Can the Browns Reverse Their Offensive Tackle Injury Woes?
Credit: Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK
After a week of joint practices and a preseason game vs. the Minnesota Vikings, two things were apparent. One, Jim Schwartz must hate someone on the Vikings’ offense, because he ran the most aggressive defense ever seen in a preseason game. And two, this Browns offensive line is already starting to deteriorate.
Most of the team writers reported all week that everything went well in practice, except that Deshaun Watson was constantly under pressure. Not only are the linemen struggling on the field, but they’re also struggling to stay there. We saw three leave the game on Saturday with injuries.
Already, we have yet to see Jedrick Wills, Dawand Jones, or Jack Conklin practice because of injuries. Now, James Hudson and Hakeem Adeniji are shaken up and will miss some time. And as a cherry on top: Germain Ifedi also left the game last week with a hand issue, though he should be back at practice this week.
At this point, it feels like there is still some fleeting hope that a combination of Wills, Jones, and/or Conklin will be ready for Week 1. If that is the case, it will be a struggle to get them up to speed without much practice, even if they’d still be the best options. If not, Cleveland will be at a point where Hudson and Ifedi may be the starting tackles vs. Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys. Good luck gameplanning a strategy around that.
It’s so bad that on Monday morning Toni Grossi brought up the idea of moving Joel Bitonio out to left tackle to start the season. Yeah, sure, Bitonio is a fan favorite, but a drastic move like that sounds like a terrible idea. Moving a guy who has protection on each side of him to a place where he is completely on an island on one side of the offensive line is not nearly as easy as it may sound to some.
While we know that we won’t see Wills this week, we are still uncertain of how close Jones and Conklin are to returning. Even though it’s not ideal for them to return to practice next week and take the field for the first regular season game without any preseason time, that very well could be the case.
At this point, it’s safe to say you’ll see a tailored offense in the next few weeks to account for these up-front struggles. It doesn’t mean that this group can’t grow and improve as they get healthier and get guys back into rhythm, but for now, it feels like a huge mistake for the coaches to think they can open the offense as much as they would like.
Kevin Stefanski shared this morning that the plan is to play starters in the next preseason game for the first quarter, and that includes Watson. At this time, it appears that Ifedi and Lorenzo Thompson will be the offensive tackles against the Seattle Seahawks, which should be terrifying to everyone.
This can easily veer into a situation where the world will feel like it’s ending. One must assume that Andrew Berry and Stefanski have confidence that two of the Wills, Jones, and Conklin trio will be able to start in Week 1 and that the group will only continue to get healthier.
If not, an interesting option could be someone like David Bakhtiari, a former All-Pro player coming off a serious knee injury in 2023. But could the Browns even afford him? And if so, will he be ready to play in Week 1? If he can’t go, the Browns are in no better of a spot.
If the answer to both those questions is “Yes,” however, this could be very intriguing. If Bakhtiari wants to earn one more big-money contract in the league, a “prove-it” deal in Cleveland could make a lot of sense. There aren’t any rumors on this type of move from the insiders as of yet, but he is far and away the best player available in free agency. The Browns certainly don’t have infinite cap space, but they have already gone all-in on this year, and we all know the salary cap is kinda, sorta fake. We’ve already seen by the moves that Berry has made, they believe this is the year for the Browns to return to glory. They can’t afford to let the offensive line sabotage them before the season even starts.
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