Two down, plenty more to go.
Day 2 at Browns training camp was the same old story, but the old story is pretty good: big crowds, big plays, and a lot of excitement. Nothing to water down the anticipation and the excitement that we all feel about the potential of this football team.
Inside the practice, the offensive passing game moved flawlessly against the defense, except for a couple of tremendous defensive plays by the rookie out of LSU, cornerback Greedy Williams. When the Browns drafted him on the second night of this year's draft (their first pick), they came out and said, "You'll be shocked at how smooth a cornerback he is."
You kind of wonder about, "How smooth, in today's NFL, can a cornerback be?" Then I would show you tape of Greedy Williams: He is smooth, he makes plays, and had a couple of big interceptions in the Friday practice (even picking off Baker Mayfield once). He is used to starting at LSU and in high school, so he wants to start here. After all, he looks at himself as someone who should've been a first round draft choice. He, lasted until the second round (thank heavens for Cleveland), but he is going to push for playing time, and I mean right away.
The days of Denzel Ward on one side and Greedy Williams on the other side as the starting cornerbacks may be right away. That's how good a camp Greedy is having.
The defense got its hands on a couple of passes, which is good to see. But offensively, they are lethal in the passing game with the wide receivers, the tight end, the running back combination, and Baker Mayfield throwing the football. In particular, a big day for Rashard Higgins catching the football, and even big catches by Derrick Willies, who had that big play in overtime last year in the Week 5 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Willies is a player who's on the bubble It's going to be tough to make this team at wide receiver, because you know you have Landry and OBJ and Callaway and Higgins, and then what else happens after the that? The Browns are throwing the football so much better in this camp than they ever have since coming back in 1999.
An efficient day in the red zone, and all-around a crisp practice that once again went two and a half hours. That seems to be the going rate for Freddie Kitchens.
A new stage of training camp starts tomorrow: The pads go on Saturday. That's then the offensive line and the defense as a whole really go at it.
SIGHTS & SOUNDS: Day 2 of Cleveland Browns training camp