Alas, no dropoff for Edwards

BEREA (AP) — One game, one big drop. Braylon Edwards is back at it.

Cleveland’s talented wide receiver, who can dazzle and disappoint in equal helpings, dropped a touchdown pass on the first ball thrown to him in Saturday’s 17-0 preseason loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Late in the first half, Edwards got free in the end zone and was in perfect position to score but let a perfectly thrown pass from quarterback Brady Quinn bounce away. The drop became magnified when Quinn, battling Derek Anderson for the starting job, threw an interception on a pass intended for Edwards on the next play.

“It’s just part of football,” Edwards said Tuesday.

And it’s just the preseason, but unfortunately for the Browns, it’s also more of the same from Edwards, who led the NFL with 16 dropped passes last season.

He has had an interminable case of the drops since his college days at Michigan. From one play to the next it’s hard to know which Edwards will show up — the one who takes your breath away with a spectacular, leaping, one-handed grab or the one who lets a 5-yard toss slide through his fingers.

In Cleveland’s offense, which has failed to score a touchdown in seven straight games dating to last season, Edwards is a key weapon — not a once-every-other-play receiver, but the go-to-guy down after down.

Edwards’ inconsistency has been a sore spot for Browns fans since his arrival as the No. 3 overall pick in 2005. They expect more from Cleveland’s top playmaker and his inability to string together catches and solid performances has prompted a backlash of sorts.

It wasn’t long after his opening-night drop at Lambeau Field that the Web and local sports radio talk shows were overrun with negative comments about Edwards.

The loquacious wideout understands the fans’ frustrations. He feels the same way.

“That [inconsistency] drives anybody crazy,” he said. “Nobody’s perfect. At the end of the day you strive to be. What drives you is what drives me, to be the best at what I do. When I drop a pass, I’m [ticked] at myself. I wish I could catch everything no matter where it was or what I have to do to get to it. That’s just not reality. The thing you can control is the focus and the concentration.”

An ongoing problem for Edwards is that he too often leaves his feet to catch a pass when he doesn’t need to. Edwards acknowledged that he didn’t need to jump to haul in Quinn’s toss.

“That was a situation where I didn’t need to,” he said. “I jumped the gun. It is what it is. I think we’re making too much here about that play.”

Maybe so. But the Browns will have no chance of improving on their 4-12 record from last season if Edwards can’t hang on to the ball.

Browns coach Eric Mangini suggested that Edwards spend more time after practice working on the JUGS machine, which rockets footballs to receivers faster than a quarterback ever could.

Edwards, though, said nothing can replicate live, game action.

“I can catch 1,000 passes on the JUGS machine, but at the end of the day it’s not a game, it’s not Brady throwing the ball, it’s not Derek, it’s not a defensive back covering me,” he said. “That’s just muscle memory. The ball doesn’t actually come out like that. Just being focused is really the only thing you can do.”

Mangini feels Edwards can be a better pass catcher, a more precise route runner and a high-level pro if he dedicates himself to improving.

“I believe everyone has the makeup to be consistent,” he said. “It’s a function of working at it. In terms of what anybody has done in the past, that really doesn’t matter to me. You want to learn from those experiences, but what matters is what you’re doing each day. If you create good habits then you become consistent. That’s something that you try to teach, not just the rookies but everybody across the board.”

Edwards isn’t the only Cleveland player making mistakes.

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s practice, the Browns had a sequence of errors during a two-minute drill that led Mangini to rip his team for an overall lack of focus. First, Quinn threw an ugly interception, and then with Anderson under center, the Browns had a false-start penalty followed by a delay of game infraction.

“That’s just bad football,” Mangini said.

His first training camp has been far more demanding than any of the previous four under Romeo Crennel. These are the dog days of summer, when draining two-a-day practices take their toll.

Mangini was asked if it might be time to provide a fun diversion, maybe a little comic relief to break up the monotony.

“They can watch practice and get comic relief,” Mangini said. “They can yuk it up over that.”