Someone e-mailed me wondering where fourth-round picks Beau Bell and Martin Rucker are. I would assume they're probably at home, maybe playing NCAA Football 09.

I'm sure the reader actually wondered why aren't they signed. That's not too unusual this year. Of the 35 fourth rounders, 18 are signed. From what I could dig up, only another handful should be signed in the next couple of days. That means most will probably sign just before training camp. It would be a surprise to not see Bell or Rucker in brown and orange Wednesday.

Last year, the Browns signed seventh-round pick Chase Pittman on July 18. Brandon McDonald (fifth), Melila Purcell (sixth) and Syndric Steptoe (seventh) signed on July 22. Joe Thomas (first) and Eric Wright (second) signed July 26. Brady Quinn (first) was last, signing on Aug. 7.

The Browns haven't signed any of their picks yet. If you're curious, after the jump are this year's fourth-round picks. Those in bold are not signed.
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• Derek Anderson did an interview with Statesman Journal.   The interview doesn't give up too much info besides the fact that Anderson once hated the idea of playing in Cleveland.
• Lane Adkins spoke to linebacker Antwan Peek, who felt both he and the team didn't get it done last year. 
• Brett Favre and LeCharles Bentley have something in common, according to Tony Grossi. 
• Zachardy Bardou at Realfootball365.com predict that Browns will attempt to spread out their offense more this season, a la the Patriots. 

Update:  Former Browns beat writer James Walker (now with ESPN.com) has confirmed that Joe Jurevicius will likely start the season on the physically unable to perform list.   This could be a huge hit to the Browns offense unless the trio of rookie Paul Hubbard, Joshua Cribbs, and Travis Wilson can produce.

It's inevitable, and every Browns fan has been in this debate.  Andra Davis, a holdover from the Butch Davis regime, has been a starter at left inside linebacker in Romeo's 3-4 defense since 2005.  Before that, Davis had been the starter in Butch's 4-3 defense. 

Typically, Davis is a player fans love to hate.  He's not flashy, is a pure run stopper, and rarely plays on third downs.  Most Browns fans at some point have ripped him to shreds.  At some point every Sunday where Browns games are played, this debate pops up. 

So just how bad is Davis?  Many Clevelanders are ready to build a shrine to Leon Williams (or Beau Bell) and burn Andra at the stake.  Doug Farrar of Football Outsiders posted an article for the OBR Report showing Davis is better than most are giving him credit for. 

Some of the statistics used to justify this argument are not conventional, but the idea behind it is that Davis is not the scapegoat for the Browns defense that everyone is looking for or maybe as bad as the message boards would have you think.  The article compares him favorably to the Ravens Bart Scott, who gets much more national recognition. 

Davis had a down 2007 year due to a lingering high ankle sprain, and now he faces stiffer competition from the rookie Bell and third year veteran Williams.  After restructuring his contract, this is a make or break year for Davis in Cleveland. 

Because of a weird rule, training camp will benefit the Browns a lot more than the Bengals this year.

The Boston Globe continues the Browns preseason hype.

D'Qwell Jackson may have led the team in tackles last season, but it's time for the trade for the middle linebacker really pays off.

LeCharles Bentley is still unemployed.

Joe Thomas is the second-best offensive tackle in the NFL.

Dallas Morning News previews the 2008 Browns.

Derek Anderson is only the 16th best quarterback in the NFL.

This past week's Whispers column by PFW brought up an interesting tidbit. 

"According to a source close to the club, Browns WR Braylon Edwards, who has only two years left on his contract, is in line ahead of TE Kellen Winslow when it comes to getting a new deal. Winslow, whose contract has been the source of offseason speculation, has three years left on his rookie deal."

So the question is, why Edwards before Winslow?  Who knows, but apparently taking a helicopter ride to an Ohio State-Michigan game and then missing a team meeting ranks lower as a transgression than crashing your motorcycle. 

In other news, K1 (Kellen Winslow Sr.) is the finalist for Central State's Athletic Director job, per Kyle Nagel of the Dayton Daily News.

And while we all know about the ongoing knee issues of Joe Jurevicius, people may not realize how important he is to the Browns offense.  Terry Pluto talks about how efficient Joe was at moving the chains.  That's something that Donte Stallworth likely won't be doing. 

Finally, the schedule for Training Camp has been released. 

Just in, good thing the Browns didn't trade for Jaguars wide receiver Matt Jones.  He was arrested on felony drug charges in Fayetteville, AR.  Jones was in a car cutting up cocaine with a credit card, and at the time of his arrest admitted to officers that their was cocaine on his credit card. 

No, this isn't a story about an egomaniac wide receiver (yes, I know that given the current tenor of today's NFL, that is shocking). No, it's just a story from ESPN the Magazine on wide receiver Braylon Edwards learning about the Hollywood life.

For most receivers, the story would probably be on hanging out with celebrities, boozing it up and scoring some women. Not our man Edwards, though. Oh, no. He's merely meeting producers, screenwriters and learning the background before he comes to the forefront of the movie business. (You see that play on words? Background, forefront? Oh man…)

Notes…
Carlos Holmes of the Dayton Daily News has this story on Lawrence Vickers, one of the unsung players of the offense. Wacky fact: Holmes and blogger Luke Chandler share the same nickname: Big C. Crazy!

Chris Pokorny of Dawgs by Naturebegins his preview of Browns training camp. Good stuff from Pokorny. I'm not a big fan of training camp previews, but this is well done.

It's not Browns related, but Akron Zips blogger Mike "Don't spell it R-a-z-o-r" Rasor clearly is getting antsy for August camp to begin. As Zips fan, I am as well. I like the guy personally, but head coach JD Brookhart has to be feeling some heat heading into this season.

Oh yeah, Kelly Holcomb retired.