Is Health Cleveland’s Biggest Barrier To Offensive Excellence?
Photo Credit: Andrew Nelles via USA TODAY Sports
As rookies get their first taste of NFL practices, the rest of the league is busy finalizing their roster and preparing for the preseason. The Cleveland Browns have already made a few minor moves, but nothing drastic to this point.
The biggest question for most NFL teams is health. Sometimes the best team in the league doesn’t make the deepest run, but the healthiest team. The last three years have been brutal to the Browns organization, including last year when Deshaun Watson ended up missing more than half of the season with a shoulder injury.
On top of that key players like Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Jack Conklin, Juan Thornhill, Jedrick Wills, and Nick Chubb missed significant parts of the season. This team showed a lot of resilience last year fighting their way into the playoffs with Joe Flacco as their quarterback.
Things won’t get any easier this next season as three of the Browns’ key starters have major question marks heading into the season.
Chubb and Conklin, I still have serious doubts about being ready for the beginning of the season when the Browns host the Dallas Cowboys in week one. Both had knee injuries last season early in the year, and both have question marks on when they’ll be ready.
Chubb had a serious injury for the second time to his right knee that required two different surgeries to get it back intact. He has proven before that he can be a quick healer, but he certainly isn’t getting any younger and even the fastest healer on the planet would struggle to get back in less than a year from this type of injury.
Based on the additions Andrew Berry made bringing in D’Onta Foreman and Nyheim Hines, I think the Browns know that Chubb won’t be ready for week one. Hines is a tremendous third down back that made a ton of sense either way, but Foreman is the veteran presence to help Jerome Ford out while this team awaits Chubb to get healthy.
Let’s be real, even if Chubb does return in week four next season, he certainly isn’t going to be ready to have 20 carries and be the focal point of this offense. Berry has hedged his bet and has a great backup plan just in case there is a delay.
Conklin’s injury last season wasn’t as serious, but he has had a string of injuries that is more concerning to me. After his kneecap injury in 2022, some questioned if he would even consider retiring because of the severity of the injury.
I think Conklin will make it back this year, but honestly, he may not even have a starting job if Dawand Jones has a camp half as good as he did last year. Jones had a season-ending knee injury himself, but in his brief tenure showed tremendous signs of being a quality NFL tackle.
In a dream scenario, Conklin, Jones, and Wills would all be healthy for the full season and Wills would be forced by competition to earn his spot. I truly think he can still be a starting left tackle in the NFL, but so far, we have struggled to see consistency so competition could be fantastic for his development.
Based on all the reports, it feels like Watson will be more than ready to start the season, but the bigger question for me is if he’ll be able to attend training camp. I know some of these star players don’t like to practice anymore, but camp is where you form relationships with the skilled players and really fine-tune your game.
To think that Watson can miss a big portion of camp and then come in week one and push the ball up and down the field on a Dallas defense, they have another thing coming.
Mary Kay Cabot who is a trusted Browns insider reported this week that Watson is throwing with the same velocity and the same distance before the injury. If that’s the case it’s hard to believe he won’t be ready for camp, but this organization continues to be passive with how they handle Watson.
The pressure is on this year for Berry, and he already knows it. He gave up the farm for Watson and so far we have not hardly even seen him on the field. If this team wins seven games or Watson misses a huge chunk of the year again, fans will be ready to see a change in general manager even if Berry has done a fantastic job.
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