.
You can reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail:
steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com