Cleveland Browns: 3 takeaways from rookie minicamp
By Thomas Moore
The quarterback “situation” may have garnered the most attention over the weekend, but the idea that the rookies in attendance – most notably first-round pick Corey Coleman – are “out of shape” was a close second.
“He’s got to get in shape,” Jackson jokingly said after the first practice of the weekend about Coleman specifically and the rookies in general. “He’s one of the guys that has to get in shape, but the talent – he’s extremely talented and gifted. I think he saw himself, ‘Woah, this is different.’ It is, but we’ll get him to where he needs to be. I’m excited about him, as I am about all of our rookie class.”
It’s great that Jackson is letting the new players understand up front that things are different in the NFL than they are in college. (A lesson that cornerback Justin Gilbert is still struggling to comprehend.) But there is a difference between “sitting on the couch eating chips, out of shape” and “NFL out of shape.”
None of the rookies have played a game or practiced for months now, so it should come as no surprise that they are not in game shape at the moment. They’ve certainly been training, just not at the same level that they will be once they make an NFL roster.
But now that they are officially part of the Browns (or soon will be once they sign their rookie contracts), Coleman and the rest of the draft picks should benefit from the team’s training staff and put the “out of shape” discussion behind them by the time training camp opens this summer.
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