BEREA - Tonight, the Browns try again in another game that doesn’t count. By most media accounts, it has been, at the very least, a weird training camp.

Are things really as bad as they seem?

Without All-Pro LeCharles Bentley at center — injured on the first 11-on-11 play of camp — it feels like a dark cloud is hanging over the team. Lee Suggs failed a physical, and people are acting like he flunked a driver’s exam. It’s a physical, and he might not even be the backup.

Much is made of the Bob Hallen-Alonzo Ephraim-Ross Tucker fiasco. Hallen, signed a couple days after Bentley, quit on the team after he was pressed into the starting role. Ephraim is looking at a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. And Tucker? Nothing ... so far.

Isn’t too much being made of the center problems?

If Bentley isn’t playing, does it really matter which warm body is out there for the Browns this fall?

General Manager Phil Savage grew irritated when an impromptu press conference broke out following the first preseason game.

He was asked about backup quarterbacks. He was asked about Charlie Frye, who, at best, struggled in the first preseason game.

What does any of that mean?

Not a hill of beans.

You know what you get out of watching a first preseason game? About two series of starters vs. starters. That’s it. You get a half-quarter. How many Browns fans are ready to bag the season after the first half of a quarter?

OK, so there hasn’t been much to like during a Cleveland fall. OK, so the team has stunk. OK, prior to Savage’s arrival, the front office was a sham.

There are glimmers of hope out of Browns camp.

Wide receiver Braylon Edwards is ahead of schedule to play again. It is looking more and more like last year’s first-round pick will be ready before the end of September, maybe even at the start of it. That’s a boon for Cleveland’s offense.

There is a big difference between the wide receiver combination of Joe Jurevicius and Edwards than Jurevicius and Dennis Northcutt.

And now you can throw in Kellen Winslow Jr. Since being drafted in 2004, Winslow have given fans a lot not to like about him.

Since judgments were made after the first preseason game, judge Winslow. He was on the field, in full uniform on a steamy Philadelphia night, well before anyone else. He played into the second half. He didn’t want to stop.

Winslow is hungry and has something to prove. Not to mention all the incentive money he can earn back.

The combination of Jurevicius-Edwards-Winslow ought to scare some defenses. It ought to make running room a little less scarce for Reuben Droughns.

And you’re worried about a backup center?

If it’s not Bentley, what does it matter where the next guy comes from. He will still be someone else’s scrap heap.

The Browns have their second preseason game tonight against Detroit. Judge this team on the first half. Judge Charlie Frye after he’s had a reason to get into a football-playing mindset. Frye will play, likely, until halftime. Winslow will be on the field. Droughns will be out there.

Some guy named Ross Tucker will snap him the ball.

Yes, the Browns have had some bad luck in training camp. What’s new?

The good news is ... it can’t get much worse. Right?