Confident McDonald thinking big

07.26.2008

The last time the Browns started a pair of talented but young and inexperienced cornerbacks at the same time was two decades ago with two fellas named Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield.

And that turned out OK, didn't it?

This is to not say that Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright will play as well as did The Corner Brothers, as Top Dawg Dixon and Minnifield, were called. That would put an unfair burden on McDonald, 22, and Wright, 23, both in just their second seasons.

At the same time, though, the the dire predictions by some of the so-called experts for the Browns secondary and thoughts that teams will be able to exploit the inexpereience of the corners aren't fair, either.

But the young cornersare using it to their advantage.

"Sure, we hear the stuff that people are saying," McDonald said after Saturday morning's training camp practice. "We're using it to motivate us. We want to be challenged like this.

"We realize we're young, but we have tremendous ability and we both play with big hearts. We can make plays."

Wright, who had first-round ability coming out of college, according to scouts, but fell to the second round in 2007 because of some off-the-field issues, started 13 games last year.

McDonald, a fifth-rounder from Memphis, played special teams for the first half of 2007 and then was called upon in the secondary in the second half because of injuries. He had two starts in games when the Browns opened with an extra defensive back instead of a nose tackle. He was a pleasant surprise, defending well and getting two interceptions as teams went at him right away to test him.

McDonald ended last season thinking he'd be mostly a backup again this year, but things have changed drastically since then at cornerback. Leigh Bodden, a starter since 2005, was dealt with a third-round draft choice to the Detroit Lions for defensive lineman Shaun Rogers.

After that, veteran Daven Holly and McDonald were set to compete for the other starting job opposite Wright until Holly suffered a season-ending knee injury. That elevated McDonald to a starting role, giving the Browns maybe the two youngest and most inexperienced set of corners in the NFL.

"Coach (Romeo) Crennel always tells us that if an opportunity presents itself, you have to be ready," McDonald said. "That's what I'm trying to do, take advantage of this opportunity."

When the critics get done dwelling on the youthfulness of Wright and McDonald, they start in on the fact they are not exactly the two tallest players on the team. They are both just 5-foot-10, which is a little short, even by cornerback standards.

McDonald has an answer for that as well.

"It's not how big or fast you are that is the thing in pass coverage," he said. "It's the position you get on the receiver you're watching.

"I was a wide receiver in high school (in Collins, Miss.) and in junior college (Jones County), so I know how to position myself and go up and get the ball."

And, it should be pointed out, Minnifield was just 5-9 and Dixon 5-11, the same as McDonald and Wright. As legend has it, when the Browns used the No. 22 overall pick in 1981 to select Dixon, a Pittsburgh Steelers scout gleefully pounded the table in that team's draft room and chortled, "They drafted the midget!"

By the end of the 1980s, Dixon and Minnifield were standing pretty tall. Maybe history will repeat itself for the Browns with Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright.