CLEVELAND, Ohio - After spring practices and minicamps, Browns first-round pick Barkevious Mingo made a bold prediction about his new defense.

"If everything is going well, I think this defense could be the best in the league,'' Mingo said in the midst of working with kids Tuesday at the Browns Youth Football Camp at FirstEnergy Staduim.

"We have a lot of players that can contribute and help this team win. We’ve got a lot of rushers. We’ve got corners on the back end. We’ve got D-linemen that can hold those blocks and get off and make plays. We’ve got linebackers that can come up and tackle the run and get back in coverage as well. So we have a lot of tools that we can use.”

He said the defense has taken on the persona of flamboyant defensive coordinator Ray Horton.

"I think he has a very strange personality. But we like it. We love it,'' said Mingo. "He’s an aggressive guy -- we like that -- and it shows in his play calling. He loves to blitz. He loves to get after people, and we like that. I definitely love to play for a guy that’s going forward instead of waiting for them to come at you.”

Mingo also said that third-round pick Leon McFadden, the cornerback out of San Diego State, stacks up favorably to some of the premier cornerbacks that Mingo played with at Louisiana State, including Patrick Peterson, the two-time Pro Bowler who was taken fifth overall by the Cardinals in 2011 and Morris Claiborne, who was picked sixth last year by the Cowboys.

"I think he's looked just as good or better than some of those players,'' said Mingo. "Obviously Pat was a tremendous talent. Mo’s a tremendous talent. But I think Leon could've came in and played at LSU with all the DBs we had. He could have been one of those players. We’ve just got to wait and see.”

He said he can tell just by watching McFadden in practice, where he's still working with the second-team behind Chris Owens and Buster Skrine.



"I've been watching our guys at LSU, and he would've played,'' said Mingo.

Mingo said he's still not worried about his contract and that his agent, Jeff Guerriero, is working on it. Mingo will see a slight increase over the deal that Claiborne received last year: four years, $16.26 million, fully guaranteed with a signing bonus of $10.629 million. The two sides will undoubtedly haggle over offset language, which prevents a player from continuing to get paid by his original team in the event he's let go and signs with someone else before the four years are up.

Only two players in the top 10 have signed: No. 5 Ziggy Ansah with the Detroit Lions and No. 8 Tavon Austin with the St. Louis Rams.

"Still waiting,'' said Mingo. "We'll see what happens when it comes. He's telling me they're working on it, so that's all I know.''

Mingo said he's still weighing in at 237 and plans to report at that weight "unless I put on some weight between now and then. But I’m pretty sure I will. But that’s where I’m at now.”

He said the coaches are fine with his weight, even though some have said he looks slight.

"They really don't care,'' he said.

Mingo is currently participating in the rookie-only portion of camp, which includes meetings and working with coaches. Today, the rookies took a break from the classroom to work with the kids, visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and attend tonight's Indians game.

"It's been good,'' said Mingo. "We're bonding as a rookie class. A lot of guys are coming together. The older guys aren't here right now, so it's just us, and we know what we're going through. We're doing it at the same time and kind of leaning on each other to get through."



Next week, all of the NFL rookies will meet here for the league's annual rookie symposium, which will include meetings and a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I’m excited to meet with those guys and ask how their offseason training has been going and how their minicamps went and all that kind of stuff,'' said Mingo.

Mingo closed out minicamp on the second team, but is determined to crack the starting lineup soon.

“My daily preparation is to get better as a player,'' he said. "I think that’s everybody on the team’s goal. There really aren’t any set starters. The coaches have said from day one that the best players will play and you show that in camp. So if you’re the best player in camp, you’ll play.”

Brown to address rookies: Browns special adviser Jim Brown will be among the current and former NFL players addressing the league's 254 rookies during the NFL's Rookie Symposium held in the Cleveland area beginning Sunday.

Brown and Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Richard Dent will conduct a history session for the rookies at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.



The AFC rookies will meet June 23-26 and the NFC rookies will convene June 26-29. The sessions will emphasize history, wellness, leadership and professional responsibility.

“We believe in our peer-to-peer model that the more information these young men have on how those before them handled success, the better prepared they will be to meet expectations on and off the field,” said NFL Senior Vice President of Player Engagement Troy Vincent, who was a five-time Pro Bowl selection in his 15-year NFL career. “Through our speakers there is a story to be told, a lesson to be learned, a teachable moment, a message of success in conveying our number one objective which is to provide our rookies the tools to succeed during their NFL playing experience and beyond.”

The rookies will also participate in PLAY 60 youth football clinics with 300 children from the Cleveland area at the Browns training facility in Berea on Tuesday and Friday.