The Cleveland Browns will have some interesting position battles that unfold during training camp.
The Cleveland Browns have done a good job keeping guys in place and plugging holes on the team after the 2019 season. That makes the 2020 offseason one for the books. Players like Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Myles Garrett, Jack Conklin, and others are all entrenched in their positions because of a good offseason. So there isn’t much intrigue around guys at the more talked about, buzz-worthy positions.
Sure, the wide receiver positions could find themselves in a training camp battle but only if Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham’s offseason surgeries fail them. Both men had to be worked on in the offseason, and with Landry especially, surgeries aren’t guaranteed to have made either man at 100%. Modern-day surgeries are incredible but there’s never a guarantee that you are back to where you were before the injury. If Beckham and Landry are healthy, however, there’s no one on the team and very few people in the league as a whole, who could push them for a starters position.
So outside of uncertainty with injuries, or in the case of Jedrick Wills, a rookie who isn’t ready just yet, there are not many positions that the team still has to figure out. Sure, there is always the possibility that someone gets hurt and then the backups have to fight over who gets a shot at the starters position but we’re not going to count that specific scenario today. Only the real unknown spots.
So here are three position battles to keep an eye on during training camp.
Right Guard
With Drew Forbes opting out of the 2020 season, the already depleted crop of guys to play the right guard position got even more shallow. While Wyatt Teller is the incumbent starter, there isn’t anything about his talent that screams he can’t be easily replaced. While the hope is that Teller has done enough in the offseason to raise his skill level, the fact is that it’s unlikely he’s the long-term starter at the position. Forbes, entering his second year with the club, could be but with him now out for the year it’s going to be a waiting game to see if that’s the case.
The position will likely see some new names added to it before the start of the season. While a name like Alex Boone might be possible, the Browns should seriously consider getting a veteran with some value. It won’t be Larry Warford, the three-time Pro Bowler, as he opted out for the season as well.
The position battle will likely see Teller remain the starter unless rookie Nick Harris or former starting tackle Chris Hubbard gets inserted into the position. Hubbard washed out as the Browns starter after signing a five-year contract. He didn’t live up to a single second of that contract. The team opted to go with the familiar face of Hubbard by restructuring his deal in the 2020 offseason and keeping him around despite failing as a starter the first two years of his deal.
If Hubbard somehow lands as a starter at guard, then this team might be in a bit more trouble than originally thought.
Linebacker
This is going to be an interesting situation because there really isn’t any indication which of the four names will play where. It’s assumed that B.J. Goodson is the leading candidate for the middle linebacker spot, with Mack Wilson and Sione Takitaki flanking him at either outside spot, but Wilson could be the middle linebacker as well. Hell, so could Takitaki. Rookie Jacob Phillips could also be in the mix to start at any position.
This is going to be an interesting training camp.
The likeliest scenario is that the lineup would be Wilson, Goodson, and Takitaki as your starters, with Goodson in the middle, and Phillips getting reps at each spot as the primary backup. He could outplay the others, sure, but it seems likely that the team will give the more seasoned players an opportunity first.
The interesting thing about this position however is at the defensive end spot. Doesn’t make sense when it’s worded like that, does it? Well, hang on. What if the Cleveland Browns actually land the Jaguars’ Yannick Ngakoue, free agent Everson Griffen or fellow free agent Jadeveon Clowney? The team restructured Olivier Vernon’s contract to be a guaranteed, one-year deal. The team wouldn’t just cut Vernon if they got another end, which they’re still actively pursuing. Allegedly.
So what would happen to Vernon? The best idea is that Vernon plays a lot of snaps at a lot of positions. Getting him in at linebacker in certain packages makes a lot of sense, due to his prior experience at linebacker with the New York Giants. Would Vernon taking reps away from a Takitaki, Goodson or Phillips be a bad thing for 2020? Unlikely, especially if Vernon returns to his pre-2019 form.
Safety
There is some intrigue at cornerback, namely what will happen with Greedy Williams and the nickel and dime corners, and who starts where. Williams is better than any third or fourth corner on the roster so it’s really a moot point unless Williams falls off completely. That said, the safeties on this team will have an interesting battle among themselves.
The three likeliest candidates are Andrew Sendejo, rookie Grant Delpit, and Karl Joseph. Joseph was dismissed by the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason despite having a fifth-year option on him and Sendejo has reunited with his former Vikings coach, Kevin Stefanski. There isn’t a lock among them for various reasons.
Sendejo might be the most talented, or currently more accurate, accomplished at this point, but injuries caused the Vikings to move on from their starter. He landed with the Eagles but got cut by them after just a few months, and was back in Minnesota to finish out the 2019 campaign. Once a top tier safety in the league, injuries have made it difficult for Sendejo to stay on the field.
Joseph, on the other hand, saw poor play and injuries compound his time with the Raiders franchise. A former first-round pick, Joseph’s fifth-year option was declined, leading him to be a free agent in 2020. The Browns signed him to a one-year deal to see what he can do. Despite the optimism and numerous people lauding his talent, Joseph never produced. He was never able to generate turnovers, was constantly hurt and when he wasn’t, he seemed at times lost on the field.
As for the rookie Delpit, he’s a rookie. What can you really expect from him? Yes, he was awarded the 2019 Jim Thorpe Award for the nation’s best Division I collegiate safety. That doesn’t mean he automatically translates to the NFL. He might, he certainly has the skillset that coaches sand teams look for but the NFL Draft is often a crapshoot. You never know what rookies will step up and which one will leave you with drafter’s remorse.
The Browns will sometimes feature three safeties at a given time, so it’s likely that all three men will see significant time on the field.