Browns eager to practice in pads for the first time

First there was the start of the offseason conditioning program in mid-April, then OTAs in May, then a three-day minicamp in June and then the first two days of training camp — all without pads.

Finally, on July 29, the Browns will be in pads for the first time since the final game of the 2016 season, and that means the action will pick up considerably at the Berea training complex. Practice begins at 3 p.m.

“Good two days and then tomorrow, like I told the team afterward, we get to put on the pads so then we really get to knock each other around a little bit,” Coach Hue Jackson said after practice on July 28. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a good day tomorrow.

“I truly believe that to get your team ready you have to play football. When you put on pads, it’s blocking and tackling and doing those things, but it’s also being smart and doing it in a controlled situation so that we take care of our team and we keep them as healthy as we can.”

Fans attending practice should listen for a siren. It doesn’t mean a house is burning. It is the signal for live tackling and could be sounded at any time during the practice.

“Anything can happen tomorrow that way at any time,” Jackson said. “I like to kind of change it up a little bit. We will tackle. We will get after each other a little bit. I think you have to. We are trying to build a physically-tough, mentally-tough football team.”

Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams vows to tackle every day. one by Briean Boddy-Calhoun and one by Marcus Burley.

Jackson saw all three plays. He is not happy.

“Hold on to the freaking ball,” Jackson said. “That has got to stop, and that will get stopped. We will get that corrected because we can’t turn the ball over. That’s one of the big goals that we have. He gets that. He understands that. We can’t give the ball away so we need to get that squared away with him.”

The Browns traded back up into the first round to select Njoku 29th overall, sending picks 33 and 108 to Green Bay. They cut tight end Gary Barnidge the next day.

Njoku started nine of 26 games at Miami and caught 64 passes for 1,060 yards and nine touchdowns.

TIM PHILLIS — THE NEWS-HERALD Browns rookie tight end David Njoku had the ball stripped from him twice during Day 2 of training camp on July 28 in Berea.