Browns’ punishment for Callaway: play him a lot
It turns out that Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson actually did discipline receiver Antonio Callaway for the rookie’s recent possession of marijuana citation and failure to inform the team about it.
But there is a twist: Instead of punishing Callaway by benching him for Thursday’s 20-10 victory over the New York Giants in a preseason opener, Jackson made Callaway pay by playing him more than anyone else on offense — 54 snaps, or 78 percent of the Browns’ plays.
“I was trying to make him play the whole game if we could,” Jackson said on Sunday. “I didn’t want him to come out. … That was part of the consequence of what he had been through, and he knows it. That’s what it was. Either you sit him or make him play. I thought it was better to make him play, make him play as long as he could. There were a couple times he kept waving to come out. We said, ‘No, stay in there.’
“So he fought through it and came out the other side of it and made some plays. So that was good.”
Callaway, though, was idle for the majority of team drills on Sunday because he suffered a rib injury against the Giants.
“He’ll be fine,” Jackson said. “I’m sure it was (from the game).”
After dropping one pass and having two others deflect off his hands in the first half against New York, Callaway had a stellar performance after halftime and finished with three catches for 87 yards and a touchdown, including a 54-yard catch-and-run on a pass from rookie Baker Mayfield. Browns receiver Antonio Callaway sprints away from the Giants’ Orion Stewart, right, and Tae Davis for a touchdown in the second half of Thursday’s exhibition game.
quarterback Philip Rivers sitting out, Cardale Jones and Geno Smith auditioned for the backup job in a 24-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday night.
Jones started and played nearly the entire first half, completing 6 of 12 passes for 50 yards.
“At some point, I want to know what we have in Cardale Jones,” coach Anthony Lynn said. “He came into this league and he has never really been given a legitimate opportunity, in my opinion. I want to give him that opportunity.”
Smith completed 14 of 23 passes for 218 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown throw to Geremy Davis. He was intercepted once.
The Jacksonville Jaguars suspended AllPro cornerback Jalen Ramsey and defensive end Dante Fowler on Sunday for violating team rules and unbecoming conduct. Neither will make the trip to Minnesota on Tuesday for two days of joint practices and next Sunday’s preseason game.
Fowler was involved in several fights on Sunday, including one after practice with fellow defensive end Yannick Ngakoue. Ramsey shouted profanities at media members who captured the altercation on video and later, via Twitter, threatened reporters with “war” for releasing the video.
Two police unions in South Florida are urging their members to boycott the Miami Dolphins because of the players’ continuing demonstrations against police brutality and social injustice during the national anthem, including during Thursday night’s exhibition game against Tampa Bay.
“It’s a slap in the face,” Broward County Police Benevolent Association Vice President Rod Skirvin told the Miami Herald on Saturday. “We have a lot of police officers in the county who are ex-military. It’s not just a slap in the face to our military — past and present — but to all law enforcement officers across the country. As long as the protest continues, we will protest our attendance at the Dolphins games and continue to stay away from the NFL and its products.”
Buffalo reached an injury settlement to release defensive tackle John Hughes, who signed with the Bills on July 26. Hughes, a six-year veteran out of Gahanna and the University of Cincinnati, suffered a groin injury during a 28-23 loss to Carolina in a preseason opener on Thursday. … San Francisco 49ers running back Jerick McKinnon left practice with an injured right knee and will have an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.