Who will take charge of the Cleveland Browns running back position?
By Thomas Moore
May 26, 2015; Berea, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell (34) during organized team activities at the Cleveland Browns training facility. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns’ coaching staff has delivered one consistent and clear message to the players throughout the opening days of training camp.
Put in the work and you will earn your time on the field.
It is a great philosophy and one that is long overdue in Berea. But there is a potential downside, for lack of a better word, to doing business that way.
What if no one steps up to the challenge?
Related: 2015 Position Preview – Running Backs
It is a question Browns fans are pondering following running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery’s comments about the current group of running backs vying to be the focus of the team’s ground attack this fall.
“The disappointing thing was that all those guys approaching here and not being in tip-top shape. I think that was a total setback.” – Running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery
” . . . It just bothers me that guys don’t want to be the lead bell-cow guy,” Montgomery told Northeast Ohio Media Group. “I mean . . . if you want to be a backup then be a backup, but I mean you’re gonna get replaced. At some point you’ve got to be a starter if you want to hang around.
“These kids here (have) to realize what’s important for them now. If I want to make money and get the next contract, I’ve got to show something. I really have to show something and right now I think the importance of that is missing.”
Good for Montgomery on calling out his position group for not giving what he believes is maximum effort, but it still has us feeling a bit … uneasy … that Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell and company are seemingly lacking a sense of urgency about getting ready for the season.
It is a bit surprising seeing as the Browns are set up to be a running back’s dream. They have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, a quarterback that the team wants to limit as much as possible, and a wide receiving group that will be solid if not spectacular.
Add that all up, and you would think the running backs would be knocking each other down to get on the field.
Injuries to West and Johnson have not helped the situation, in more ways than one. Not only have they been limited in practice, and we won’t get to see Johnson in action during Thursday night’s preseason friendly against Washington, but their absence seems to have done the opposite of lighting a fire under Crowell.
Rather than taking control of the situation, it seems like Crowell is taking it as a lock that he will be the main guy.
“No, it doesn’t mean that because he’s got to show me that he’s hungry,” Montgomery said about Crowell being the starter. “And [what] I mean by hungry, if you want to be a starter, you practice like a starter and you do the things that you’d want. You take care of your body. You show up and do the things that are going to keep you healthy, get treatment after practice, hydrate, do all the little things you have to do in order to be that guy.”
For his part, Crowell says he wants to be the starter, but like some of the other younger players on the team (“cough, Justin Gilbert, cough”) is struggling to put words into action.
“I feel like it’s very important (to win the starting job),” Crowell told NEOMG. “Just because everybody wants to be the starting guy, nobody wants to be a backup and I feel like I have what it takes to be the starting guy.
“Now I realize that I wasn’t (in shape), so I’ve just got to do more. You know, just practicing, not coming out of practice, staying in the film room late, just studying and just doing everything that a professional has to do.”
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The good part is that we are still a little more than a month away from the start of the season, so there is time for Crowell to put his words into action, and for West and Johnson to return to health. Once that happens (we won’t go with “if it happens” because the Browns don’t have much choice here), the situation will still be a good one for whoever gets the call.
It is still summer, the season of hope for Browns fans, so we’re going to try and remain positive about the situation for now.
But if things don’t improve over the next couple of weeks, we reserve the right to alter our perception of the situation.
What do you think of the current state of the running backs?