Jerry Jeudy stayed inside for a good reason, Myles Garrett raised his hand for a new chore: Browns minicamp takeaways

BEREA, Ohio — Amari Cooper wasn’t the only double-digit millions first-round receiver from Alabama not on the practice field Tuesday for Browns mandatory minicamp.

Jerry Jeudy, acquired in a trade with the Broncos in the offseason and signed to an extension worth $17.5 million, also was missing, but he was inside nursing a minor injury. Cooper, on the other hand, is holding out for a contract extension as he heads into the final year of his contract.

Jeudy was also in and out of organized team activities, possibly because of the same ailment. But Deshaun Watson wasn’t concerned about the absence of his top two receivers. He completed plenty of passes to Elijah Moore, David Njoku and Cedric Tillman in his first 7-on-7s of the offseason.

“All of that is timing,” Watson said. “Guys got to make sure they take care of different things and Jeudy’s another guy who’s been here mentally and taking mental reps but making sure he’s taking care of his body too, and the staff knows exactly what they need to do for him. I just can’t wait until we all get together and we have a lot of reps during training camp and especially this offseason, we’re all in the same area so we’ll be good.”

Kevin Stefanski noted that Jeudy is “working through some things” but declined to be specific. He also stressed that it’s not hampering installation of the new scheme.

“We’ve been installing all the way back to April, so we really have our schedule and we’re getting everybody up to speed and the guys are working hard at it, but that doesn’t really affect that,” he said.

Watson also plans to host his offensive teammates for a passing camp during the break, possibly in Miami, so he’ll be able to make up for some of the lost time.

“It’s so important that these guys continue to work at their craft, and sometimes that’s going to be a workout for a day, sometimes it’s going to be working out and throwing with your teammates and that type of thing,” Stefanski said. “But everything is leading up to training camp and obviously leading up to the season. But what they do and how they do that, we’ll work together with them.”

Put me in, coach!

With the Browns auditioning some of their big-name players for kickoff return duty under the funky new rules, one of the biggest of all wants in on the fun.

“Myles (Garrett) raised his hand last night,” Stefanski said.

In all seriousness, stranger things will likely have happened on kickoff return when all is said and done.

“It’s something that’s definitely going to be evolving,” Stefanski said. “It’ll be a new play for all viewers, we’ll all see it and it’ll just look different like these things do. And then you’re even going to have to wait for that Thursday night and that Friday night game (on opening weekend) just to see, ‘All right, well, people are holding things back in the preseason now what does it look like?’ So there’s still things that we are working through and are curious about just like everybody else. But we know the rules, we know there’s got to be two returners in the landing zone, so we’ll work through all the details as we go.”

Will Garrett ever be one of them?

“Tune in,” Stefanski said.

Can Stefanski call the new Browns offense as well as Ken Dorsey?

Dorsey has installed a lot of the offensive concepts that he ran in Buffalo under Brian Daboll, and has been driving the bus this offseason on teaching and implementing it. But that doesn’t mean Stefanski — who hasn’t announced his decision yet on whether or not he’ll turn the play-calling over to Dorsey — can’t call it equally well.

“It goes back to guys like the idea that this is the Cleveland Browns offense,” he said. “It’s not mine, it’s not Ken’s, it’s not really any one player. It’s really all of us get together, put the heads together in that meeting room upstairs, and we put our offense together. All of us, multiple people should be comfortable calling plays.”

Watson feels comfortable in the new scheme, because it’s similar to what former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien ran with Watson in Houston, where he made three Pro Bowls.

Some are back, and some are off to the side

A number of big-name Browns players returned to minicamp after skipping most or all of organized team activities. They included Garrett, Shelby Harris, Quinton Jefferson, Dalvin Tomlinson, Njoku, Juan Thornhill.

Others worked off to the side with trainers and didn’t practice because of injuries. They were Jack Conklin, Joel Bitonio, Jedrick Wills Jr., Cam Mitchell, Nick Chubb, James Proche II, and Nyheim Hines.