Camp thoughts Vol. VII

 

There is no truth to the notion – made here exclusively – that Joe Btfsplk showed up at Browns training camp Monday in Berea.

 

How else, then, can one explain Grant Delpit going down with a season-ending torn Achilles tendon? Or Greedy Williams leaving the field with a shoulder problem? Not to mention the lacerated liver suffered by Kevin Johnson late last week.

 

So how does Joe Btfsplk factor into a story about professional football injuries? Time once again to dive deep into the generation gap to explain just who this guy was and how he relates to the Browns.

 

Btfsplk is a disheveled cartoon character who appeared in the iconic – but long since forgotten – comic strip L’il Abner, which ran for 43 years until it ended in 1977. His creator, cartoonist Al Capp, billed him as “The World’s Worst Jinx.”

 

He was accompanied wherever he went by a rain cloud hovering over his head, dripping raindrops on his wide-brimmed hat. (Google Joe Btfsplk to see him in person so to speak.) He was a disaster waiting to happen. After what happened Monday, he had to be in Berea.

 

Williams, Johnson and Delpit had a good chance of comprising 60% of the Browns’ starting secondary. And it’s only the second week of padded practice. At this rate, the thinning secondary is going to be down to second- and third-string troops just to get to the Sept. 13 season opener in Baltimore.

 

Delpit, who probably would have been the starter at free safety, and Williams, who has locked down one of the cornerback spots, were teammates at Louisiana State. Both were taken by the Browns in the second round of the college draft, Williams in 2019 and Delpit this past May.

 

The Cleveland defense, which does not project as one of the National Football League’s top units to begin with, can ill afford injuries on that side of the football. It had already lost inside linebacker Mack Wilson for what might be the entire season if he requires surgery on his hyperextended left knee.

 

I know other teams are suffering injuries, probably because a lot of these athletes are not in good football shape because there were no OTAs or minicamps to get used to playing the game again after the offseason. But this is getting out of hand.

Soft-tissue injuries are the most frustrating. Delpit’s injury, for example, happened during interception drills, which involves backpedaling and then jumping up to catch a football. The injury occurred when he landed.

 

The rookie, who entered his final season at LSU as a sure-fire first-rounder in the draft, played quite a bit last season nursing a high ankle sprain. It cut down on his effectiveness, which ultimately cost him in the draft, dropping him into the second round.

 

The Browns jumped all over Delpit at pick 44, citing his versatility. He was having a good camp after successfully rehabbing the ankle in the offseason when Monday happened. No news on where Joe Btfsplk was at the time.

Amateur prognosis – practicing medicine without a license again – says Williams will be ready for the opener at cornerback, but Johnson (the presumptive starter at nickelback) and Wilson won’t be, missing significant time, maybe the entire season.