Deshaun Watson battles inconsistency and Jared Verse took his dominance a little too far, as the Cleveland Browns continue getting ready for their preseason matchup with the Chicago Bears
A full dozen days into Cleveland Browns training camp, and Todd Monken continues to ponder his plans for the starting QB for Saturday's preseason showdown with the Chicago Bears.
Keep tabs on each day of training camp with our daily recaps from Berea.
Day 12 Headlines
Quarterbacks
Tuesday was Deshaun Watson's day with the ones, and like many of his days with the first unit, it came with a mix of highlights and low-lights.
Watson tossed his ninth interception of came during an 11-on-11 drill early in practice. But he shook it off to make a few really impressive throws as practice progressed, including a laser to Jerry Jeudy on a slant, and a deep shot, touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond.
Both of those plays came during 11-on-11s. His practice ended with a disappointing drive where he failed to complete a pass, was sacked twice and had a bad snap stall the drive.
As for Shedeur Sanders, he continued to improve his decisiveness when it comes to getting rid of the football and not forcing things. He had a really productive 7-on-7 session in particular, but the operational issues persisted.
At one point the second-team offense didn't get the snap off and took a delay of game, then came out on the next play in the incorrect formation and had to rehuddle, angering Monken. His final drive of the day was a promising one that ended with Sanders needing a few yards on fourth down, but being forced to run due to some great coverage downfield and coming up just short of picking up the first.
Dillon Gabriel continued to get a share of the second-team reps, but hasn't been quite as crisp as he was in the early days of camp. He joined Watson in tossing an interception on Tuesday as well.
O-Line Roulette
Nothing changed from Monday's first-team unit, which consisted of:
Tytus Howard at RT, Teven Jenkins at RG, Elgton Jenkins at C, Zion Johnson at LG, Spencer Fano at LT.
It's notable that KT Leveston also worked in at RG instead of Jenkins later on in practice, and Monken mentioned that that spot is really the only remaining competition in the trenches.
There was an interesting switch up with the second team, where rookie Austin Barber flipped to left tackle, and Dawand Jones went to right.
Dawand Jones at RT, Jack Conley at RG, Luke Wypler as C, KT Leveston at LG and Austin Barber at LT
Too Aggressive
Everyone knows at this point that Jared Verse has been wrecking training camp quite frequently. That continued on Tuesday, but he also got a little overaggressive on a play where he ran into Watson's arm to force a wobbly incompletion. He was immediately pulled from the drill afterwards for running into the quarterback.
Come Saturday, Verse will have free rein to take down whoever starts for the Bears under center, but it was a big no-no at practice. He made a handful of other plays throughout the day, though, including batting down another one of Watson's passes at the line of scrimmage and blowing up a Dylan Sampson pin-and-pull run play.
Injuries and Absences
Still no updates on TE Joe Royer, who remains away from the team due to personal reasons.
The list of players not practicing remains long: LB Carson Schwesinger, CB Myles Bryant, D'Angelo Ross, FB Michael Burton, DT Kalia Davis, DT Mike Hall Jr., DT Sam Kamara, T Elijah Chatman, T Izavion Miller, G Zak Zinter, C Parker Brailsford and TE Jack Stoll.
Top CB Denzel Ward was M.I.A. on Tuesday as a new addition. The D-line suffered another loss during practice as recently claimed Travis Bell left with a trainer partway through. Also, CB Damarri Mathis suffered what looked like a serious knee injury early on in practice and had to be carted off. He was later placed on the IR.
Play of the Day
During the fifth round of 11-on-11s, Watson produced on of his best sessions of the day, completing all four of his pass attempts, but none better than this bomb to Isaiah Bond on a seam route for a touchdown. Grant Delpit was lined up in man coverage on Bond from the slot, but the second-year speedster ran right by him.
Player of the Day
Tre Avery deserves a shoutout for his entire body of work throughout camp. He got off to a bit of a slow start, but has been getting stronger over the last week, taking a lot of reps in place of Denzel Ward.
On Tuesday he made what was arguably his best play of camp, when Sanders took a deep shot to Denzel Boston down the sideline and despite the fact that he was trailing the play, got in position to stick his arm in and break it up. Boston catches almost everything, so to deny him on the play was really special.
Later, Quinshon Judkins tried to stiff-arm him into the underworld, and he held his ground and drove him out of bounds to make another nice play. In a thin CB room Avery has a real shot to make the 53.
Quote of the Day
After Monday's practice ended with a series of pre-snap procedural issues by the offense, that left Monken fuming and throwing things, Cleveland's head man reflected on the situation.
"Unfortunately, we sent them [home] with their head coach being emotionally hijacked, which isn’t a good thing. I told them that this morning, that can’t happen. I should have just gone to a different cadence and let them play out the drill. I was obviously frustrated. We’re never too old to learn. Keep processing, keep getting better. That’s one thing we sent them home with."
What's Next?
Day 13 is coming on Wednesday, and it's the last day open to fans. Per usual, practice starts 1:30 pm, with gates opening around 12:30 pm, weather permitting.
