Notes: Quinn anxious to help

07.23.2008

As training camp began for the Browns on Wednesday, there is so much that's different with the quarterback position as opposed to last year.

Ken Dorsey is still No. 3 on the depth chart, but Charlie Frye, who ended up starting the regular-season opener, is gone, and Derek Anderson, who was competing with Frye for the job throughout camp, is the clear No. 1 now.

And Brady Quinn? He's here with his teammates from the start, which is a drastic change as well. Last season, as the latter of the Browns' two first-round draft choices, he held out for 12 days at the beginning of camp -- about half of the time -- before finally signing with the team

The Browns' backup passer joked about that fact following practice.

"I looked at the schedule for camp this year and said, 'Wow, we practice for this many days,' and, 'We're in the hotel this long,' " he said.

But all kidding aside, Quinn is thrilled to be in camp from the get-go this time. His holdout last year cost him valuable practice time, and he had to work overtime to try to catch up. As such, he was never a factor in the club's quarterback derby during camp and he did not play until the regular-season finale, when he subbed briefly for an injured Anderson and completed 3-of-8 passes against the San Francisco 49ers.

There is no derby this year, and he's accepted that.

"I want to play, but I also want to do whatever I'm asked to do to help this team," he said.

And if he's called upon for whatever reason, he's going to make sure that he's ready.

"As soon as last season was over, I got with Rip (Scherer, Browns quarterbacks coach) and really started studying the offense," Quinn said.

He came to the Browns with the reputation of being a cerebral quarterback, one who really understands the game. Now he really understands the Browns offense as well, inside and out, all the checks, all the little nuances, after his busy offseason. And it shows. He's quick, decisive and totally confident in everything he's doing.

He can never get that lost time back from last year. And really, he can't dwell on that fact.

But as a result, Quinn goes into camp looking forward to the fact that there will be many practices and many nights spent sleeping in the team hotel. It's what he never got to experience a year ago.

EXPRESS LANE: The Browns cut their scheduled 90-minute practice short after 65 minutes, ending at 4:35 p.m. The players shouldn't get used to that.

They are in good shape, though. Every player who participated passed the pre-camp conditioning test Wednesday morning.

For the second straight year, the first day of camp was seasonably cool with low humidity levels after the previous week had been hot and sticky. The day actually had a feeling of fall, with temperatures in the low 70s.

CAMPER OF THE DAY: Wide receiver/returner Syndric Steptoe spent all of his rookie season in 2007 on the practice squad after being a seventh-round draft choice. The Browns are determined to see what he can do, especially as a returner, with a year of learning under his belt. As the club went through special teams drills, he caught punt after punt from Dave Zastudil. He had to have impressed the coaches, because he didn't drop a one.

FAN-TASTIC: Despite the six rainouts, the Browns drew 37,000 fans to camp last year, an average of about 1,800 per session. In 2006 -- with no rainouts -- a total of 44,000 attended. Because the optimism surrounding the team this year, the Browns are expecting large crowds throughout camp. A crowd count for Wednesday's practice was not immediately available.

DÉJÀ VU: The cover of the recently-published Browns media guide has a generic photo of the players joining their raised hands as they huddled. The only player who can be identified -- by the number on the top of the sleeves of his jersey -- is wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, the Mentor (Ohio) Lake Catholic High School product. This is the third time in the last four seasons that a shot of that type has been used on the cover, the only exception being in 2006 when a historical theme was used to highlight the fact the Browns were celebrating their 60^th anniversary that year. The continuance of generic, team-oriented shots on the cover since 2005 is not a surprise at all considering the Browns football management team that has been in place since then.

BIRTHDAY BOYS: Wide receiver Efrem Hill turned 25 on Wednesday. Cornerback Eric Wright will celebrate No. 23 on Thursday, rookie nose tackle Ahtyba Rubin will be 22 on Friday, linebacker Leon Williams will become 25 on July 30 and defensive back Nick Sorenson will hit the big 3-0 on July 31.

JUST VISITING: Walter Beach, who played for the Browns from 1963-66 and started at right cornerback on the 1964 NFL championship team, took in practice. He's been back to Cleveland only about four times since playing here, and is in town now as an employee with former teammate Jim Brown's Amer-I-Can program. Beach, who works for the New York City branch of the program, came to Cleveland as part of the group's effort to help stem the rash of shootings in the city recently. The affable Beach, who sported a shaved head during his playing days, now has a ponytail that's speckled with gray hair. Pretty cool for a man of 73.

SELF-PUNISHMENT: Wide receiver Steve Sanders, the Cleveland East High School product, got down and did 10 pushups after dropping a pass.

QUOTABLES: "This seat was hot in 2005, it's hot now and hopefully it will be hot next year." -- Crennel, joking and at the same time being serious, talking about the pressure he was supposedly under going into last year, and the pressure he feels to continue winning in 2008.