BEREA, Ohio -- When Donte Whitner joined the Browns immediately after he became an unrestricted free agent, he vowed to be a part of turning around his hometown team.
"I believe we can do it. We have a lot of the right pieces and now it's about putting it together," Whitner said in his opening press conference announcing his signing in March. "I'm ready to embark on this journey. These fans in Cleveland deserve winning football."
Whitner says nothing has changed, despite the Browns starting 1-2.
"I don't think it's any time to panic," Whitner said after practice Wednesday. "We lost two football games by a total of, what, four points? When nobody really gave us a chance to win any of these games.
"We had numerous opportunities to close (the Ravens) football game out, whether it be the defensive side of the ball or the offensive side or special teams catching a punt and not allowing it to bounce inside the 10-, 5-yard line.
"There's no need to panic. We just have to clean up the small mistakes."
Whitner, 29, believes in what the Browns are building, but is not happy with the way the season has started.
"I'm very angry," Whitner said Wednesday. "Because we don't know how good we are or how good we can be yet, and we had opportunities to close out these football games. No matter what the outside world thinks or the way they feel, we understand now that we can play with any team in the National Football League.
"If you beat yourself, if you make small minor mistakes, they tend to be big things on the football field," he said. "Once we clean that up, we should be right where we want to be. But until then, we're not going to take that step forward."
Whitner said the players on the team are all in it together to turn things around.
"The talent is in this room nobody doubts that. We don't doubt each other," Whitner said. "It's in this room and we're glad our expectations are high. We deserve to be talked about if we don't go out there and execute."
Whitner, in his ninth season, has made a lot of tackles, but has yet to make what could be considered a big play. He leads the team in tackles with 25, including 13 in the season opener against the Steelers.
Mike Pettine said Whitner has been grading out well.
"Yeah, he is," Pettine said. "He actually played very well, graded out extremely high. It was his best game against Baltimore."
Pettine says Whitner is doing everything that is expected of him and sometimes it doesn't show up on the stat sheet.
"I think he's a complete safety," Pettine said. "I don't think there's any one thing you could say. I think he's affected some throws. I think the double move on (Justin) Gilbert (against the Ravens), when the receiver dropped the ball, I think there's a possibility he might have sensed Whitner's presence headed his way rapidly.
"I think he's that force for us in the middle," Pettine said. "He does a good job with the mechanics of getting guys lined up, making sure we're in the right coverage. He communicates well to the other safety, communicates well to the corners. Our big thing is do your job and good things will happen. There will be times where opportunities don't present themselves to make a play. I know if a guy doesn't fill up the stats sheet, the easy interpretation is he's not playing well, but for us, he's been very productive."
Secondary coach Jeff Hafley says Whitner's presence has helped on the back end of the defense.
"Donte is a physical presence against the run," Hafley said. "If you watch receivers closely you can see some guys going down and not trying to get the extra yards. He's certainly making the middle of the field a scary place for us."
EXTRA POINTS
Backup Holder: Pettine was asked if the coaches have thought about using Manziel as the holder to try and slow down the opposing rush and give team's something else to prepare for.
"Actually, 'Tabs' (special teams coordinator Chris Tabor) was working some other guys at holder today," Pettine said. "He'll circle back to that every once in a while, but we didn't use Manziel. It was actually (Brian) Hoyer who's done it before and (Jim) Leonhard who's the personal protector on the punt as well."
Pettine said they're not looking to replace P Spencer Lanning.
"No. It's just something... Chris will circle back every once in a while just to make sure those guys get reps just in case something happens in a game."
Back at it: OL John Greco and DL John Hughes were on the field during the part of practice the media was able to watch.
The only players on the stationary bikes were RB Ben Tate (knee) and DL Calvin Barnett (undisclosed). Barnett is on the practice squad.
LB Craig Robertson was back at practice after missing Wednesday's practice for the birth of his daughter. Practice squad QB Connor Shaw was back at practice after missing Wednesday due to an illness.
