Gallery by Tina Laney
White Sulphur Springs – A decade after first hosting the New Orleans Saints’ training camp, The Greenbrier continued that tradition Thursday as the Cleveland Browns opened their 2024 camp in White Sulphur Springs.
Though most of the intrigue came from the storylines surrounding the team in their second year at the facility.
For starters perennial pro-bowl wideout Amari Cooper spoke with the media for the first time since receiving a $5 million raise while seeing the remaining $20 million of his deal guaranteed. Coming off a season where Cooper posted a career-high 1,250 receiving yards while helping the Browns to the playoffs, the contract resolution was a relief for Cooper who missed mandatory minicamp last month due to a contract dispute.
“It was, it was,” Cooper said when asked if it was hard to miss minicamp. “This is my 10th year and I’ve never missed an OTA or minicamp. So it was really difficult.”
“I wanted more guarantees in the contract because I felt like I earned it,” Cooper later said. “You can’t always get what you wish for all the time but it’s definitely noted that if I have to go earn it, it’s what I’ll do.”
While the raise and guarantees cement Cooper’s status with the team this season, the future isn’t as clear for the 2015 first round pick out of Alabama. The restructure added no additional years to his deal and he’s currently in the final year of a five-year $100 million deal he signed with Dallas back in 2020.
“I mean, I don’t have a (crystal) ball in front of me,” Cooper said in regards to it being his last year in Cleveland. “Officially, it’s the last year contractually of my deal.”
But the standout receiver hasn’t ruled out a return to Cleveland after this season.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” Cooper said of his interest in retuning. “It’s been nothing but success here in terms of what I’ve been able to do on the field. I look to get better each and every year and while I’m here, I’m a guy that heeds old sayings so if it’s not broke don’t fix it. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I would rather stay where I’m thriving.”
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After an exit in the wildcard round last season, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski shook up his coaching staff for the second straight year, this time reforming the offensive side after doing the same on defense a year ago. Former Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was tapped to replace Alex Van Pelt as the offensive coordinator this season, joining Duce Staley (runnings backs) and Tommy Rees (tight ends) as the two other hires.
Stefanski, whose background comes on the offensive side of the ball, made it clear early in his media availability that he’ll remain the play caller.
“Tony (Grossi), you can tell everybody I’m going to call the plays this year, so I want to get that out of the way.,” Stefanski said. “I know everybody’s interested and any decision I make for our football team, I take a lot of information in. I try to listen to a lot of people and make decisions and ultimately what I feel really confident in is our offensive staff. I feel really strongly about coach (Ken) Dorsey and the entire offensive staff. So, we’ll continue to be an operation that works together. It’s never been a one man show, so I just want to make sure that that was; I know Tony was going to ask, so I want to get it out there before then.”
Stefanski remaining at the head of the ship on offense helps the continuity of the coaching staff. Still, he likened the amount of turnover to being a first-year staff, necessitating more work in the offseason to get everyone on the same page.
“No magic wand. It’s just a lot of meetings,” Stefanski noted. “We spend a lot of time together. That’s why I mentioned earlier, you have a lot of meetings in the offseason program and really go all the way back to February or March. You sit down and you meet and then you get players on the practice field and there are certain things that come up and you got to work through those. How exactly do we want to teach this? Then you go here and there’s many things that come up in practice and we got to just work through it.
“It’s no different than any year one staff, whether it’s our defensive side last year with Jim (Schwartz) and our defensive staff, there are things that you just have to work through. There’s a process of getting through offseason program, training camp, preseason, and then really it continues on into the season, making sure that you’re all on the same page. But the bottom line is it comes from a lot of discussion and a lot of time spent together.”
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Starting quarterback Deshaun Watson has yet to provide much return on investment after the Browns traded for him in 2022. Since the conclusion of the 2020 season he’s played in just 12 games due to suspensions and injuries after receiving a fully guaranteed contract of $230 million.
His 2023 campaign was cut short after a shoulder injury in Week 12 against the Ravens and he’s been brought along cautiously since. He participated in team drills Thursday throwing to teammates including Cooper.
Stefanski didn’t have any answers to offer in regards to Watson’s participation in the preseason games but did mention he’s not on a strict, limited throwing schedule.
“It’ll be a little more than (every other day),” Stefanski said. “We’ll be smart. We’re very fortunate to have a great medical team around Deshaun, so we’ll continue to make good decisions. He looks great, feels great, so we’ll just be smart about it.”
The Browns will resume practice Friday morning at The Greenbrier. All practices are closed to the public.
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