Well, we are officially in the post draft doldrums. The Browns made a few roster moves following the first rookie minicamp and open tryout invites. Those moves are reflected in the depth chart shown here. I'm intrigued to find out what you guys will be keeping an eye on over the next three months as far as who will end up as a starter, who makes the 53 man roster as a depth/rotational player and who says, "adios - Cleveland". I think the starter spots are all but locked up for the most part. But there are a couple of potential starters in this crop of newcomers.
I honestly think Sione Takitaki is going to be a special teams beast. I'm looking forward to that, and I think Mack Wilson was one of the biggest steals the draft. It wouldn't surprise me if Mack replaced Schobert in obvious passing situations. We got Schobert himself in the 4th round, I believe, so maybe another steal right there. I think Greedy Williams, perhaps the NFL Drafts' biggest steal, can certainly get into the starting line-up, and I think Siebert will be our PK for a long time. Best one we've had since Dawson... It's just exciting to be a Browns fan...The buzz is for real on Cleveland this season. I was a little concerned about Redwine and Takitaki, but after studying them both, I'm very comfortable with the selections. All great athlete's. Fast.
Takitaki intrigues me as well. He appears to have a nasty edge to him. Granted, it doesn't take a lot to get suspended from the team at BYU, but the volume of his off field issues is somewhat disconcerting. I plan on keeping a very close eye on how the O-line comes together. Does Forbes have enough to push Corbett? Does Corbett have enough to fend off Forbes? The Browns' web-site officially designated Kyle Kalis as a Center (and Forbes as a Guard). That, plus the signing of two UDFA Centers, puts a total of four Centers on the roster. (one for each QB?)
Looking at Lym's chart, there are only 4 guys older than 28 on the team. Backup QB/Mentor and Punter don't really count, so that puts 2 people, Morgan Burnett and OG Kush. I think the future looks pretty bright! One spot that is not listed is FB (probably really FB/TE) which is going to come down to Orson Charles (who is a beast) and Trayone Gray. Could be an interesting battle!
I chose to use the player's position as shown on the roster page of the Browns' web site. Trayone Gray is interesting. I think I read somewhere that he is 235 pounds and ran a 4.35 forty! And, yes . . . the age of this roster does tend to jump out at me, as well. There are 10 players who are 28. That means there are 14 players 28 years old or older. Conversely, that also means there are 77 players who are less than 28 years old. That's 84.6% of the roster!
You’re the one who said OG Kush in the post I quoted. Were you smoking too much OG Kush to remember?
I got to thinking about the ages of players on the 2019 roster and did a little research. Rather than using the ages of the players, I opted to use "Experience" (accrued NFL seasons) as I believe it's a more accurate measure. What I discovered kind of surprised me when I compared the Browns to the three other teams in the AFC North. In a nutshell, the results shown below represent the experience levels of the four rosters' "Core Team", ie: the players that each franchise decided to move forward with for the 2019 season. As noted. 2019 Draftees and UDFA's are NOT included in this data.
They have the highest percentage of players with only 1 to 3 years of experience. So, another way to look at it is they have the least amount of experience in their core group. If you add together the 1st two columns (1-3 and 4-6 years NFL experience), the years when most players hit their prime, CLE comes in at 87.7%, followed by PIT at 85.7%, then BAL at 81.0% and finally CIN at 79.0%.
Coming back to this, could the writing be on the wall for Seth Devalve? We know Njoku is a lock, Demetrius Harris is close to a lock IMO, since Dorsey signed him. Charles was brought back, so I would think he would be favored over the "leftover" guy who cant stay healthy.
Agree that Njoku is a lock for 2019. Not only does his contract run through the 2021 season, he's still only 22 years old - and - it would be a $1.7M cap hit (dead money) to cut him. Seth Devalve, on the other hand is in the last year of his contract, is 26 years old and would be a $720K cap savings if released. Pharaoh Brown is JAG on a 1 year contract. 24 years old with 2 years accrued experience. $570K cap save. Demetrius Harris. Another JAG, 27 years old. Signed through 2020 except he carries $762K in a dead money cap hit. Orson Charles might survive, but I suspect Trayone Gray could fill the FB role just as well - and - can actually run the ball. I don't know a thing about Carlson (UDFA signing). I can't imagine more than 3 of these guys making the 53 man roster.
I can see 3 of them making it. It will come down to a few things though: 1. How much value is going to be placed on a FB now that Freddie will be implementing his own system? 2. Would the 4th guy be too valuable to try and sneak onto the practice squad? Gray is a bruiser, a bit short to be a TE but also athletic AF. We could expand this a bit and look at the roster flexibility between RB/FB/TE. There's a lot of ways they can manipulate the roster to maximize spots. Other factors could be, who ends up being PR and KR? That needs to be filled, typically with a WR or RB, so that could weigh in as well.
Positional flexibility is a major plus for a player's chance to make the 53 man roster. (Think: Kyle Kalis, OG and C / Drew Forbes, OT and OG / etc.) If one guy can fill two backup slots, that frees up a slot elsewhere for, say, a WR that wouldn't make the cut but could be added to specifically return kicks and/or punts. This is going to be fun watching it unfold.
I think we will have a couple of surprise roster cuts and they'll use this flexibility to do exactly what you said...get an extra WR. Could see the same thing in the secondary to free up a roster spot for a ST LB.
From what I can tell, we already have two position flexible players in the O-line alone (Kalis and Forbes). Could be another one in the CB/DB room. That's three spots that could open up on the 53 man roster.
