5 Cleveland Browns poised to breakout across the second half of the season
By Chad Porto
Sione Takitaki
It may be a tall order to say that Sionne Takitaki is going to have a breakout season, after all, he’s one of the older players on the team and is in his fifth season with the Browns. The odds that he pops up out of nowhere and dominates on a week-to-week basis as he did against the Cincinnati Bengals isn’t likely, that stuff doesn’t just happen.
What makes Takitaki different is, unlike in past seasons, he’s now playing the Mike position on defense. The Mike, or as they’re often called the middle linebacker, is the play-caller on the defense usually. He’s the one the defense that puts everyone in a position to succeed and is often the first contact for the second level. He’ll have more opportunities to get tackled, he’ll be a bigger factor in the pass defense and unlike in past seasons with Joe Woods as his defensive coordinator, he won’t be leaving the field as often anymore.
He went from playing 19% of defensive snaps in Week 1 to 85% in Week 8. So with him being the featured linebacker amid all the injuries on defense, he should seemingly continue to be given opportunities to make plays.
If he keeps making them, he may find himself entrenched in the position for good going forward.