The first five days of camp give plenty of reasons to make a coach nervous.
The injury data, cultivated from years and years of analysis of training camps across the league, is near the top.
Freddie Kitchens gave one of his longest answers of the day Friday when he was asked about certain players being on "pitch counts" during this portion of training camp. Clearly, it's something that was on the top of his mind.
"Most injuries occur in the first five days of training camp and if you want to extend it even more, it is the first eight to 10 days of training camp," Kitchens said. "So, we are trying to be conscious of that. There is only one way to get in football condition and that is actually playing football. I do not really care what they have done until they put pads on and they start running routes on a consistent basis and getting in huddle and running more routes. They never build endurance.
"The difference between endurance and being in shape is continuing to play over and over and over again to continue to play plays and not coming out. That is how you build endurance. And once you have endurance you can eliminate injuries. Yes, a bunch of our guys are on kind of pitch counts right now, just from the standpoint of we understand that that is the most immediate threat to injury, is these first five to eight days. Soft tissue injuries."
The pads come on Saturday when the Browns resume practice at 10 a.m.
Here's what you might have missed from Friday, the second practice of 2019 Browns training camp.
Check out photos from the second day of Browns Camp by team photographer Matt Starkey
- #BrownsCamp Daily from Day 1
- News & Notes: Kitchens emphasizes Browns 'take care of each other' on Day 2
- Fresh Takes: Observations from Day 2 of training camp
- Jarvis Landry once again has a new reality but his ultimate goal hasn't changed
- Let's get it crackin': Browns players, coaches ready for pads
- Browns D-line proving it's worthy of attention, too
The annual Orange & Brown Scrimmage will take place on August 3rd at FirstEnergy Stadium.Click for information and tickets.