The Browns drafted for speed to improve their outside running game to take the pressure off Kosar, who was at the mercy of defenses last season because of an inept running game. He missed nine games due to injury.
Eric Metcalf, a speedy tailback from Texas who was the Browns' top draft pick, is projected as the Browns' tailback of the future. But Metcalf is behind after reporting late due to a holdout. Wide receiver Lawyer Tillman of Auburn, Cleveland's No. 2 draft pick, remains unsigned.
Naturally, the Brown offense has taken some time to adjust to the changes--as has the defense, which has undergone changes.
--All-Pro cornerback Hanford Dixon was moved to safety after Carson told reporters that Dixon had slowed down. Although Dixon was beaten like a rug last season, he demanded a trade.
The move wasn't popular with Cleveland fans, who consider Dixon the top dog of the Dawg defense. The fans barked in protest.
When Dixon arrived at a restaurant to do his radio show, he was met by picketers carrying signs. One read: "Fire Bud, Not Dixon."
"When I saw all the picketing I thought that all the waitresses and cooks had quit," Dixon said. "And then I saw that they were picketing for me. I said 'Damn!' Man it was unbelievable. It was a good feeling. It let me know that I was wanted."
Dixon and Carson have made peace and Carson said he shouldn't have criticized Dixon in public. Candid to a fault, Carson is trying to control his mouth.
"What I said about Dixon wasn't very smart and it wasn't very accurate," Carson said. "I hadn't learned to be a head coach. That was my fifth or sixth press conference and I hadn't realized that you can talk all you want as an assistant but you can't do that as a head coach."
It wasn't the first time that Carson's mouth has gotten him in trouble.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Oakland Raiders in the 1974 AFC final and Bud Carson was livid.
After watching Raider flanker Cliff Branch beat Steeler cornerback Mel Blount for 186 yards in the first half, Carson removed Blount at halftime and inserted Jimmy Allen, a rookie from UCLA.
"That's one of the dumbest things I ever did," Carson said.
During Super Bowl week, Blount criticized Carson to anyone who would listen. It was a sensational story for the horde of reporters on hand.
Carson said Steeler Coach Chuck Noll told him he was prepared to trade Blount.
Carson reinserted Blount into the lineup for the Super Bowl and Blount went on to become an extraordinary defensive back. Inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, Blount praised Carson.
"I learned more about football from Bud than anybody," Blount told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Leon H. (Bud) Carson had big dreams.
After serving five years as defensive coordinator for the Steelers, Carson dreamed of becoming an NFL head coach.
Carroll Rosenbloom, late owner of the Rams, promised to make Carson a head coach if he came to the Rams as an assistant.
Carson jumped at the chance and moved to the Rams, where he became an assistant to Coach George Allen in 1978.
After Allen was fired two games into the exhibition schedule, Ray Malavasi, offensive coordinator, succeeded Allen.
With Carson running the defense, the Rams reached the Super Bowl for the only time in their history.
It was all downhill from there.
After the Rams failed to make the playoffs in 1981, Malavasi fired Carson and five other assistant coaches in an effort to retain his job.
Carson began an eight-year odyssey after leaving Los Angeles.
The only defensive coordinator position available to Carson was with the woeful Baltimore Colts.
Although the Colts went 0-8-1 in a strike-shortened season, something good came out of the debacle.
It was in Baltimore that he met Brown Executive Vice President Ernie Accorsi, who was then the Colts' general manager. It was Accorsi who convinced Modell to hire Carson.
"I've met a lot of people I thought I might have impressed but I didn't know Ernie was one of them because the Colts were lousy," Carson said.
Accorsi said Carson impressed him.
"Bud reminds me of (former Baltimore Orioles manager) Earl Weaver but without that real explosive temper," Accorsi said. "But baseball lends itself to (arguments). If Bud had one argument with an official like Earl had with an umpire he'd probably be suspended.
"Both Earl and Bud are deadly honest. Sometimes that honesty with the media backfires a bit. And both Bud and Earl are incapable of holding a grudge."
After leaving the Colts, Carson moved to Kansas City, where he was defensive coordinator under John Mackovic in 1983.
Mackovic fired Carson during the 1984 exhibition season because of a personality conflict and Carson took a job as a volunteer assistant at the University of Kansas.
Asked about Mackovic, Carson's Irish temper rises.
