Cleveland Browns: Hue Jackson’s punishment for Callaway makes no sense

Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson says the team kept rookie wide receiver Antonio Callaway in for the majority of their first preseason game as a consequence — which is quite the head scratcher

It was a week to forget for rookie wide receiver Antonio Callaway. The Cleveland Browns fourth-round pick made headlines when he was issued a citation for possession of marijuana and for driving on a suspended license.

While that would be a tough pill to swallow out of any player, the frustration felt a little worse with Callaway, who entered the league already in stage 1 one of the substance abuse program after giving a diluted sample at the combine.

Callaway contests that the marijuana wasn’t his, but rather someone else who had been driving his car. Reports out of Berea suggest the team believed his story, which is why it makes no sense at all that after their first game head coach Hue Jackson started talking as if he was out to punish Callaway. Even more confusing is the method Jackson used.

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"“That was part of the consequence of what he has been through, and he knows it. That is what it was. Either you sit him or make him play. I thought it was better to make him play,” Jackson said via ESPN. “Make him play as long as he could. There were a couple of times he kept waving to come out, and we said, ‘No, stay in.'”"

Jackson’s words make little sense because telling someone playing is a punishment is sending a pretty odd message. Preseason or not, most teams would rather sit a guy for a consequence, rather than feature him and allow him to redeem himself.

Which is what happened. After a slow start, Callaway caught fire and ended up playing a fantastic game. The news around him seems more positive now and he also showed why the team was willing to gamble on him in this contest.

Now, this isn’t to say the Browns were wrong in keeping Callaway in. That was a smart move, but it was also smart because he needs the work — not because of his off-field issues.

Callaway is set to be a big part of this offense and the Browns want him up to speed. Playing him as long as they did helps him catch up and get back into game shape as well, which he needed to do after missing all of 2017 due to a suspension at the University of Florida.

So in reality, Cleveland was doing the right thing by the receiver and themselves. Trying to turn it into a punishment was a weird way if Hue trying to spin things to make it look like he was trying to send some deeper message.

He would have been better though to say they didn’t want to comment on the previous week and simply talk about the way the kid played.