CLEVELAND, Ohio — The first time the Browns threw the ball in team drills during Thursday’s second joint practice with the Eagles, rookie tight end Harold Fannin Jr. dropped Joe Flacco’s throw.
It continued a bad trend from the first practice on Wednesday, when the Browns as a team dropped at least four passes — and, by some accounts, as many as six.
Count this drop as a good thing.
Practice is about getting better and the drop gave Fannin an opportunity to show he could bounce back and still have a strong day. He had one of the best practices of his young career with the turnaround starting when he snagged a deep throw by Flacco near the goal line later in the same period.
He ended his practice day by catching a touchdown from quarterback Dillon Gabriel on the first play of an end-of-game period, converting Gabriel’s best throw of the day.
He was even involved in the Browns’ two trick plays, a double pass where he threw the ball to running back Dylan Sampson, who likely would have scored on the play, and a two-point conversion play where he pitched it to Sampson, who converted the try.
Thursday was a productive day for the Browns’ top two tight ends all around. David Njoku added a touchdown pass of his own from Flacco in the same end-of-game period.
Kenny Pickett can’t participate in 11-on-11 team sessions with the Browns’ top tight ends due to his hamstring injury, but he can still be impressed by what he’s seeing.
“I think we have an unbelievable tight end room,” Pickett said. “Obviously with Dave, everyone knows what he can do, but Harold’s really stepped up. I’m really impressed with the intensity that he practices. He’s such a quiet guy and then he goes in there and really competes hard and he’ll take on a MIKE (line)backer and run plays and a defensive end one-on-one. He’ll take them on with no problem and then go out there and run great routes. So, I’m really impressed with Harold and what I think he can bring to this team.”
The Browns receiving corps is a major question mark after Jerry Jeudy. The three receivers right behind him, Cedric Tillman, Diontae Johnson and Jamari Thrash, all struggled with drops over the two days, though Thrash rebounded on Thursday and caught a touchdown pass from Flacco after running a crisp route to cut off the Eagles’ defensive back.
Johnson had a rough two days. There was a miscommunication between him and Gabriel on Wednesday where he went one way and the pass went the other. He couldn’t catch a ball from Gabriel on the two-point try after Fannin’s end-of-game touchdown, popping it into the air and allowing Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba to intercept it.
The Browns have relied heavily on undrafted rookies like Gage Larvadain, which makes for nice training camp fodder but isn’t a sustainable model. That’s why they’re so willing to potentially bring on Isaiah Bond — an undrafted rookie, of course, but someone who was a likely Day 2 pick prior to his legal troubles.
Bond could be subject to discipline from the league and, even if he’s not, will need to ramp up when he arrives and learn the Browns’ offense. He’s a lottery ticket this season.
This is a long way of saying the Browns need production from their tight ends and they need Fannin to develop quickly as the No. 2 tight end, especially with Njoku coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season and quickly approaching 30 years old.
The Browns defense deservedly got most of the shine from these two days, but Fannin’s performance was notable, especially after it got off to a bad start.
Let’s talk about the defense
Day 5 of Cleveland Browns training camp in Berea,
Myles Garrett took a break from wrecking the Browns offense and caused havoc for the Eagles offense this week.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz probably isn’t celebrating after these two practices, but that’s mostly because Schwartz doesn’t celebrate much. He came up under Bill Belichick and Nick Saban after all, so a couple of strong practices in August in Philadelphia aren’t going to excite him too much.
But he should be pleased with what his defense did, especially since it was driven by the defensive line, the engine of his unit, and he got contributions across the board.
It’s fair to worry about the secondary beyond Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome II, who has been dealing with an injury. The Browns are counting heavily on players like Myles Harden, Cameron Mitchell and Tony Brown II. Undrafted rookie Dom Jones is making a case for the roster, but, just like at receiver, count too heavily on undrafted players at your own risk.
The Browns also need Ronnie Hickman to force some turnovers, which he did on Wednesday, and play well at free safety, which would allow Grant Delpit to play more in the box and in the slot, where he’s most effective.
But let’s say good things about a defense that had the Eagles’ offense off-balance at times over two practices.
Delpit came away from these two days feeling very good about the defense.
“We play fast,” Delpit said. “That’s Schwartz’s mentality, getting to that ball, getting to the brown thing. It’s great when we get to go up another team, got that built up (energy), you can kind of let it out. That’s when we see our defense at our best.”
The Browns defense has never shied away from talking a big game when things go well — that swagger helped fuel their success in 2023 — but if the Browns are going to surprise people in 2025 it will be because they back up their talk this season.
These two days were a good start.
Browns All-Joint Practice Team
Day 4 of Cleveland Browns training camp in Berea
Browns reciever Jerry Jeudy has picked up in training camp where he left off last season.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
Should we have a trophy for these guys? Or a plaque? Probably a plaque.
Anyway, here are five players who had a strong two days in Philadelphia.
Harold Fannin Jr. — You read the top of this story.
Myles Garrett — Garrett was a monster. Jordan Mailata is a good left tackle and he was left without an answer. Eagles tackles are going to be thrilled to be going back to simply facing their formidable pass rush after facing Garrett for two days.
Mason Graham — The No. 5 overall pick is pushing towards a strong finish and is starting to figure out what he’s doing in this scheme.
“I think it took him a couple weeks because he’s a two-gap shed guy in college and now he’s penetrating …” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “… I’ve seen some big improvements. I think his pass rush has improved and his ability to kind of wiggle out of blocks is pretty impressive as well.”
Jerry Jeudy — He moves different than the rest of the Browns’ receiver room. He’s a reliable target for the quarterback and he makes the passing game easier. He had a drop, which is going to happen with him, but he looks ready for another 1,200-yard season.
Denzel Ward — Garrett gets the headlines but Ward has quietly put together a dominant camp. It continued on Wednesday and Thursday and this is a good spot to bring up a quote from Newsome a couple weeks ago in Berea.
“His name is Denzel Ward and nobody else’s is,” Newsome said. “There’s no secret. He’s the best cornerback in the league, so we expect him to do that. Like I say, he doesn’t have a weakness. There’s really no secret sauce. It’s just his name’s Denzel Ward and nobody else’s is.”
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