Things to Look for in Joint Practice Sessions

The Cleveland Browns are in Philadelphia and just hours away from taking on the reigning NFC Champions in joint practices. These are the things that I will be looking for when the whistles start to blow.

1. Who is available to play?

With a multitude of players who have been out either with injuries or medical conditions, I want to see who is able to get back this week. The next two days have been labeled as the most important work of training camp.

Greg Newsome has been out multiple weeks with groin injury.

How much work will newly acquired Shelby Harris get? I would imagine that they would work him into action slowly.

Can Anthony Walker make his full-speed debut coming back from his season ending injury a year ago?

Is Harrison Bryant able to play after being diagnosed with an undisclosed medical condition that has kept him out of action for several weeks?

Most importantly, can Elijah Moore practice after leaving Friday night's game with a rib injury? It would be a shame for Deshaun Watson to not have his full compliment of weapons against a stout Eagles defense. If Moore can't go it will be intriguing to see who would get the bulk of his snaps.

2. What wrinkles do we see from Jim Schwartz's defense?

Yes, we have talked endlessly about his "wide-nine" defense but I am interested most in seeing if Schwartz leaves any clues about how he has evolved in his philosophy as a defensive play caller. League tendencies evolve over time as offenses adapt new ways to attack defenses. As a result, defensive schemes react to eliminate play concepts that have a high success rate.

Couple this with his time in Tennessee, with Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel and it becomes clear that Schwartz will have fresh perspective since his time with the Eagles. He has said during the offseason that you will see the defense lineup in a five man front at times. I am very interested to see if there are any looks from this alignment in the practices with the Eagles.

Thinking of Garrett and Okoronkwo lined up wide with Tomlinson at the nose with Harris to his right and Smith to his left has me very excited. In addition, when you consider the amount of talent that we have in our secondary, the Browns just may have the players to make it successful.

So far things have been pretty vanilla from a scheme standpoint and I expect Schwartz will take advantage of this opportunity to work on some of these things without giving it on tape to thirty other teams.