Unfinished business drove Browns defensive lineman Desmond Bryant to fight back from the devastating injury he suffered last summer.
And the thought of officially resuming his NFL career Sept. 10 in the regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger kept him from contemplating retirement.
“I’m a competitor, man. I love this game,” Bryant said Tuesday after the seventh practice of organized team activities. “Long before the Browns ever paid me to play football, I was out there doing it for fun, for free. When that was taken away from me, there was nothing I wanted more than to get it back.
“It’s a long process, but you’re sitting on the rehab table, and you’re thinking about that next time you get to get on the field and you get to see Big Ben on third down the first week of the season. That was my motivation to get back.
“I’ve done some good things in this league, but there’s still a lot left that I want to prove. So that’s another motivation for me to get back out there.”
Bryant has been limited in OTA practices and has yet to participate in team drills, though he insisted he’ll be good to go for Week 1 against the Steelers.
“I’m ready,” Bryant said.
Rebuilding his body to reach this point on the comeback trail wasn’t easy.
Bryant suffered a torn pectoral muscle in early July while working out on his own in preparation for training camp. He had surgery July 12 and missed the entire 2016 season.
“They literally had to reattach my muscle,” he said.
Bryant conceded his grueling rehabilitation process “seemed like forever,” and in the midst of it, he witnessed the worst season in Browns history as the team went 1-15.
“I definitely felt for the guys watching how things went,” he said. “I definitely have a lot of confidence in my abilities and think I could have helped, but you never know.”
What’s important now is Bryant is back on the practice field and poised to aid the Browns this fall. He returned to practice last week during the second set of OTAs.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Bryant, who also underwent a cardiac ablation late in the 2013 season to fix an irregular heartbeat. “I was away from this game I feel like for too long, but that is part of the game. You get injured, and it’s about how you respond.
“My body feels great. One of the unforeseen benefits of not playing last season is I got a chance to kind of heal up the rest of my body as well. I really do feel great.”
Coach Hue Jackson seemed relieved by Bryant’s return. Jackson called Bryant “one of the missing links in our football team” in 2016 and predicted the seven-year veteran would “give us a huge boost” this year if he were to return to form.
Bryant said he established a special connection with Jackson when their tenures with the Oakland Raiders overlapped from 2010-11. Jackson was the Raiders’ offensive coordinator in 2010 and head coach in 2011. Bryant, at the time, was routinely giving the offense headaches in practice as a member of the scout-team defense.
“Hue got to see me up close and personal every day in practice,” said Bryant, who entered the NFL in 2009 as an undrafted free agent from Harvard. “There were definitely a few times he had to stop things and [say], ‘Can somebody block this guy?’ I appreciated that, and after practice, he’d be like, ‘You’re doing a great job out there.’”
Jackson still thinks highly of Bryant, 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds, and called him “one of my favorites.”
Bryant said he expects to primarily play defensive tackle in the scheme of new Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, but Bryant believes he will also line up at end in some situations. He is considered the early favorite to start at tackle next to Danny Shelton.
Bryant said “a different attitude” could be sensed during the first meeting with Williams, so he’s excited to play for him.
“His attention to detail, his real passion for what he’s doing, it really sets him apart from some of the other guys that I’ve been coached by,” Bryant said. “So I think that’s really translated onto the field as well. You can see it when you watch practice.
“It’s the competition level out there. Guys don’t want it to [be easy]. They’re out there struggling, fighting to make sure they’re doing the right thing. Anytime you have that kind of accountability on your team, you can definitely make great strides.”
Bryant, 31, is the team’s most experienced defensive lineman by far. He led the Browns with a career-high six sacks in 2015 and has started all 41 games in which he’s appeared since a previous regime signed him to a five-year, $34 million contract in 2013.
The Browns and Bryant agreed to a new contract in September as a result of his injury. He had been scheduled to make $6 million last season under his original contract, but because he landed on the nonfootball injury list, the Browns weren’t required to pay him.
In the new deal, they agreed to pay him $1.25 million last season. He also took a pay cut from $7 million this year to $3 million non-guaranteed, but the contract gives him a chance to recoup the $4 million he lost via incentives.
Only four players on the roster are 30 or older: Bryant, 10-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas, 32, guard John Greco, 32, and punter Britton Colquitt, 32.
Bryant credits Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly for teaching him during his early days with the Raiders and wants to lead the young defensive linemen of the Browns, including No. 1 overall draft pick Myles Garrett.
“I realize the value in that, and I’m here to help make my team better,” Bryant said. “If I can take some of those guys under my wing and kind of coach them up, teach them a few things that I see differently than what they might be seeing right now, if I am able to do that, we will be a better team.
“There is a tremendous amount of potential for our defensive line. ... But there is definitely going to be a learning curve. We haven’t worked together very long, and I haven’t worked with them really at all yet. We are going to have to figure things out and figure out how to kind of work together to get the mission accomplished.”
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.