BEREA, Ohio - Don't bother asking Cleveland Browns rookie coach Butch Davis where the members of his much-shuffled offensive line will start when the regular season begins. Davis doesn't even know yet who will line up yet when the game of training camp musical chairs stops and his team hosts the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 9.

Even scarier than the lack of certainty surrounding one of the NFL's worst blocking brigades of a year ago is that Davis and offensive line coach Larry Zierlein, because of injuries retirement and general ineptitude, seem no closer to resolving questions about the unit.

	“	It's like we're snake-bit or something. We haven't been able to get our best unit out there and probably won't for a couple more weeks. You'd like to get in all the work you can with the guys that you'll line up with in the season. ”
		— Roman Oben, Browns offensive lineman

"It's been a problem since Feb. 1," said Davis, referring to the crisis he inherited the second that he succeeded Chris Palmer as head coach.

Actually, the Cleveland offense line plight goes farther back than that. And based on the results of a scrimmage last Saturday, a 60-play session in which the running backs found few creases and the quarterbacks operated under constant duress, the offensive line play remains the most obvious shortcoming for a franchise with more than its share of deficiencies.

It's not that the organization hasn't tried to fix the problem.

Cleveland acquired former Green Bay starter Ross Verba, arguably the premier lineman in the unrestricted free agent market, with a four-year, $16 million contract that included a $5 million signing bonus. But during an April weightlifting session, Verba felt a tug in his back and doctors discovered a disk problem that required surgery. Verba remains about two weeks away from even practicing for the first time.

The Browns signed former Pro Bowl right guard Tre Johnson, but he is still rehabilitating from knee surgery that wiped out much of his 2000 season, and is primarily participating only in the non-contact drills in camp. Tony Jones, who could have started at right tackle or at worst been a key veteran backup, abruptly retired on Saturday morning after practicing just one day and deciding his heart was no longer in the game.

During the scrimmage, four linemen limped off the field with injuries in the span of 12 snaps. None of the knee and ankle injuries are serious, but starting guard Jim Pyne is in a soft boot and will miss about a week of work.

The blocking unit Davis and Zierlein would like to start -- left tackle Roman Oben, center Dave Wohlabaugh, Johnson at right guard, Verba at right tackle, and Pyne or another contender at the left guard spot -- hasn't been together yet for a single snap.

"It's like we're snake-bit or something," said Oben. "We haven't been able to get our best unit out there and probably won't for a couple more weeks. You'd like to get in all the work you can with the guys that you'll line up with in the season. I guess when (Verba and Johnson) get back, we're going to have to work a little harder at coming together on some stuff."

The situation is so pressing that Davis brought 17 linemen, at least two more than the normal compliment, to camp. Because of the sudden manpower shortage created by the injuries sustained in the scrimmage, Cleveland signed two more, Barrett Brooks and Scott Sanderson, on Sunday.

"I'm just looking," Davis said, "for the five best guys."

Right now, alas, he's got less than a handful of merely good ones.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.