Work on Williams’ 4-3 defense to proceed

The Browns’ three-day minicamp begins on June 13 and then players are off until training camp begins in late July.

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is changing the base scheme to a 4-3 alignment to get the most out of second-year player Emmanuel Ogbah and rookie Myles Garrett. Danny Shelton will play one spot on the interior of the line. The other is to be determined. One candidate is Desmond Bryant, who missed all of 2016 with a torn pectoral muscle.

“That (being a 4-3 end) has been my bread and butter since high school and college,” Ogbah said. “I’m excited with the defense. I spent this offseason working on my pass rush. I feel like I really only had a one- or two-move cut and developed a lot more moves to get after the quarterback more effectively to help the team win more games.”

Bryant will be watched closely. He had a career-best six sacks as an end in 2015 and then tore a pectoral muscle training on his own less than a month before the 2016 training camp began. The injury forced him to miss the entire season.

“They literally had to reattach my muscle,” Bryant said after a recent spring practice.

Bryant did not participate in team drills during OTA. He might be eased in during minicamp. But it would not be a surprise if

he doesn’t make his comeback until training camp.

The NFL can be cruel to a player with an injury like the one Bryant suffered. Teams have to move on, as the Browns did by drafting defensive tackles Larry Ogunjobi and Caleb Brantley.

The situation is compounded when a new coach is hired. Hue Jackson was that coach last year, but,

fortunately for Bryant, Jackson was Bryant’s head coach in Oakland in 2011.

“Desmond is one of my favorites,” Jackson said last week.

“It was disappointing we didn’t have him this past year. I thought he was one of the missing links in our football team.

“When I think of him and the rest of our front seven and potentially what

it could be, that’s exciting because if he can go back and be the player that he was, it’s going to give us a huge boost.”

Bryant signed with the Browns in 2013. The only players that have been on the team longer are left tackle Joe Thomas (207), cornerback Joe Haden (2010), guard John Greco (2011) and inside linebacker Tank Carder.