Crowell eager to show he can thrive as Browns’ lead back

BEREA, Ohio The Crow is flying under the radar as he heads into his second NFL season.

He likes the lack of buzz and hype. He prefers silence.

“I really hate talking because it does nothing,” Browns running back Isaiah Crowell said recently. “So I try to get out there and just show what I can do on the field.

“I just grew up like that. Talking does nothing because you can say you can do this and do that all day, but until you do it, no one believes you.”

Crowell will get his first real chance this year to show, not tell, when the Browns visit the New York Jets on Sunday for their regular-season opener.

He’ll enter the new season as the starter for an offense hoping to lean heavily on its rushing attack. After starting four of 16 games last year as an undrafted rookie, his workload is destined to increase, and he considers himself capable of carrying the ball 20 times or more a game.

“I’m ready,” said Crowell, who had 148 carries for 607 yards (4.1 average) and eight touchdowns last year. “I always knew I had what it takes.”

The 5-11, 225-pound Crowell maxed out at 17 carries and averaged 9.25 per game last season.

So will he be able to handle more?

“Crow is a big guy. He is in great shape,” new Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said. “Nothing has shown to me that Crow can’t be that workhorse for us.”

The Browns need Crowell to answer the bell. The challenge begins with the Jets, who ranked fifth in the NFL against the run (93.1 yards allowed per game) last season.

Behind him, the Browns have rookie Duke Johnson, who missed nearly all of training camp and the preseason with a hamstring injury and a concussion. They also plan to promote Shaun Draughn, who’s been playing with an injured thumb, from the practice squad to the active roster Saturday.

They claimed Robert Turbin off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday, but coach Mike Pettine said Turbin might not be able to play for a month because of a high ankle sprain.

The organization also traded Terrance West, a third-round draft pick last year who led the team with 673 rushing yards as a rookie, to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a conditional seventh-round choice in 2016.

“I was kind of shocked about 1/8the trade3/8 when it first happened,” said Crowell, who had 17 carries for 47 yards (2.8 average) in the preseason. “That’s up to the coaches. They made a decision, and they trusted me. I’ve just got to go out there and show them what I can do.”

Crowell, 22, has been determined to prove himself since he joined the Browns. Slowed by a hamstring injury in the spring of 2014, he made the team with a breakout performance in the preseason finale. Then this summer, running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery called him out along with the other backs for not showing a desire to win the starting job and for failing to report to training camp in tip-top shape.

“Being undrafted, you’ve just got to work harder and prove everybody wrong that you do belong here and that you do have what it takes to be in the NFL,” Crowell said. “I know Wilbert said a few things earlier this 1/8summer3/8, but I feel that it was just to push us. It was nothing personal. I took it like that and I kept working hard.”

Crowell went undrafted because of character concerns, not a lack of talent. The University of Georgia dismissed him in 2012 because of weapons charges, which were later dropped, so he finished his career at Alabama State University.

“I understood why people felt that way or said things about that because of my past,” Crowell said. “But you’ve got to be good on the field and off the field just to succeed in the NFL, and I know that.”

Pettine said he has seen Crowell’s hard work pay off in two key areas on the field: “We feel much more comfortable throwing him the ball this year and much more trusting of him in pass protection.”

DeFilippo plans on passing to the running backs much more than former Browns offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan did last season, and Crowell is sure he can deliver after tallying just nine catches for 87 yards.

“If people say that’s not my game, then they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Crowell said.

Remember, the Crow doesn’t like talking.

(c)2015 Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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