The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Erving to show nasty side in bid as center
Cameron Erving will be the center of attention for the Browns this training camp — literally and figuratively.
Cameron Erving will be the center of attention for the Browns this training camp — literally and figuratively.
For the first training camp since 2009, when Alex Mack was a rookie, the Browns will be looking for a new center. The job is Erving’s to lose, and if he does lose it – well, let’s just say Robert Griffin III’s wife and Josh McCown’s wife better be sure the life insurance premiums of their respective husbands are current.
Erving, the second-year player from Florida State, was handed the center position when Mack opted out of his contract and escaped seven years of chaos by signing with the Atlanta Falcons. Mack might have found things more stabilized with Hue Jackson as head coach. Instead he chose to be reunited with Kyle Shanahan — the Browns offensive coordinator in 2014 and currently the OC for the Falcons.
The first practice of training camp in Berea is scheduled for 3 p.m. July 29. The pads won’t go on until two days later. That’s when the coaches will really be able to get an idea whether Erving is ready to replace Mack.
Erving looked good in shorts and a T-shirt during OTAs and minicamp last month, but no one was trying to knock him on his butt. That is about to change.
“I feel like I’m settling in,” Erving said at the end of June minicamp. “I feel like I’m doing a good job of just familiarizing myself with the position and making sure that I handle everything that I need to handle as a professional, as a teammate and as a man.
“I just want to be a nasty player. I’m a nice guy, but when I step onto the field, it’s time to play ball and it’s time to get a mean streak. I feel like that’s one of the reasons that I was drafted here to the Browns because they saw I had that. I’m just going to be mean, nasty and physical.”
Erving, 6-foot-5, 313 pounds, did not play with a mean streak last season as a rookie. He admitted he wasn’t prepared for the jump from Atlantic Coast Conference to the NFL. By his own admission, he was sloppy in his technique. He worked hard in the offseason
to get stronger and appears to be in better condition, but he gets a little prickly when asked about 2015.
“I’m not going to keep going back to last year,” he said, showing a bit of that feistiness, “but that’s where I feel like I’ve made the most strides, just being more technically sound and being in the right position to make good blocks.”
To be fair to Erving, he was asked to play left guard when Joel Bitonio was sidelined with an ankle injury. It was one position he didn’t play in college or with the Browns in training camp.
Erving played his final
five games with the Seminoles at center after moving from left tackle, but that was enough to persuade former general manager Ray Farmer to use the 19th pick of the 2015 draft on him.
Farmer was criticized last year for using a mid-first round pick on an offensive lineman when the team had so many other needs — wide receiver and quarterback, for example — but Farmer was preparing for Mack’s departure, like a squirrel storing acorns for the winter.
The next six weeks will give an indication whether the move was a wise one.