Keeping Njoku paying off for Berry, Stefanski
By STEVE KING
It’s happened over and over again through the years – everywhere in the NFL.
Heck, even the great Bill Belichick has done it – twice.
That is, new head coaches – new management regimes – come in, grab the biggest broom they can find and sweep all the players they inherit right out the door, brushing them to the curb for someone else to sort through before the garbage truck comes by and takes them to the landfill.
Why?
Because those coaches all have egos the size of the Terminal Tower and they want to start from scratch so as to be able to say the championship team they’re building is made up entirely of their guys, and not any from the previous regime.
But what if some of those players they discard still have value?
The coaches never consider it, because that would be an acknowledgement that the previous guys knew something.
Fast forward to the current Browns regime, led by head coach Kevin Stefanski and General Manager Andrew Berry. They were smart enough to retain a good deal of the players they inherited, at least keeping them long enough to evaluate if they could be a contributing part of the team.
One such player is tight end David Njoku. A first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, he seemed to be a goner when the club went out in free agency in 2020 and threw a bunch of money at Austin Hooper so as to be able to sign the tight end away from the Atlanta Falcons.
But the Browns kept Njoku and more and more that decision is reaping benefits because Hooper has struggled, both last season and in training camp thus far this year. Mistakes happen – players sometimes don’t pan out for a variety of reasons – but it’s a bigger mistake to have no one to put there because the coach and GM tossed aside a good player.
Give this new Browns regime credit for a lot of things, including this.
Camp Notes 8-10-21
- The following players did not practice today due to injury: S Grant Delpit (hamstring), Tony Fields II (foot), DE Myles Garrett (hamstring), G Blake Hance (ankle), S Ronnie Harrison Jr. (hamstring), WR Alexander Hollins (hamstring), DT Malik McDowell (rib), LB Montrel Meander (hamstring), TE David Njoku (shoulder), S Sheldrick Redwine (ankle), WR Anthony Schwartz (hamstring), CB Denzel Ward (soreness).
- A total of 43 puppies have been adopted at the Browns Puppy Pound at training camp this year. The Browns Puppy Pound, presented by Sugardale, returned to training camp for the seventh consecutive year and since the program’s launch in 2015, 615 puppies from the Northeast Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) have been adopted by Browns fans at training camp practices. The Northeast Ohio SPCA is a non-profit no-kill pet shelter located in Parma. This year, Sugardale will also provide new owners with a puppy starter kit (while supplies last), as well as host a station for the family’s first photo together. For more information on the Northeast Ohio SPCA (9555 Brookpark Road, Parma, OH 44129), visit the organization’s website.
