Training camp ends

With the end of Wednesday afternoon's practice, the Browns finished their first training camp under new coach Romeo Crennel. Now the focus shifts from fundamentals to preparation for the regular season.
Friday night's preseason game against Carolina is the third exhibition match, largely considered the "dress rehearsal," when the starters get the most playing time prior to the regular season.
Friday's game might settle a lot of preseason battles, but we can already get a thumbnail-sketch view of the opening day roster from what has happened since the start of camp.

Here's what training camp taught us about the Browns:

1. Lee Suggs can't stay healthy, no matter who is coach.
Every year, Suggs makes our mouths water with his potential. Every year, he gets hurt and becomes anti-matter early in the season. And every year, he rebounds with a couple of 100-yard games in December to make us dream about his potential again. Why should this year be any different?
Suggs is out indefintely with a high ankle sprain, which is to a running back what a sprained throwing shoulder would be to a quarterback. Don't count on him contributing anything meaningful before the weather turns cold.

2. Luckily, Will Green appears to be an honestly-changed man.
Many athletes with off-the-field demons pay a king's ransom in lip service to the idea of recommitting themselves and getting serious about their careers, only to wind up back in the police blotter again.
It's still early, but Green appears to be making an honest commitment to improving himself, and it has shown on the field, where he has looked better than he has since his late-seaon surge in his rookie year, when he helped the Browns reach the 2002 playoffs.
If Green's newfound focus sticks, he could make the injury to Suggs a whole lot less painful for Crennel and his staff.

3. Charlie Frye and Braylon Edwards will be starting sooner rather than later.
Before you invoke the name "Tim Couch" when I mention "Frye," "rookie" and "starting" in the same sentence, let's make a few differentiations:
Couch was thrust into starting on a hastily-constructed expansion team. Everybody from the head coach down was in a messy process of trial-and-error those first few years, which certianly didn't help Couch's development.
While Couch was tough, he wasn't that quick in the pocket and he had a slow release on his throws, which opened him up for a lot of hits he wouldn't have otherwise taken. Frye initally appears to be much quicker on the draw and more agile in the pocket than Couch. Frye is also taking snaps behind an offensive line that is at least marginally better than the one Couch had to work behind during his time in Cleveland.
If Frye starts, so does Edwards. They are roommates on the road, and their chemistry is going to be essential to the development of the Browns offense.

4. The switch to a 3-4 defense won't happen overnight.
Crennel might have made his way up through the defensive ranks to his first NFL head coaching gig, but his first NFL team is going to start out with a more advanced offense than defense.
The defense has no premier playmakers and is dangerously thin at linebacker and cornerback. One of the starting linebackers -- Kenard Lang -- is a converted defensive end who lost 30 pounds this offeseason to accomodate his new position.
The Browns were in such bad shape at the end of last season, everyone in the organization knows (or should know) it's going to take a couple of years to get every aspect of the team to the caliber of a contender. The defense appears to be starting from the deepest hole.

5. Josh Cribbs has this team made. For now.
Cribbs apparently has the field vision of a quarterback leftover from his days at Kent State, and enough acceleration to outrun members of the opposing coverage unit on kickoff returns. His stellar game against Detroit, which included three kickoff returns of 30-plus yards and a tackle, drew raves from Crennel and cemented Cribbs' spot on the team. But we'll see what happens once the regular season begins and Cribbs starts making his way onto other teams' video footage.

6. Those Lutheran West boys can play ball.
Ben Miller (Lutheran High School West class of '98) not only throws blocks, but he can long-snap, too, as he demonstrated on the extra point that put the Browns ahead 14-13 against the Lions. Ben has certainly come a long way from his days as the starting center for the Longhorns basketball team on which I was manager (I'm class of '97).
(Yeah, it's a blatant plug for my high school. St. Ignatius and St. Edward grads shouldn't have all the fun. Go Longhorns.)