Browns WR Marquise Goodwin returning from blood clots which had him on the non-football injury list all camp

CLEVELAND, Ohio — If the Browns handed out a happiest camper award, receiver Marquise Goodwin would win it hands down.

Signed as a free agent to a one-year deal in the offseason, Goodwin spread cheer throughout training camp every day, despite the fact he was sidelined with blood clots in his legs and lungs from Day 1.

Grateful to be with the Browns and his teammates throughout his ordeal, Goodwin danced, laughed and mentored his way through camp, helping young receivers such as rookie Cedric Tillman get up to speed.

Now he’s coming off the non-football injury list and ready to rejoin his teammates on the field.

“(It’s) great news for Marquise, great news for us,” coach Kevin Stefanski said in his video conference Sunday. “As you all see, he’s been involved in everything. In the meeting room, on the practice field, during those games. He’s such a supportive teammate, and so to have him progressing to where he can start to get ready for the season, I think is outstanding.

“I won’t have a ton of details as it gets going, but just to be able to bring him off that list and start to get him into practice, I think is a huge boost for him and for us. So, I’m excited for him.”

Stefanski cited all the work that Goodwin has done off to the side, including plenty of running, but isn’t sure if he’ll be ready for the opener.

“He’s remaining in great shape,” Stefanski said. “Now obviously there’s playing-football shape as well. So, we’ll integrate him as we can and as he allows and with keeping the medical side fully involved in those types of decisions. It’s a good positive first step to take him off that list.”

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Goodwin, an 11th-year pro, lit up minicamp with a couple of long touchdown catches from Deshaun Watson, but experienced shortness of breath and alerted the Browns to his symptoms. Soon, he was diagnosed with the blood clots, and placed on the NFI list.

But Goodwin wanted to be with his teammates in training camp, beginning with their nine days at The Greenbrier Sports Complex in West Virginia, even though he couldn’t practice. He showed up each day with a smile on his face and some dance steps in his feet to help keep his teammates upbeat and motivated.

Players such as Amari Cooper, who was sidelined by a minor injury the first week of camp, were buoyed by his presence.

“It’s very inspirational,” Cooper said after an early practice. “That’s the thing about most football players, we’re so used to adversity. We’re so used to ebbs and flows, ups and downs, that it creates this toughness about us to where we can deal with anything to where we can not know we’re dealing with something that’s really extreme, and we feel like we could just overcome it. We feel like it might just be a little tweak or something like that. Yeah, I mean it’s definitely inspirational. I’m hoping for the best.”

Even back then, Stefanski remained optimistic that Goodwin would return this season, but made no guarantees.

“It’s an unknown,” he said at The Greenbrier. “First of all, it’s very scary, so right away you worry about Marquise and just his health, period. So all of it remains to be seen from a health standpoint and when he’s ready to go, and in the meantime we’re just supporting him and he’s listening to doctors. He wants to be here, he wants to be around his teammates, but where this goes, I don’t think we know yet. We’re going to give him everything he needs medically.”

At 32, Goodwin flashed all the speed and athleticism in the offseason program and minicamp that led him to 2012 Summer Olympics as a long jumper, where he finished 10th. A decade older than some of his challengers, he still has the wheels to take the top off a defense and leave younger defenders in his wake.

With Anthony Schwartz being waived injured on Sunday and Jakeem Grant suffering a season-ending ruptured patella tendon Saturday against the Chiefs, the Browns were running out of options for a vertical stretch specialist. But if Goodwin can get his conditioning back in a hurry, he can still be that guy.

And he has a quarterback in Deshaun Watson with the gun to get him the deep ball.

“It’s really humbling to work with somebody as elite as Deshaun,” Goodwin said in the spring. “I don’t really have to guess or wonder ‘is he going to throw it far enough? Is he going to throw it?’ I look in the air and I’m like, ‘dang, I got to run.’ So when you have somebody who is as dedicated and as focused and as experienced as he is elite, it just makes my job easier. All I have to do is run.”

And boy can he run. He blazed a 4.27 at the NFL Combine in 2013, which still ranks in all-time top 10.

“I’m pretty much in my prime, so I don’t think I lost any speed,” Goodwin said in June. “It’s kind of like fine wine. You just get better with time.”

The Browns can’t wait to pop the cork.

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