Cleveland Browns start offseason workout, coach Pat Shurmur oversees activity first time-NFL News
The Cleveland Browns kicked off their 10-week voluntary workout programme on Monday, April 16, 2012, with new head coach, Pat Shurmur, overseeing the activity for the first time.
Shurmur is coming out in the 2012 National Football League (NFL) season into his second year with Browns. He could not participate in the team’s offseason activities in 2011 because of the NFL lockout.
Now, he said to be pleased to have an opportunity for working with all the players, some of whom he is coming to know for the first time.
The first day of the workout had a healthy turnout. It is not clear if the participants included quarterback, Colt McCoy who had suffered a head injury into closing period of the last regular season and his latest status remains to be unknown.
The coach said:
"From what I saw, the players are looking forward to going over and revisiting the things we did well last year and making improvements on the things that we didn't do well.”
He added:
"For me, I just have a much better view of what our team is and the areas we need to improve in to get ourselves in a position to play in the playoffs and compete to play in the big game."
Shurmur avoided commenting much about the team’s prospects of recruiting players during this draft, which is going to be held from April 26 to 28.
Browns are expressively happy with their quarterback situation and have backed Colt McCoy as to be their future quarterback. However, some reports have linked them of having an interest for the draft QB for number four position.
According to Shurmur, he has spoken with McCoy but did not say anything about the team’s draft activities.
He said:
"I didn't think that was necessary. We just kind of greeted each other and we started talking about really what we want to get accomplished in the offseason more than any other business."
The coach did not confirm if the QB was going to join them in the offseason workout. He did not confirm either if he has recovered from concussion.
McCoy suffered the injury in the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers into later part of the 2011 regular season and none of the team members offered any comment on his latest status.
His injury was mishandled by the team and generated a controversy, which then resulted in a review of the team’s facilities by the NFL and NFL Players Association (NFLPA).
Browns were questioned over the decision of their trainers to allow the QB to return to the field without inspecting him for concussion.
However, in spite of the review, they successfully escaped the possibility of punishment from league authorities.
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