The Opening Drive 5/11: Wrapping Up Browns Rookie Minicamp

What we learned from the Browns three-day rookie session in Berea.

(Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Browns)

The most important thing to establish upfront: rookie minicamp is not a real evaluation. It’s helmets, shorts, and install work against air and undrafted free agents. So take everything here with that caveat in mind. Having said all that — this is the first time you get an actual feel for how the drafted rookies, and those with high hopes as UDFAs, move inside the system and look compared to some NFL-level peers. So, while we don’t take away definitive conclusions one way or the other, we do get some real time to analyze these players.

Here are the notes from those I talk to, sent me video clips, and what I analyzed made publicly available.

---

Taylen Green: The physical traits are real. Now comes the hard part.

Green’s physical profile does exactly what you’d expect it to do in person. 6-foot-5 and change, 227 pounds, and he ran a 4.36 at the Combine. When he tucks and runs, it’s immediately obvious why the Browns spent a sixth on him. That part translates.

Green took first-team reps throughout — both 11-on-11 periods and the 7-on-7 work. He connected with KC Concepcion deep in the first team period on Friday, hit Ahmani Marshall twice, and found Joe Royer for another completion. On Day 2, he connected with Concepcion again on a crossing route over the middle for a chunk play. The processing was a mixed bag, as you’d expect from a Day 1 NFL practice, but Monken made clear the physical upside is very much what Cleveland was counting on when they made the pick.

“He operated the offense pretty well, I mean, for someone who hadn’t been a part of it. Eyes weren’t always in the right spot, but you can see a couple of times some of the things he can do with his feet when plays break down. So that’s exciting to see.”

— Todd Monken, Day 1

“You could see that already, and there’s still a next jump that he can make. It’s exciting to have him out here and let him just play through some things.”

— Todd Monken, Day 2

Green himself wasn’t shy about his own self-assessment when asked who compares to him: “I would say of course Lamar, but he ain’t 6-6. Josh Allen is close, but I’m 230. He’s like 260. My dad says Randall Cunningham-ish. I really don’t think there’s anybody like me. Not in a cocky way or anything, just some confidence. There’s nobody that moves like me, that’s as tall as me.”

There’s a lot there, but the physical argument isn’t wrong — the comp set is genuinely thin at that size/speed combination. The question was never about the traits. It was always about the processing, the accuracy, and whether he can translate what he’s done with his legs into something sustainable in a pro system. Three days of minicamp against mostly tryout players doesn’t answer that. OTAs will tell us more. Training camp will tell us the most. Green just built more buzz over those three days.

---

KC Concepcion: hands look clean. Denzel Boston: the catch radius is obvious.