The highest profile additions to the 2012 Cleveland Browns were on the offensive side of the football. And after watching the team’s play last season, that definitely is where the management should have focused on.
Most of the talk in the off-season has been about rookies RB Trent Richardson, QB Brandon Weeden, T Mitchell Schwartz, and WRs Travis Benjamin and Josh Gordon. That’ s a lot a new faces in the skill positions for Pat Shurmur’s crew.
However, fans have forgotten about the other side of the football, and if the Browns have any success this season will depend on how a very, very young defense performs this season.
A look at the defensive line shows that two rookies (DT John Hughes and Billy Winn) will get a lot of playing time, and one of them will start next to veteran Ahtyba Rubin. Another 2nd year player, Jabaal Sheard, starts at DE, and after a good rookie year, he will have to deal with how offensive coordinators around the league game plan for him.
He wouldn’t be the first defensive end to have a good rookie season, and fizzle the following year because he doesn’t have a secondary move to get to the quarterback.
Behind the defensive line is a very young corps of linebackers around vet D”Qwell Jackson. Rookie James Michael Johnson is injured and will likely miss the first one or two regular season contests, so that means a lot of playing time for Kaluka Maiava, who’s suited more for special teams, and undrafted free agents L. J. Fort and Craig Robertson, and rookie Tank Carder, who was just picked up yesterday.
That’s an awful lot of young players to be depending on.
It doesn’t mean the Browns defense is doomed to failure. The young players who made the roster have shown a lot of athleticism and speed, something last year’s defense lacked, particularly at linebacker. So, it’s very possible the defense will show improvement. They definitely will get better as the season goes on.
Remember, one of the biggest problems for the Browns since 1999 has been the failure to stop the run. So, if the defensive line doesn’t play well early in the season, the potential “stars” added by GM Tom Heckert will have a difficult time getting on the field.
That’s why the key players early in the season will be Hughes and Winn. If they can team with Rubin to stop opponents from going through the Cleveland line like a hot knife through butter, the Browns can compete early in the campaign.
Really, it’s another reason that Richardson is the key rookie from an offensive standpoint, besides the fact that he was the third overall pick in the draft.
If he’s as good as advertised (we haven’t seen him play yet), then he takes a lot of pressure of fellow rookie Weeden, and a strong running game controls the tempo and clock, and doesn’t leave a young defense on the field too long.
What we are most anxious about as the regular season starts a week from today is whether or not the Browns have corrected the two areas that have plagued them for many years, the ability to run and the ability to stop the run.
In both cases, Shurmur and Heckert are depending on very young players. If they are right, the foundation could be set for extended success for this franchise.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 