5 Cleveland Browns who could be gone after 2023 if they don’t step up

Jedrick Wills

Much like with Nick Harris and Harrison Bryant, Jedrick Wills is still here simply because it’s too expensive to replace him and the team has too few top-draft picks over the next few years to invest in his replacement. Wills, at best, is an average offensive tackle who can have a 10-year career as a journeyman. If you’re a 5th-round draft pick, that’s a fantastic career.

If you’re the 10th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, that’s pretty awful. Wills may be saved by flipping sides with Jack Conklin or even switching to guard, as that’s a move that has saved careers before. Yet, if Wills continues to struggle heading into 2023, the team will be forced to move on.

While many of the players on this list are saved by the fact the team needs cheap, affordable contracts, Wills’ fifth-year option won’t be either of those things. If he ends up becoming a Pro Bowler, maybe you consider eating that contract, but if he continues to play as well as he did in 2022 well into 2023, the team will be forced to moved to move on.

Wills was supposed to replace Joe Thomas, but that was never going to be an easy thing to do. Maybe he still can but when you realize that Triston Wirfs and Ezra Cleveland were taken later in the first and in the second round, and both have out-performed Wills, it becomes hard to justify retaining him.