Despite the fact that Browns receiver Josh Cribbs has showed up for training camp, he might not be there for long.
''I tried to make a stand during OTAs so I could get it all handled before camp’s over,’' Cribbs recently said, according to Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal. ''I won’t have to miss any more practice time, learning the playbook and everything like that. I want to be out here on this field; I don’t want to miss a step. It’s real competitive out here; I’m trying to get my spot on offense and work my way on defense, as well. But I can’t make any predictions on what I’m going to do when the season starts.”
Cribbs realizes now that he shouldn’t have signed a long-term deal so early in his career, and he also realizes that being under contract through 2012 gives him little leverage, and few options.
''My only leverage is what I’ve been giving to this team,’' he said.
Cribbs claims that the Browns promised before the 2009 coaching and G.M. change to address his contract. Though the team claims that the new regime is not bound by those promises, Cribbs says that owner Randy Lerner conveyed the same senitment.
The organization has denied that Lerner made such a promise.
And so Eric Mangini is now dealing with his fourth veteran player in two years who claims that promises were made but not honored by the team that Mangini is coaching.
Previously, Pete Kendall, Laveranues Coles, and Chris Baker made similar allegations when Mangini was the coach of the Jets.