In his first NFL training camp, rookie quarterback Colt McCoy is learning many things, including patience. That's not an easy thing for the all-time winningest QB in NCAA history.
Colt McCoy is spending much of his first NFL training camp watching and learning from the sidelines, but on occasion he is getting repetitions and working on developing his leadership skills. "I've got a long ways to go," McCoy said, "but I'm learning more every day and feeling more comfortable every day."BEREA, Ohio -- Frisky as a colt by nature, patience is not one of Colt McCoy's many virtues.
The rookie quarterback is learning many things in his first NFL training camp. Patience, however, may be the most excruciating lesson so far.
"It is hard, especially over the last four years when you've taken every rep and every snap in a game," McCoy said. "That's a hard thing to do. I just have to get used to it."
The Browns' master plan for the Texas sharpshooter is proceeding, well, as planned. He gets limited reps at practice. He'll play at mop-up time in the preseason games, starting Saturday in Green Bay.
A first-time visitor to Browns training camp would barely notice McCoy if not for his college reputation as the NCAA's all-time winningest quarterback. His name does not come up on a daily basis.
He doesn't hold press conferences. If reporters want to ask him anything, he'll stop to chat walking off the practice field.
President Mike Holmgren laid the foundation for McCoy's first camp on draft day by lowering expectations to ground zero. "We did not draft Colt McCoy to play in 2010," Holmgren said.
The plan was to ease him through his first season, like a redshirt year in college, which he experienced in 2005 at Texas before succeeding Vince Young.
"One thing I do when I'm out here is I really watch Jake [Delhomme] and Seneca [Wallace]," Colt McCoy said about training camp. "I watch how they communicate with the offense. I watch how they get in and out of the huddle. I watch their mechanics. Those are ways I'm going to have to learn.""Some rookies step right in and play. Hats off to them," McCoy said. "I'm really trying to be the best that I can be in the situation that I'm in. And when it's time, it's time."
All of this doesn't mean McCoy isn't working, mind you.
"I can't have the mentality coming out to practice that I'm going to sit out all year," he said. "If I do that, I wouldn't get any better. So every day I come out here and try to compete and be ready if something happens."
Most of the time he learns by observing.
"There's a lot of mental reps you have to take," he said. "One thing I do when I'm out here is I really watch Jake [Delhomme] and Seneca [Wallace]. I watch how they communicate with the offense. I watch how they get in and out of the huddle. I watch their mechanics. Those are ways I'm going to have to learn.
"Then at night I get my rookies and we go in here and have our own walkthroughs, go through our own two-minute drills. I think that's going to help us in the preseason games."
Coach Eric Mangini said McCoy is "a really good student ... he has been like a sponge, which is what he should be at this point."
The Saturday team scrimmage, in which McCoy tossed two interceptions, was a particular learning experience.
One interception was returned 40 yards for a touchdown by Brandon McDonald. Mangini said McDonald made a nice play by staying low and then dropping off late to snag the ball.
"That's going to happen, and you have to be able to go through that progression and make those reads quickly and understand that just because he is here now, he has the speed to be there very quickly," Mangini said. "You have got to get used to that."
The second one at the end of the first half, on a ball just thrown up into the end zone, was another lesson. Mangini told him the play would have been returned 99 yards for a touchdown by Baltimore safety Ed Reed. He should have just thrown the ball out of bounds.
"Those are things you can take away from that, coach from it, write it down and know 'I'm not going to do that again,'" said McCoy, who termed his first training camp "a grind."
"It's all day long," McCoy said. "The best way I can explain it is, when you're in college you're used to it, you understand exactly offensively what you're doing, you know what the defense is doing and you practice it every day and you have a sense of comfort.
"In this transition ... you don't get reps, and when you do you want to make them count. You have to get to that sense of comfort where I can go out there and make my calls and checks and just play.
"When you go out and you're not sure, that's when you make mistakes and turnovers. Offensively, you can't take charge of your own huddle and execute. I'm trying to get to that point where I'm going to play and execute."
The days are long and the nights are short. McCoy said he spends his free time studying his playbook.
"I've got a long ways to go, but I'm learning more every day and feeling more comfortable every day," he said.
| Cleveland Browns training camp: Rookie quarterback Colt McCoy |