Barkevious Mingo, June 5, 2013

Barkevious Ming's reps will be limited against the Ravens.

BEREA, Ohio -- Linebacker Barkevious Mingo will have his NFL debut Sunday in Baltimore as the Browns give him some limited action after his recovery from a bruised lung, defensive coordinator Ray Horton said Thursday.

"Obviously if you’re a first-round pick, you want him on the field as much as you can,'' said Horton. "It’s going to be what he can handle. I also want to realize that he’s only played seven plays total in the NFL, so I just don’t want to throw him in there and say, ‘Go!'

“There were some errors last week from guys playing different positions. He’ll be playing for the first time so I want to eliminate the error factor by calling a different game.”

He said Mingo's athleticism is evident, but "for me, it's like a learning curve. Let him make his error, let him make his big plays. I’ll find out what he does well. I don’t want to overload him his first game, but I also want to give him some soft pitches to hit. I want to give him less thinking and more reaction-type stuff."

Mingo, who participated in practice fully on Thursday for the first time since his injury on Aug. 15, is listed as the second-team right outside linebacker behind Jabaal Sheard.

Horton addressed a number of other topics during his weekly press conference Thursday:

Owens and Skrine: Horton said he wished he would've done more to help cornerbacks Chris Owens and Buster Skrine against the Dolphins. Skrine had to play despite falling on his shoulder that Thursday in practice. He participated fully Thursday.

"We did a great job of taking Mike Wallace out of the game and Brian Hartline had an out and up for a touchdown which turned out to be the winning play of the game. I appreciate what Buster did. He was hurt last week and we weren't sure he was going to play last weekend.

"When you look at the overall performance, they held their own. If I could take back one call I would (on the Hartline TD)."

Third down: Horton took the rap for the Dolphins converting eight of 15 third downs.

"It was to me the most glaring statistic of the game,'' he said. "Obviously the score was the most important. There were some errors that happened on the field and I put those on myself for not having better prepared players for certain adjustments they did. That was very disappointing to me because that enabled them to continue some drives. That was a huge factor in the game.”

On Desmond Bryant's two-sack game: "What we hoped for, absolutely. He was dominant up front. The first time I talked with you guys, we talked about depth. He missed most of training camp. Desmond is a guy we expect big things from and he had a fantastic start."

Injuries: Safety T.J. Ward returned to practice today but was limited. …Ahtyba Rubin (calf) and Shawn Lauvao (ankle) were idle. …For the Ravens, receiver Jacoby Jones has been ruled out.