BEREA, Ohio -- Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Todd Haley took exception to contact made on rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield during Monday’s practice and he was not afraid to let defensive coordinator Gregg Williams know about it.
The two coordinators had a heated exchange of words about the need to protect the quarterbacks before Coach Hue Jackson stepped in the calm down the situation.
“They’re fine,” Jackson said following practice. “Those things happen. We’ve got men that are competing every day. Both sides are competing. That’s just part of football.
“They understand, but I love the fire in both of them. Both of them are very competitive. That’s what you want.”
PHOTOS: Cleveland Browns hold practice on Day 13 of Training Camp
A linebacker rushed in and knocked a blocking offensive lineman into Mayfield, and that set off the disagreement.
“I don’t want to say hit,” Jackson said. “He probably got touched, knocked into. That’s all it is. We’ve got some competitive guys, and I like that. I want the offense to play well. I want the defense to play well. I want the special teams to play well. That’s what we have to do.
“Every now and then, those things may happen. We don’t want them to happen. I tell the guys, ‘Stay off the quarterback.’ We don’t want to take a chance of any of those quarterbacks getting hurt doing something like that, somebody just making a mistake or being stupid or anything like that, but at the same time, we know this is football. It does happen, and we’ve just got to work through that.”
Well aware of the need to protect the quarterbacks, Jackson still likes the kind of passion shown by Haley and Williams in practice, and believes that desire and intensity sets an important tone for a team trying to turn around their fortunes after a 1-31 showing over the last two years and an 0-16 mark in 2017.
“I think you have to play this game that way,” Jackson said. “You better have a fire in your belly to play. This is a hard-driving business. Not everybody can do it. It’s tough. I think that’s the way football is played. I’m glad both of those guys are here. They do a good job.”
BUILDING TOUGHNESS
It has been nearly a week since the airing of the premiere episode of the HBO Sports documentary miniseries, “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cleveland Browns,” and yet, there still is plenty of talk about the speech Jarvis Landry gave in the wide receivers room prior to a film session.
Landry showed his veteran leadership by letting loose a 105-second rant in a position meeting after feeling his fellow receivers were not giving enough effort on the practice field.
“We want a tough football team, but we also have to be smart,” Jackson said. “We have to have all these guys out here to become a good football team. If guys are in the training room, that’s not going to help us, and I think everybody understands that.”
ROBINSON BROUGHT INTO ROTATION
Greg Robinson was expected to be in the mix to compete for the starting left tackle spot, but a concussion early in training camp forced the Browns to move Joel Bitonio from left guard to the bookend spot.
Although Robinson has returned to practice and seen action at left tackle, nothing has been decided about the blindside blocker spot.
“Just working through it,” Jackson said. “Bitonio’s still our starting left tackle, but have just got to keep working combinations and things.
“It means nothing. It just means that every now and then, I’m going to stick Greg out there and make sure Joel keeps playing some left guard. If we find an answer in-house, then great. If we don’t, I feel good about Joel being out there.”
WORKING THROUGH ANKLE ISSUE
Browns defensive back Denzel Ward has been limited with what he can do in practice recently, but he is dealing with something the coaching staff expects him to work through as training camp continues this week.
“He’s got a little sore ankle, so he’ll just work through it,” Jackson said. “He’s been out there practicing, competing, doing some good things. He’s just got to keep pushing through.”
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