Cleveland Browns: Mack Wilson motivated by disrespect he’s received
Mack Wilson cares not for the Cleveland Browns LB slander he has heard
There’s hardly anyone who has been praising the Cleveland Browns linebacker this offseason and Mack Wilson has heard the complaints.
And he’s not having any of it.
Wilson had some strong words, saying the disrespect from the media sounds to him as though he and his linebacker teammates are “a piece of crap.”
Mack is not hiding the fact that the slander he is hearing from the outside is providing the entire linebacker room with added motivation. While he acknowledges that the linebacker room is mostly unproven, he feels that discounting their abilities without knowing what they bring to the field is foolish. The second-year linebacker plans on using the outside noise to push his teammates by reminding them how people outside of the organization view the positional group — and he says “everybody going to find out” just what they can do when the games get real.
If the linebacker room can keep the ‘chip on the shoulder’ mentality going into the season, it could serve them well. Outside noise or not, the positional group is very young and they will have to hold their own to earn the respect that Mack and company are seeking.
Outside of veteran B.J. Goodson, the linebacker room is made up of mostly first and second-year players. Establishing an ‘us versus the world’ mentality could assist the young positional group in setting a tone in training, practice, and most importantly games. If that approach fosters the work ethic necessary for these young players to take their craft to the next level, then they will be using the fuel appropriately.
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The good news for the Browns young linebacking corp is, they will get the opportunity to prove their detractors wrong in a few short weeks. Until then, the outside noise will continue, it will be up to Mack and the rest of the linebackers to make sure they keep using it as motivation and not let it become a distraction. They can’t control the noise, they can just control how they choose to use it.