Chudzinski 'excited' for first Browns minicamp

After two weeks of workouts with strength and conditioning coach Brad Roll, the Cleveland Browns’ players will take the field and work with their position coaches and coordinators for the first time when the team opens up its voluntary minicamp at the Berea training facility Tuesday.

And first-year Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski could not be happier to get his charges onto the field for the first time.

“The exciting part, as a coach, is you get the chance to get out on the field and help guys get better,” Chudzinski said Monday during an appearance on “Cleveland Browns Daily, Driven by Liberty Ford.” “The guys that are here, we’ll work with them and give them every chance to be the best that they can be and ultimately, help the team.”

While the players will not be in full pads or have contact per the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, Chudzinski said the minicamp is a “good opportunity” to see how the past two weeks of work translates to the practice field.

“We’re excited about getting out there,” Chudzinski said. “It’s just good to get out there and actually start coaching. This is the first opportunity. We have some team periods, and some periods of seven-on-seven to get a chance to really coach them up. It’s hard at this point because it’s so early to get evaluations, but we’ll get a little bit of that, an early assessment for that.

“We really want to make sure the guys understand us and get to know us. We need to get to know them, (making sure) that they understand how practice operates, the tempo that we want, the style and how practices are laid out and set up. We also want to start introducing our concepts from an Xs and Os standpoint and go out and get a chance to execute those things, and get a chance to work on some of the base techniques and lay the foundation for our team.”

Under Chudzinski’s direction, defensive coordinator Ray Horton will begin implementing his version of the 3-4 defense, a switch from the 4-3 the Browns had utilized under Dick Jauron in the last two seasons.

“We had a chance the last two weeks to install and go through some things on the playbook, and we’re actually using a computer program to do that, and we’ll get some game film to look at it,” Chudzinski said. “The guys had a chance to see it in the playbook, see it on tape and see how it works. Now, they’ll get a chance to get out on the field, and it’s a progression.”

In addition to the defense, the team’s three quarterbacks -- Brandon Weeden, Jason Campbell, and Thaddeus Lewis -- will be learning a new scheme, something Chudzinski referred to as “a process all three need to go through during the offseason.”


(clevelandbrowns.com)