Cleveland Browns Training Camp is officially one day old, only for rookies and a few select veterans, and already we have a concern. According to Ian Rapoport rookie running back Terrance West is headed to an injury list:
#Browns rookie RB Terrence West will start training camp on the non-football injury list, source says.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 23, 2014
West was noted to be in competition for the starting running back spot. So much so that Head Coach Mike Pettine even noted as much and referred to him as “our guy Terrance West.” West is a downhill runner who seemed to fit well in the Zone Blocking Scheme but Dane Brugler, who does NFL Draft work for CBS Sports noted that durability was a concern with West in the draft process:
As much as I like #Browns RB Terrance West, some teams did take him off their draft boards due to durability questions. Worth noting
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) July 23, 2014
Not a great sign but if Brugler knew of these we can realistically assume so did the Browns. The Non-Football Injury List is also a unique classification. It seems to denote problems unrelated to the football field. Generally it is used when players don’t pass their conditioning test, a huge red flag if true for any rookie coming in healthy:
Yet West took to Twitter quickly to denounce that as what happened, stating he passed his conditioning test, as well as another source reporting this to be true as well:
Lol I passed my conditioning test. You people stop making up your own stories.
— TWEST-B.W.I (@TerranceWestBWI) July 23, 2014
Source says @Terrancewest28 has passed Browns' conditioning test already
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) July 23, 2014
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He didn’t dispute being placed on the list and hasn’t Tweeted since this tweet. It is possible that the “injury” is not something to worry about. The fact that he was able to pass his conditioning test seems to rule out any leg or joint related injuries as he wouldn’t be medically cleared to run with those. It is possible that Rapoport got wrong information. It is also possible something minor has occurred, for an example think of the many baseball players who go on IR for slicing themselves while cutting fruit.
Hopefully more information will come out soon. Hopefully the Browns won’t be dealing with a long term injury. Hopefully for West it is nothing serious. It is the pre-season, we are full of hope right now.
Update: West has since tweeted that he is healthy with no worries, very interesting as 14 minutes before that Daryl Ruiter also reported he was on the NFI list:
I'm healthy ready to go. (NO WORRIES) #dawgpound
— TWEST-B.W.I (@TerranceWestBWI) July 23, 2014
#Browns put LB Tank Carder, T Chris Faulk, DTJacobbi McDaniel, G Jeremiah Warren, RB Terrance West, DL Billy Winn on nonfootball injury list
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) July 23, 2014
We may never find out what happened, or maybe tomorrow everything will be cleared up.
What is your hope for West this season? Does this vague report, and Brugler’s Tweet, concern you?