Hi again, Browns fans. Welcome to the best podcast available episode number 15. I'm Jason Gibbs alongside Andrew Gribble, Jeff McDaniel behind the scenes, spin in the dials coming up on the program today.

Rookie running back to metric felton out of UCLA our sixth round pick will join the program and talk a little bit about rookie mini camp his experiences and the craziness of the last couple weeks from draft day to ending up here in the city of Cleveland for rookie mini camp weekend.

Gribs a much different look for rookie mini camp in 2021. It was good to have a rookie mini camp 18 players in the building eight of them were drafted five undrafted three tryouts and then two non rookies but considered first year guys 18 players and all spending the weekend here in Cleveland with the coaching staff.

And just it was a great weekend especially on Friday the weather was perfect and I know it was just an hour workout that we got to see but a lot to see and a lot to take in and it's always good when that opportunity comes.

Yeah, and you know it was an example of something that I think we're doing a lot of over the last year and it maybe we'll learn more about this in 2022 but I thought as much as it maybe wasn't the best thing to watch because it was pretty there they weren't really doing much football stuff it seemed like it was a lot of individual stuff a lot of teaching not a ton of movement honestly just a lot of small drills learning everything like that not not the best to watch.

But part of me wonders is this the future of rookie mini camps and and I say that in that this was a unique experience where say I think you guys have mentioned this a bunch on CBD James Hudson was the only offensive lineman out there.

He got one on one tutorial for three straight days on field in meeting rooms with Bill Callahan Scott Peters the whole crew.

I mean that that is stuff that will not happen again the rest of his time with the Browns there's always going to be other people in the room and it's really a good chance for the coaches to get to know what they have with their rookies.

And really just the one on one teaching you can get a lot done in that time period and maybe this doesn't correlate to other positions maybe it's better.

Say if you're a wide receiver to not be the only one running routes and doing stuff like that maybe that's not the best thing maybe it's better to have a bunch of different defensive backs to go up against each other.

But part of me wonders is this the end of the era of just filling your rookie mini camp with like 50 trial guys to just make it look like a football practice because I think that this was an incredibly valuable weekend for these players and now puts them on a good path forward to kind of make the most out of the rookie season and frankly they're getting opportunities now that the previous rookie class just didn't have.

Yeah and not only that plenty of reps.

It's interesting when you when you bring up you know is this the future or not the future I mean our roster is loaded yeah let's be honest we got a lot of guys would we have the same attitude if we were Jacksonville.

I mean that's I think it's hard to determine if it works for everybody or not but from a learning standpoint I don't think it can be questions.

I mean these guys these guys were literally the focal point for three consecutive days.

Yeah and there is obviously some downsides I mean you with the group that Browns had you can't even do seven on seven I mean there was it was that's that's limiting and I think that's that's something that you didn't see me back when we used to watch

when we used to watch the rookie of any camp of years ago I mean it was like it was just like a normal practice outside of no pads no hitting things like that but it looks like a football practice and so that's the obvious downside to this.

I just wonder now if going forward you take a more targeted approach especially when you're a contending team like the Browns so you kind of figure out what you have and get that one on one experience with your rookies before the the bets join the mix in the coming days.

All right is there a big takeaway from the weekend from what we saw for the hour is there something that stood out in a press conference with someone whether it was a player or with coach the fanski.

I think just the to me what stood out was the happenings of Friday as as the one big news event was you saw the unmasking of some of these coaches I think it was it was like a symbolic sign of progress of where we're at and managing the pandemic and we now have our first pictures of.

Kevin's the fanski maskless on our website that we just haven't had over the past years I think that was a takeaway I think as mentioned by a lot of people the physical presence of Malik McDowell was something that really stood out I mean that is a guy that looks you understand why he was a second round pick a few years ago and obviously a lot of stuff has happened with with Malik over the past few years but appears to be in a good spot now and is going to have to compete and I think it's.

You can look the part but we've seen a lot of guys look the part but but it doesn't translate on to the football field so it's going to have to translate on to the football field but he's entering a position competition where if he's good enough he's going to make and I think that the will we'll see how that plays out but I think physically he looks ready to go we'll see what what what what carries out in the competition and honestly outside of the news with Tony fields with him dealing with the food injury I think all these guys came through the weekend healthy that's always.

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