3 defensive players who improved their stock for the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns saw several defensive players up their stock against the Jaguars

It’s hard to gauge just how good a defensive player is at times, as sometimes not making a play is in fact them making a play. How many times do we see guys not involved in a play but may have had everything to do with it?

If three linebackers stop a runningback on a check-down pass, we think “those linebackers did a great job” but not everyone thinks “wow, those cornerbacks really did their job forcing the quarterback to the check-down guy”. I mean, some of us think like that, hence this is why we’re here talking about it but the point stands.

Sometimes we don’t give everyone their fair share of the credit. So there are guys who probably did really well last night that won’t be mentioned, it’s not meant to disparage them. These are three guys that we know had a tangible impact.

Three defensive players whose stocks are up

Martin Emerson

Martin Emerson and AJ Green are both making the team unless they royally screw up. What we don’t know is whose going to be the fourth cornerback. Right now Emerson seems to have the lead there. He had a nice game, really nice in fact as PFF gave him a 93.1 for his preseason debut. His interception was impressive, taking it back for a touchdown and if I remember correctly, giving the team the lead because of it. Again, not against the top line of talent the Jaguars have (or maybe it was, they’re not a good team), but still impressive.

Jordan Kunaszyk

You’ll probably see some better performances from other linebackers but Jordan Kunaszyk played really well with only a couple of days of practice. He barely knew the defense, and still had one of the better outings according to PFF. He also didn’t whiff any tackles or lose any after contact. He may not start for the Browns, but two more weeks of this and someone else is losing their job.

Tommy Togiai

I personally saw Tommy Togiai get pushed off the block twice, and fell to his knee on an easy sack opportunity. Not great. On the other hand, despite Joe Thomas’ hyping, Jordan Elliot looked lost. He got blown up at the point of attack every time, and whenever he did get depth, it was because the Jags ran a screenplay. Togiai had four tackles and a PFF grade of 53.9. Not good. Elliot didn’t impact the game at all and got a PFF grade of 43.9. That’s really bad. So Togiai’s stock went up, in part due to Elliot’s going down.