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Cleveland Browns set to open training camp on Thursday, July 26

The Cleveland Browns are set to open training camp at their Berea headquarters on Thursday, July 26.

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns will report to team headquarters on Wednesday, July 25, and open up training camp on Thursday, July 26 in Berea.

The NFL announced training-camp dates for their 32 teams on Thursday afternoon.

During the early stages of the offseason program, the Browns instituted an “Earn Your Stripes” campaign where players started the workouts with a plain orange helmet and no center stripe down the middle.

With that program and the ensuing position battles after the additions of more than a dozen free agents and nine picks from the 2018 NFL Draft, Browns coach Hue Jackson is expecting a highly competitive training camp when the team reports back to Berea at the end of July.

“Absolutely, I would expect nothing less,” Jackson said after a recent OTA practice.

“We are going to have some really tough decisions as we go because there are a lot of good football players on this team. That is the way that it should be. I think we have improved every position group on this team. I think we will have some tough decisions, and I do not think you would want it any other way.”

Credit: Matt Florjancic
Cleveland Browns quarterback Tyrod Taylor says teammates "should not hit send" on controversial tweets.

The “Earn Your Stripes” program is a way for the organization to hold players accountable after the struggles of the recent past.

With a 28-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on New Year’s Eve 2017, the Browns went winless in a 16-game season for the first time in franchise history, and their 17th consecutive loss overall dropped the organization to a league-worst 1-31 since the opening game of 2016.

The Browns have not won on a Sunday afternoon since December 13, 2015. The 33 straight Sunday losses are an NFL record, and their 4-49 mark in the last 53 outings is the worst in the league in that four-year span.

Credit: Matt Florjancic
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield surveys the field as he drops back in a drill during Organized Team Activities practice at team headquarters in Berea.

Additionally, this past season, the Browns set the record for the worst 28-game stretch in NFL history, as they “bested” the previous mark of 2-26 set by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 1976-1977 seasons with a 1-27 showing that got four losses worse after Week 13.

In five seasons under Dee and Jimmy Haslam’s majority ownership, the Browns have posted an NFL-worst 15-65 record. Factoring in the remaining games of the 2012 season after the sale was approved at an NFL Owners Meeting in Chicago, the Browns have gone 19-70.

Also, with Buffalo clinching a wildcard berth in the AFC last December, the Browns have the longest-standing playoff drought in the NFL.

Credit: Matt Florjancic
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon eyes up a pass from the quarterback as he hustles down the field in a drill during Organized Team Activities practice at team headquarters in Berea.

“Earn it,” Jackson said. “There is a certain way that the Cleveland Browns have to play, and we are going to earn our stripes.

“The guys that put them on their helmets and get the chance to wear them, it is going to be because they demonstrate the characteristics that we are looking for in Cleveland Browns players. That is the way that they are going to play. That is how we are going to conduct ourselves and go out and win football games.”

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