Cleveland Browns: Offseason practice drama can’t end soon enough

The 2021 season can’t get here soon enough for fans of the Cleveland Browns, as pointless storylines float out of Berea surrounding participation in organized team activities.

The manufactured drama is perfect for talk radio this time of year, when there’s not much to talk about. “We’re not practicing, and the Kansas City Chiefs are! We’re never going to make it to the Super Bowl.”

If you missed it, the full Browns’ squad has yet to report to Berea. Notably, the heavy hitters on offense have been absent. The current practices are voluntary, and those who have been absent seem to be doing so out o respect to center J.C. Tretter, who just so happens to president of the NLF Players’ Association.

He called for a boycott of OTAs to advocate for player safety. His most convincing argument: We didn’t need this stuff last season, and we did just fine. Impressive, considering Kevin Stefanski was in his first year as head coach.

It’s hard to argue his point, as coaches were meeting with their respective position groups via Zoom conference calls.

So last week, the Chiefs were practicing and the Browns didn’t, while to much air time and too many key strokes were dedicated to Myles Garrett’s “retirement” from basketball.

Now, Baker Mayfield is hosting the offense in Texas, instead of reporting to practice under the eye of Stefanski–a storyline that will dominate the week in Cleveland sports.

So, is gnashing our teeth over whether the Browns are falling behind worth our time? No!  The social media team will have plenty of time to post pictures of OBJ making one-handed grabs being covered by nobody in July.

Stefanski and company have an entire training camp to put it together, which gets to Tretter’s point. Do you want your veteran lineman, who will struggle to practice during the weeks of December, putting himself in peril in June?

It’s great Mayfield will host his teammates in Austin, but I expect this get together will be more for show. The next storyline to watch comes June 15, when the Browns have mandatory mini camp. Tretter has also called for the boycott of these practices.