Cleveland Browns: 3 training camp questions that need answers
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Browns have many questions to answer during training camp.
The Cleveland Browns have a lot of questions still lingering about who’s going to start where and how will it all look after training camp is over.. There are a few givens. We know that Baker Mayfield will start and Case Keenum will back him up. We know that Jack Conklin and Austin Hooper, two new free agents, will start at a tackle position and tight end respectively. We also know that Kareem Hunt will not push Nick Chubb for the No. 1 running back spot.
These are just givens. What aren’t givens is everything else on this list.
Despite being a team expected to compete for the playoffs, the team still has to figure out what it wants to do at a few key spots. Especially on defense. A bulk of the team’s starters got turned over from the 2019 season and need to be replaced. Because most of these changes are happening on defense, the team isn’t looked at as a rebuilding club, even though it really is in a lot of ways.
The offense is returning seven starters, while the defense are returning seven as well. Yet, the offensive starters being replaced were let go or benched because there were better options coming into the team. Conklin and Hooper are better options than Greg Robinson and David Njoku. The same thing can’t be said about Sione TakiTaki and B.J. Goodson being better players than Joe Schobert and Christian Kirksey, nor can the same be said about Karl Joseph being a better option at safety than Damarious Randall.
To be clear, the new additions might be. There is no proof however that they already are, however.
The players acquired were in later rounds, or on cheap deals. They’re not seen as impact players. They’re not seen as guys who could take the league by storm. They’re seen as inexpensive alternatives. That doesn’t mean they won’t be good, can’t be good, or shouldn’t be given a shot. It merely means the Browns wanted Schobert back for a reason, just not at $10 million a year.
So now we have to find out what the Browns have. Can the rookies translate to the pros? Can the discounted veterans prove they’re not washed up? Can the young players on cheap deals prove they got overlooked or were given up on too soon? These are the questions that linger over the heads of the team.
These are the questions the team needs to figure out