Lack of a kicker is downright scary

By STEVE KING

The regular season starts in a month and the Browns don’t have a kicker – at least one on whom they can count, especially in tense, game-deciding situations.

Does that concern you?

I believe it frightens to death most of you – Browns fans are smart – but for those who aren’t fazed by it at all, you should be. You darned well should be.

Not having a capable kicker could be the difference between the Browns getting to the Super Bowl – for the first time – or not.

Wouldn’t that be a shame if that’s exactly what happens, that they fall short because a key kick falls short, left or right?

Yes, it would make Browns fans feel exactly the same way they did following the 1986 and ’87 AFC Championship Games?

That is, sick to their stomachs.

I trust the Browns – head coach Kevin Stefanski and his coaching staff, and General Manager Andrew Berry – to get it right. They’ve earned that trust, because They’ve gotten just about everything else right to this point.

But – but!!! – they have to get it right, for if they don’t, then it could derail this special 2021 season everyone is anticipating.

We can thank the great – just kidding – Joe Banner for sending the Browns down this slippery slope. He was the brilliant guy serving as Browns president who, following the 2012 season, didn’t think enough of Phil Dawson, the greatest kicker in Browns history and still one of the best kickers in the NFL at that time, to even talk to him and his agent about a new contract, let alone offer him one.

The Browns still haven’t filled that void, or anything even close to it, all these years later, and now that’s on them and not Banner.

That’s bad enough when you need a telescope to see the playoffs, but it’s a whole lot worse when the Super Bowl is so close you can almost touch it.

OK, with all that, then, what are you going to do about it, Browns?

Well …?

Well…?

We’re watching, and waiting, a little less patiently with each passing moment as the opener at Kansas City gets closer and closer and closer.

Browns Training Camp Notes, Aug. 11, 2021

• Due to inclement weather, the Browns practiced inside today.

• The following players did not practice today due to injury: S Grant Delpit (hamstring), Tony Fields II (foot), DE Myles Garrett (hamstring), S Ronnie Harrison Jr. (hamstring), WR Alexander Hollins (hamstring), DT Malik McDowell (rib), LB Montrel Meander (hamstring), S Sheldrick Redwine (ankle), WR Anthony Schwartz (hamstring), CB Denzel Ward (soreness).

Baker Mayfield will not play in preseason opener The Browns open the preseason in two days in Jacksonville on Saturday night. But fans hoping to get an early look at Baker Mayfield this year won’t get their wish. Kevin Stefanski told reporters prior to Wednesday’s practice that Mayfield won’t play against the Jaguars on Saturday, and Case Keenum will start the game. It also means that third-string quarterback Kyle Lauletta will see some action.