The Browns are holding out hope they haven’t suffered their first serious injury of training camp two days after adding depth in the secondary.
Tashaun Gipson, the starting free safety, left practice with a left knee injury on Aug. 1. He walked off the field to the locker room with a trainer at his side and did not return.
Gipson is being evaluated, Coach Mike Pettine said after practice.
Gipson led the Browns with five interceptions last season. He was third with 105 tackles. He started 15 games in 2013 for former coach Rob Chudzinski.
‘He’s been solid,’ Pettine said on July 31. ‘I don’t know that he’s got that many opportunities with balls thrown at him, but he’s done a good job. He and (safety) Donte (Whitner) are very complementary to each other. They communicate well.
‘He’s been playing a lot more of the free and Donte the strong. We’re going to try to get that flipped a little bit and get him a little bit lower and get Donte with some of the deep responsibilities. He’s done a really good job right from Day One, learning the system and taking the classroom onto the field.’
The Browns signed safety Jim Leonhard on July 30 after Pettine evaluated four days of training camp.
Gipson is not expected to participate in the intrasquad scrimmage at InfoCision Stadium on Aug. 2.
Scrimmage plans
The scrimmage Pettine has planned for the capacity crowd in Akron will be as close to a preseason game as a team practicing against itself can get.
‘Everything so far has been scripted,’ Pettine said. ‘This is now a true unscripted period. Early on in the week, we kind of wean our guys off a little bit. We’ll show them the script. They’ll know what reps they’re in there. They’ll know what they’re responsible for. They get a chance to study a little bit.
‘It’s really the first opportunity, other than a few move-the-ball periods, where we’re essentially taking the training wheels off. Some guys can handle the transition easily. Some guys you’ll see step up and maybe some guys fade away.’
The receivers and running backs will be tackled to the ground. The quarterbacks will wear red jerseys and not be tackled.
Pettine said he is looking forward to Johnny Manziel improvising. Brian Hoyer will start at quarterback. Pettine and his assistants were meeting later on Aug. 1 to decide how to split snaps among the quarterbacks.
‘I’m looking for all our guys to compete, especially the quarterbacks,’ Pettine said. ‘He (Manziel) still won’t be live on it, so some of the things that maybe he was able to escape from in college will be whistled dead in tomorrow’s scrimmage.
‘You always want to protect our guys when we’re going against each other. The first true live contact for the quarterbacks will be in Detroit (Aug. 9).’
No tickets are available for the scrimmage.
Offense goes orange
The offense will wear brown jerseys and the defense white ones in the scrimmage, but when practice resumes on Aug. 4, the offense will wear the orange jerseys that go to the side winning the competition period, thanks to the assistant coaches’ ability to catch punts.
The competition period on Aug. 1 with the jerseys as the winner-take-all prize pitted four offensive assistant coaches against four defensive assistants. Each side went three for three and then Anthony Weaver ran quickly to his left but did not hold onto the high, wobbly punt. Mike LeFleur, a coaching intern, clinched it for the offense when he caught the ball.
The defense won the competition period on July 30 and July 31.
Manziel draws a flag
Manziel scored from the 5 on a quarterback draw. He flipped the ball over the goal post. That is a penalty this year because the goalpost is now considered a prop, so the official threw a penalty flag.
‘I needed to do a better job explaining it to them,’ Pettine said. ‘I’d rather learn that lesson in practice and use it as a coaching moment than in the middle of a game.’
Neither Hoyer not Manziel was spectacular passing the ball. Hoyer was 7-of-13 in 11-on-11 drills, but several of his completions were to running backs on checkdowns. Manziel was 3-of- 11. Safety Josh Aubrey intercepted a pass by Manziel.
Injury update
For the first time in training camp, the Browns revealed the nature of injuries keeping players out of practice.
Linebacker Tank Carder (foot), linebacker Darius Eubanks (shoulder), offensive lineman Randall Harris (knee), wide receiver Chandler Jones (hamstring) and offensive lineman Martin Wallace (shoulder) missed practice Aug. 1.
Offensive lineman Nate McDonald (wrist) and defensive tackle Phil Taylor (hamstring) are on the non-football injury list.
