Replacing a Hall of Famer is virtually impossible, but from top to bottom, the Cleveland Browns should have a more talented offensive line than in 2017.
The Cleveland Browns face the challenge of replacing surefire Hall of Famer Joe Thomas, but they do it from a position of relative strength. There’s no question the focus of training camp will be deciding who will play left tackle, but the rest of the line is settled and the depth appears to be far improved from even just last season.
The biggest potential change from Sashi Brown running the front office to John Dorsey and his group might be offensive line evaluation. While the group improved under Brown’s tenure and had some smart moves, they were always coupled with some questionable ones that didn’t produce any meaningful result.
Between Dorsey’s time with the Kansas City Chiefs and the personnel acquired from the Green Bay Packers, there seems to be a far better undrstanding of what it takes to be a successful offensive lineman in the NFL. Specifically, this refers to physical talent and understanding that in order to block phenomenal athletes coming to kill their quarterback, they need great athletes to even have a chance.
Based on what the Packers in particular look for in offensive linemen, Joel Bitonio, J.C. Tretter and Chris Hubbard fit the bill of the starters. Kevin Zeitler does not and then Shon Coleman doesn’t have any data available to judge while his competitor Austin Corbett is a great athlete.
There are people in Berea who absolutely believe in Shon Coleman’s ability to play left tackle. What’s unclear is if any of those people includes the coaching staff or the front office. Joe Thomas and other linemen in that room love him and Thomas in particular has been spending time working with him to get him prepared to take over the left tackle spot.
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Coleman is athletic on tape and he’s enormous. His physicality in the run game is obvious and imposing. The issue for Coleman has been flexibility, particularly with his ankles that has allowed opponents to get under him and around him in pass protection. When he’s right, he’s great, but inconsistency plagued him last year at right tackle.
There is a belief that Coleman will be better and more comfortable on the left side as that’s where he’s played much of his career. Even last year, Coleman was being prepped as a left tackle as well as right tackle.
Meanwhile, Corbett is a rookie who played his entire college career at left tackle. When he gets his hands on an opponent, they’re done. He’s powerful, nasty and he finishes opponents. In that sense, he and Coleman are similar.
Corbett’s issues seem largely caused by his stance. The issues Corbett has had in his career are usually caused by speed rushes and he doesn’t maximize the power in his right leg coming out of his stance to get out as far as he can to meet the edge rusher attacking up the field.
Corbett also plays unusually close to the line of scrimmage. Many offensive tackles are trying to get as far back as humanly possible without getting called for a penalty. Corbett, meanwhile, seems to be as close to the line of scrimmage as possible. The ideal spot is likely somewhere in the middle.
Regardless of whether Coleman or Corbett win the job, both would benefit from a commitment to the running game. Keeping the offense more on schedule and making the defense guess more would improve the pass protection immensely. As inconsistent as Coleman may have been in 2017, it didn’t help that the team was constantly in obvious passing situations, putting him at a disadvantage.
The other part of this is interesting is that Corbett could be a tackle in the short term and still be a guard down the road. As mentioned earlier, Zeitler doesn’t really fit this front office’s athletic preference for the position and while they aren’t in a hurry to get rid of him now, they might be inclined to move on in two seasons. At that point, Corbett could move inside to right guard while the team keeps drafting tackles to find what they hope is a franchise tackle.
Ultimately, if the front office stays intact, the offensive line will likely be five offensive tackles up front. Coleman, Corbett, Bitonio, Tretter and Hubbard were all collegiate offensive tackles. The Browns moved Bitonio inside and the Packers moved Tretter inside. Under Dorsey, the Chiefs moved what was a college tackle in Mitch Morse to center.
Speaking of Tretter, he’s used a healthy offseason to bulk up as he tries to improve upon what was an issue last year being able to deal with bullrushes. Javon Hargrave took advantage in the team’s opening game against the Steelers and Tretter got better as the year went on, but he wasn’t happy with it. So after playing last season at 290 pounds, he’s currently at 305.
If Tretter can be stouter at the point of attack while still being able to do the thing that make him special, namely being able to pull and get out and lead block, he’s an incredibly valuable player. Going up against Larry Ogunjobi in camp will be a great test for that on a daily basis.
Hubbard is unique. He goes against every bit of conventional wisdom when it comes to offensive tackles. Height is paramount and Hubbard is both short by offensive tackle standards and very light at around 285 pounds. He’s a very reliable pass protector. The AFC North features a lot of big edge players, including Stephon Tuitt, Carlos Dunlap, and Brent Urban that would all line up over him, so how he holds up in the running game will be worth watching.
In training camp, going up against Emmanuel Ogbah, Carl Nassib and rookie Chad Thomas could all be beneficial in getting him prepared for that as Ogbah is the lightest of them at 275 pounds. The flip side is that Hubbad is very athletic, so if offensive coordinator Todd Haley utilizes run concepts that have him move and seal rather than base block, he could be a problem for opponents.
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Joel Bitonio is a stud at left guard and he had a fully healthy offseason. This time last year, he was still recovering from foot surgery and they were being patient with when he was going to be out on the field. This year, he’ll be out there working to get more comfortable with Tretter while figuring out how to work with Coleman and Corbett.
The depth is already better than it was last year. Gone are the USC brand living room set that was their foldout sofa in Zach Banner and recliner Marcus Martin. In come athletic, young players like Geoff Gray, Anthony Fabiano, Christian DiLauro to compete for spots. Austin Reiter, last year’s backup center is also a great athlete.
Gray is a pure guard while DiLauro played in an offensive system at Illinois that flopped their tackles, so he has versatility to play both sides. Fabiano can play both guard spots as well as center.
Spencer Drango is interesting in that he has experience playing left tackle last year in relief of Thomas last year, but he’s built like a Welsh Corgi with the corresponding athleticism. He can play tackle and guard, but he might be a candidate to be traded. There are a lot of awful offensive linemen slated to start for teams and Drango might be a decent commodity. A move might simply be a player for player type deal, but it’s possible he could net a late round pick too.
Last year’s fifth round pick, Roderick Johnson, can’t play dead and this front office will likely move on from him quickly. Donald Stephenson was signed before the draft and it seems like he’s going to get paid $1 million to be a camp body before he’s released, unless there’s a rash of injuries.
The other player that will draw some attention is undrafted free agent tackle Desmond Harrison. He’s got prototypical length for the position and is a decent athlete who dominated at West Georgia. The problems are his age and the fact that the reason he ended up at West Georgia was because he was kicked out of Texas for drugs. He also failed the drug test at the scouting combine.
If the Browns can stay healthy, they could find themselves with a good starting offensive line as well as having young, talented depth that has potential to be start down the road. Coleman, Corbett, Bitonio, Tretter, Zeitler and Hubbard are locks to make the roster. After that, Reiter, Fabiano and Gray should find their way to the final 53.
That would give the Browns a very good group of nine players with three guys who can snap. DiLauro seems like a guy they’ll try to put on the practice squad for now, so the Browns could opt or a tenth guy or save the spot for something else. The wildcard is Drango and what they do with him.
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That would give the Browns a total of seven offensive linemen with verifiable athletic traits the team wants with at least one more on the practice squad. And that is the spot they should want to find themselves in headed into the 2018 season. None of that replaces Thomas, but from their best guy in Bitonio to the ninth guy, the Cleveland Browns should be in a better position than they were in 2017.