Frye to lead Browns
For now, the small-town Ohio kid who grew up with Bernie Kosar’s poster on his bedroom wall is king of Cleveland.
Charlie Frye, who as a rookie last summer entered his first NFL training camp third on the depth chart behind Trent Dilfer and Doug Johnson, walked onto the practice field Wednesday as the Browns’ starting quarterback.
“He’s the man,” said new center LeCharles Bentley.
The Browns can only hope so.
Following a 6-10 season under first-year coach Romeo Crennel and a wildly successful shopping spree in free agency in which they signed Bentley, Willie McGinest and Joe Jurevicius, the Browns are counting on Frye to lead them to victories and back to prosperity.
Frye won’t have to win the job during camp. It’s all his.
When did Crennel, who gave Frye a five-game audition at the end of last season, decide the former Akron QB was his starter?
“When I traded Dilfer,” Crennel deadpanned before taking a swig from a water bottle. “Hey, that’s what it is. I had an open competition until that point.”
While that doesn’t exactly come off as a ringing endorsement for Frye, the Browns were impressed by his ability to lead them to wins over Oakland and Baltimore in the waning weeks of another losing season in Cleveland.
“In the five games he was in there he showed some stuff,” Crennel said. “He made some plays, got out of trouble. I don’t think he ever got rattled. You didn’t see him rattled where he came apart. He always tried to keep his composure and looked down the field.
“When he made bad plays, he came back and tried to rally the team around him. I feel good about that.”
Bengals’ Thurman suspended
Bengals middle linebacker Odell Thurman was suspended for the first four games of the season because he violated the NFL’s substance abuse policy, the latest blow to a team already stung by player arrests.
Four others have been arrested in separate incidents during the last two months, focusing attention on Cincinnati’s willingness to draft players with troubled pasts.
The latest transgression will cost the Bengals one of their top playmakers on defense. Thurman, a second-round draft pick out of Georgia last year, led the team in tackles and had five interceptions as a rookie.
Three of the four arrested players were high draft picks with either criminal records or a history of problems with their college coaches.
Second-year receiver Chris Henry has been arrested four times since last December, most recently on charges that he provided alcohol to minors. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 21 in Florida on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
Linebacker A.J. Nicholson, a fifth-round pick in April, was charged last month with burglarizing the apartment of a former Florida State teammate. Also last month, third-round pick Frostee Rucker was charged with two counts of spousal battery and vandalism in Los Angeles. Both had incidents before the draft.
The most recent arrest came last weekend, when third-year defensive tackle Matthias Askew was subdued with a Taser after Cincinnati police alleged he refused to move an illegally parked vehicle and refused to show identification.
Also, left tackle Levi Jones signed a six-year contract extension, leaving the Bengals with two offensive linemen under long-term deals.
Jets, Ferguson nearing deal
D’Brickashaw Ferguson should be right on time when Jets players report to training camp today.
The No. 4 overall pick was close to signing a contract and expected to be at team head quarters on reporting day. The Jets start practice Friday under new coach Eric Mangini.
Porter sits out practice
The Art Shell era has just begun and Jerry Porter is already having problems with his new coach.
A day after publicly demanding a trade, Porter sat out practice with a calf injury.
Porter declined to talk to reporters, but Shell said the trade request was a “non-issue” and the team is unlikely to grant his request.