1. Draft picks 'showed themselves'
Hue Jackson started answering a question about third-round quarterback Cody Kessler and wound up mentioning a number of the team's other draft picks because of the strong first impression they made Friday.
It summed up why Jackson opened his post-practice press conference by saying "that was a lot of fun."
"(Kessler) had a good first day, and I think our top-of-the-line, as people would say, draft picks showed themselves. That was exciting," Jackson said. "I think on defense, (LB) Emmanuel (Ogbah), watching him … that's a big looking athlete who has explosion. You're watching (LB) Joe Schobert and I could go on and on and on. Those guys, it was good to see them be out there on the field."
The Browns' 14-man draft class provided a noticeable chunk of the 46 players on the field for Friday's rookie minicamp practice. Many found themselves working closely with special teams coordinator Chris Tabor during the early portion of practice before breaking into their position groups.
The camp, in terms of size, differed greatly from last year's, when the Browns welcomed 50 tryout players on top of their 12 draft picks, four undrafted free agents and a variety of first-year rostered players. For Jackson, Cleveland's first-year head coach, it wasn't a challenge dealing with so many new faces who could very well fill important roles on the 2016 squad.
"We treat everybody the same. We coach every position the same. We coach them hard. We have great expectations and we demand a lot," Jackson said. "I think our guys and these young players will start to understand exactly how we do it because it is the way we do it. Guys have to kind of mold themselves into how these veteran players have all of the sudden made a decision of this is how we work, this is who we are.
"The biggest challenge I think we have is when it comes time to make decisions of who is on this team, obviously along with (executive vice president of football operations) Sashi (Brown), (chief strategy officer) Paul DePodesta and (vice president of player personnel) Andrew (Berry), those will be the biggest decisions we will have as we move forward."
2. Browns exercising caution with Shon Coleman
Third-round offensive lineman Shon Coleman continues to recover from a knee injury he sustained near the end of his college career and did not participate in Friday's practice.
Jackson stressed the injury was not serious or anything to be concerned about long-term.
"Like I've done before with everybody, we are going to really take it slow and we are going to get him where we need to be before we put him out there. He'll be ready later on. He is working hard," Jackson said. "You saw him out there doing things. We are always with anybody who is injured or who have had an injury, we'll take it a little bit easier with them to get them where they need to be. As you've seen, it's competing out there. You want to make sure a guy is ready before you put him out there."
3. Schobert begins at OLB
Schobert, Cleveland's first of four fourth-round picks, was lauded by the Browns for his versatility and potential to play multiple spots in Cleveland's linebacking corps.
On Friday, Schobert said he would begin his NFL career at outside linebacker, the spot where he starred at Wisconsin. At 6-foot-1 and 245 pounds, Schobert doesn't have typical size for 3-4 outside linebackers in the NFL, but his motor is atypical, and he could help the Browns in a big way on special teams.
In his last two seasons at Wisconsin, Schobert compiled 33.5 tackles for loss, 12.5 sacks and seven forced fumbles.
"My expectation is to be as successful as possible in my role, no matter what it is in the first year and as it increases in the future," Schobert said. "We have a bunch of great guys at outside and inside backer to learn from – how they do things, how they have been successful."
4. Local arm added to rotation
The Browns opted for a veteran rather than a rookie when they looked to get another quarterback on campus for this weekend's rookie minicamp, and they didn't have to go far.
Ricky Stanzi, a five-year veteran who hails from nearby Mentor, is one of 14 tryout players participating in the minicamp. The former Iowa star was a fifth-round pick in 2011 and has spent time with the Chiefs, Jaguars and Texans.
Stanzi and Kessler are the only two quarterbacks participating in the minicamp.
"A veteran's probably been through it and … wouldn't be disappointed if he didn't get a lot of reps or he did," Jackson said. "I just didn't want to wear Cody out the first day being out there. I thought that was something that I needed to make a decision about, and we did as an organization because I think it's important. We don't want to take a chance of all of a sudden having a guy work too much.
"I think Ricky did a good job, and I don't think Ricky is threatened by the situation. I think he walked in here understanding exactly what the opportunity was and was happy to get the opportunity."
5. Kicking it
The Browns have two kickers on their 90-man roster and are trying out three more this weekend.
Travis Coons, who made the first 18 kicks of his NFL career last season, was the lone kicker on the roster until Maryland's Brad Craddock, the 2014 Lou Groza Award winner, was added last week as an undrafted free agent. Andrew Baggett (Missouri), Chad Hedlund (SMU) and Brent Wahle (Ohio Dominican) joined the group on the practice field Friday.
"We have some guys here that we are going to give an opportunity to and see who they are and what they are," Jackson said. "There is nothing better than to do that in this situation right now. Yeah, we have some legs out there, that's for sure."
