CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns are just days away from the start of training camp in preparation for the 2016 regular season, and as the players and coaches ready themselves for the constant on-field and classroom work, here is a look at the team, position by position.
Today, we discuss the tight ends.
OVERVIEW
In 2015, Gary Barnidge came into the final season of his contract with the Browns having been on the receiving end of just 44 passes for 603 yards and three touchdowns over the first seven years of his NFL career, but when given an opportunity to show what he could, the veteran tight end more than answered the bell.
With Jordan Cameron gone to the Miami Dolphins through free agency, Barnidge became a focal point of quarterbacks Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel, and earned his way to the Pro Bowl for the very first time in his career.
Over the last few weeks of the regular season, Barnidge reached a long-term contract extension with the Browns, was named an alternate to the Pro Bowl and was selected by the franchise as their Walter Payton Man of the Year candidate, and that list got a little longer as he was named the Player of the Year by the local chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA).
The Browns’ 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winner for his work in the community, Barnidge more than tripled many of his single-season career highs this past season. Barnidge turned a team-leading 79 receptions into 1,043 yards and a Browns-best nine touchdowns.
Prior to 2015, Barnidge’s career bests for receptions (13) and touchdowns (two) came in 2013, his first in Cleveland. During the 2014 campaign, Barnidge set a single-season personal best for receiving yards with 156.
“I’ll just do anything I can to help the team because it’s not really about one person,” Barnidge said during minicamp. “It’s just about trying to get wins. That’s what we’re all about. It’s about helping the team. Anything I can do to get other guys open or to spring the run game, that’s all I can do.
“I think every position is going to be really featured because he’s going to make it where every defense is going to have to focus on every position. You can’t focus on, ‘We’re going to shut down the tight end,’ or ‘We’re just going to shut down the receiver’ because then everybody else is going to open up. I think that it’s going to be dictated per week.”
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
One
Outside of Barnidge, E.J. Bibbs is the Browns’ only returning tight end following the release of Jim Dray earlier in the offseason. The 6-foot-2, 258-pound Bibbs, a native of Chicago, Illinois, caught just one pass for seven yards with the Browns last season.
“I think we have some candidates,” coach Hue Jackson said of who may back up Barnidge during the season. “Until we line up across a guy and you need to defeat somebody with your hat and hands and do it when the other guy is trying to get around you and really go through you will you really know. There are a lot of guys that look good in shorts. I don’t want to heap praise on somebody, and then, everybody will say, ‘What happened to this guy?’ I think that’s unfair.
“I think what we need to do is really channel the expectation of every position. Seriously, I’m talking about everybody, even the quarterback position. Until we have an opportunity to watch these men under true duress -- under true duress as in until we get in pads and we start going after it -- because right now, this is truly just about learning the foundation, learning how to practice, learning how to prepare yourself, learning the processes that you go through to be a pro football player.
“After that, the real guys are going to start to separate themselves when we come back here for training camp because that’s when football really starts to be played, when you put these pads on and start going after each other.”
PLAYER TO WATCH
Seth DeValve
The 6-foot-4, 245-pound DeValve, who projects as a tight end after playing wide receiver at Princeton, lost nearly four games during the 2015 season because of injuries, but managed to pull in 33 passes for 337 yards and one touchdown, including a career-long of 40 yards, and averaged 56.2 yards per game.
DeValve’s most productive season came in 2013, when he turned 49 catches into 527 yards and four touchdowns, all of which were career highs.
In his career, DeValve caught 122 passes for 1,336 yards and seven touchdowns, and averaged 44.5 yards per game. In Princeton history, DeValve finished 10th in receptions and 13th in receiving yards. He ended his career with a nine-catch, 110-yard performance against Dartmouth.
“That’s a player that we believe can have a little of a mismatch at the tight end position,” said Sashi Brown, the Browns’ Executive Vice President of Football Operations. “He played detached, played as a wide out, played on the line of scrimmage at Princeton, and we think he can be a good role player and weapon on offense.”
DeValve added, “My high school identity was a quarterback. As I got to be a junior and senior, on defense, I was a safety as well. I was actually more highly recruited as a safety than as a quarterback. I turned out to not play either of those positions. I went to Princeton because they offered me the offensive side of the ball and I wanted to stay on offense. I love offense. I knew that is one thing that I wanted to do, so I walked into the wide receiver role and it has led to tight end.”
