ROCKY RIVER: Justin Gilbert has watched the Browns dump quarterback Johnny Manziel and the men who drafted them in the first round two years ago while the lightning rod cornerback has received yet another chance to salvage his NFL career.
Time will tell whether Gilbert can ever become a consistent contributor.
What’s clear, though, is coach Hue Jackson’s determination to wash away the disappointment from Gilbert’s first two seasons.
“That’s how we’ve approached it since we’ve back,” Gilbert said Thursday during the Cleveland Browns Foundation Golf Tournament. “The coaches have been pretty clear about starting fresh and having a brand new start and not looking in the rearview mirror and just going straight forward from here on out. It feels good.”
Plagued by maturity problems and an undisclosed personal issue, Gilbert hasn’t come anywhere near meeting the expectations placed upon him as the eighth overall selection in 2014. He’s appeared in just 23 of 32 games with three starts, compiling 29 tackles, nine passes defensed and an interception, which he returned for a touchdown. He was a healthy scratch three times last season and once in 2014.
As a rookie, he was late to a team meeting the night before the season finale and subsequently suspended for the game. He later admitted he “was missing like tons of meetings” partly because he’s a “hard sleeper.” Last year, he crashed a car two days before the season opener during what Brunswick police described as a road rage incident.
“It’s definitely a surprise to me,” said rookie outside linebacker Emmanuel Ogbah, who spent two seasons with Gilbert at Oklahoma State. “Justin was a guy that didn’t get in trouble in college. He’s a guy that always put hard work first, team first in whatever he did.”
Jackson is hopeful trouble won’t resurface with Gilbert.
“I can’t talk about what’s gone on here in the past with him. I know it’s well-documented, but that’s not the young man that I’ve met since I’ve been here and talked to and have exchanges with,” Jackson said. “He’s been sensational. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do the way we’ve asked him to do it.
“I told him when I first talked to him that ‘your slate’s clean. Whatever’s gone on in the past doesn’t matter to me.’ And that’s the way I am with all of our players. None of that matters. It’s the picture you paint now, and he’s doing a tremendous job. He’s very talented, as we all know. He’s done everything right thus far, and I’m very proud of him.”
Pettine as well as former Browns players Karlos Dansby and Donte Whitner publicly criticized Gilbert two years ago. They referred to pushing his buttons as “tough love,” but the strategy didn’t work.
Gilbert spoke as if he still resents their approach when asked if they were too hard on him.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about the past at all.
“I’m getting a great feeling from the coaches and the guys now. Everything’s been very positive and we’re going to try to keep it that way.”
The support of his teammates was evident when Gilbert, 24, returned to Browns headquarters after missing the first few days of the offseason conditioning program in April because a family member died in a car accident.
“It surprised me at first when I first walked in, the way they greeted me,” he said. “But to get that kind of love from your teammates, it makes you feel right at home.”
Becoming comfortable on the field remains a work in progress.
The 6-foot, 202-pound Gilbert has been taking reps with the first-team defense opposite starting cornerback Tramon Williams this spring because two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden is recovering from offseason ankle surgery. The experience has been valuable.
“I want to try to continue to get those reps even when [Haden] comes back,” said Gilbert, who’s also a candidate to return kickoffs after averaging 28.3 yards on 12 returns last season. “Whether we have a rotation going out in and out, I’m going to continue to try to get those reps with the ones.”
He’ll need to improve to achieve the goal, but defensive coordinator Ray Horton has been encouraged thus far. Horton asked Gilbert to adopt a more compact defensive stance, whereupon the player quickly adapted.
“There is a verse in the Bible from Luke that ‘much is given, much is expected,’ and he falls into that category,” Horton said last week. “He has a ton of God-given ability that we, as coaches, have to get out.”
Gilbert believes his adjusted stance allows him to take quicker steps when the Browns play off-man coverage as opposed to press man.
“It’s comfortable. It was just something I was being a little lazy with, with the off technique,” Gilbert said. “I know it’s a stance that most of the guys do. It’s just I was trying to do my own thing. But once I switched it, it kind of just became a habit, a good habit of backpedaling.”
Gilbert’s fellow defenders hope to see him make more strides.
“The world knew when he came into Cleveland that he was a hell of an athlete, and he still is,” safety Jordan Poyer said. “To see him grow the way he’s grown ... is something this team needs. I truly believe this team is going to need him to help us win games.”
Even owner Jimmy Haslam pulled Gilbert aside at the team’s golf outing to tell him as much.
“[Haslam said] that the team’s going to need me this year and [he’s] proud of the way I’ve been working,” Gilbert said, “so just continue to head in the right direction.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.