The Cleveland Browns are in Week 1 preparation for the Carolina Panthers to go against their former starting quarterback Baker Mayfield. Lots to do before kickoff at 1PM on Sunday.
So far, we’ve got the team’s unofficial depth chart and the team’s first official injury report of the season. While 10 players are listed on the initial report, DE Jadeveon Clowney was the only one not practicing but that was due to an illness. Others were either full participants or limited.
We also got news on Wednesday that the Browns are back to having full-time captains this year and five were elected by their teammates:
#Browns captains: Joel Bitonio, Nick Chubb, Myles Garrett, Anthony Walker, Charley Hughlett
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) September 7, 2022
The team will still have individual game captains, something they did all of last year:
The #Browns will still have individual game captains this season, but had voting for full-time captains on offense, defense and special teams.
The captains are:
Joel Bitonio
Nick Chubb
Anthony Walker
Myles Garrett
Charley Hughlett— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) September 7, 2022
With former center J.C. Tretter and Mayfield gone, it is interesting that the team decided to go back to full-time captains via a team vote. With noise of Tretter retiring because of his NFLPA presidency, it would have been interesting if he hadn’t been voted a team captain.
We’ve heard similar noise about Mayfield, which he touched on last year. Having captains voted on but not your playoff-leading quarterback would have raised some eyebrows last year as well.
That isn’t to say both Tretter and Mayfield may not have gotten the votes but those two have both had interesting offseasons.
Instead, Cleveland returns to the NFL normal with captains being named and none of them being much of a surprise.