Browns Reportedly Hiring Shaun Huls As Director of High Performance
According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, the Cleveland Browns are hiring Shaun Huls as their director of higher performance. Huls will serve as a supplement to the team's strength and conditioning program, currently led by Larry Jackson, who's been in charge since March of 2018. Huls comes from the Philadelphia Eagles where he operated in the same position since 2013 before the two mutually agreed to part ways after this past season.
Before working with the Eagles, Huls coordinated a strength and condition program that focused on injury prevention with the U.S. Navy Seals. He also built the strength and conditioning program at Hampton University, which didn't really exist before he got there and served for all 16 sports.
The last few years have been extremely unfortunate for Huls and the Eagles. They won the Super Bowl in spite of a rash of injuries and this season left them with almost nothing at a few positions by the end of the year. It's important to point out that the Eagles have had one of the oldest rosters in the league, so that is a contributing factor.
Having said that, the Browns dealt with a number of hamstring injuries that impacted their team last year, including Denzel Ward, Greedy Williams and Sione Takitaki. Some injuries are unavoidable and bad luck happens, but if Huls can come in and at least help the Browns avoid some of those injuries that hamstrung the team last season, that would make for a big improvement.
With rare exception, the strength and conditioning department of a team rarely gets credit, but is often sought out for blame. And that probably proved to be a factor in why Huls and the Eagles opted to part ways. Now, he has the opportunity to work with a substantially younger roster in the Browns and potentially make more of a difference at the beginning of careers than trying to help those closer to the end.
