The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kitchens give his take on resting players
Safety Morgan Burnett rested during team drills July 27, and it didn’t involve riding an exercise bike. Coach Freddie Kitchens explains his approach on managing players’ workload.
Resting healthy players during training camp isn’t such a bad idea after all, Freddie Kitchens is learning in his new role as Browns head coach. The Browns were featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” last summer, and in an infamous exchange between then-head coach Hue Jackson and then-offensive coordinator Todd Haley, Haley pleaded with Jackson to not rest healthy players. Jackson overruled him, explaining his method would prevent injuries.
Kitchens was the running backs coach at the time. He argued if players were rested, they should at least be in full uniform and on the sideline with their teammates that were practicing.
July 27 marked the third day of training camp and the first day the Browns were in pads. Veteran safety Morgan Burnett rested in team drills, but he was in individual drills and was not allowed to spend the morning on the exercise bike.
“This was a built in day for Morgan to not take as many reps, but he was still dressed,” Kitchens said. “Morgan still practiced. He just didn’t get a lot of team reps. I think they have to be available. Their teammates over there sitting on a bike? I don’t know what that is. I’ve never understood that.
“I don’t want to get into that. That was last year. This is my philosophy, and somebody’s going to think I’m an idiot, but I don’t really care. I’m not going to change how I feel because of what somebody else says, what somebody else does or what somebody else thinks of me or how they think I’m running the ship.”
Practice time for sixthyear wide receiver Jarvis Landry on July 26 was scaled back for the same cautionary reason.
“The NFL does a tremendous job of giving you information from the standpoint of when most injuries occur. Most [soft tissue] injuries occur in the first five days of training camp, and if you want to extend it even more, it is the first 8-10 days of training camp. We are trying to be conscientious of that.
“There is only one way to get in football condition and that is actually playing football. Once you have endurance, you can eliminate injuries. Yes, a bunch of our guys are kind of on a quasipitch counts right now just from the standpoint of we understand that that is the most immediate threat to injury are these first five to eight days — soft tissue injuries.”
Quick hitters
Former Browns quarterback Brian Sipe, defensive tackle Jerry Sherk and guard Robert E. Jackson were in Berea on July 27. They spoke to players in the post-practice huddle…Running back A.J. Ouellette was signed. Three running backs are sidelined with injuries – Duke Johnson (hamstring), Kareem Hunt (groin) and Trayone Gray (calf)...wide receiver Damion Ratley has a hamstring injury and did not practice.