Additional talent and more logical player roles should allow the Cleveland Browns safeties to take a step forward in 2018.
It remains to be seen if it will work, but the safety group the Cleveland Browns have assembled for 2018 is significantly more straight forward than it was in 2017, when players were put in awkward position due to lack of options. They now have a few true free safeties and strong safeties, which should help in terms of understanding roles and being more instinctive out of the gate while still being able to mix in a few different looks with some tweaks.
When Jabrill Peppers was selected out of Michigan, Hue Jackson said they viewed him as a strong safety. He then played his rookie season at free safety when the Browns were unable to bring in a true free safety, forcing Peppers in to an unfamiliar position and it showed. For the first half of the season, Peppers really struggled but improved in the second half and strung together a few nice games before getting a look at strong safety in the season finale.
Peppers looked far more natural in the final game of the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers’ backups, playing downhill and aggressive, making a number of plays. That appear to be the role Gregg Williams want Peppers to play full time with a few additions. Peppers may not have been comfortable playing free safety but the experience is valuable as he goes back to strong.
Peppers had to play in space and see the game in front of him and react. That experience could be valuable if the Browns want to mix in some two high looks where Peppers is responsible for dividing the field in half over the top. After being responsible for the entire field last year, half should be pretty reasonable.
Additionally, the Browns want Peppers to develop in man coverage. He has the athleticism to play man, but was rarely asked to do it at Michigan. The few times he did, he was quite good at it. Combine workouts only helped to further the belief that Peppers could develop in that area.
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Beyond being able to attack forward and blitz like a smaller but faster linebacker, if Peppers can develop in man coverage and be able to play at even an average level against tight ends, that would be a huge boost for this defense. In recent years, the Browns have turned getting gouged by journeyman tight ends into an art form.
What’s allowing Peppers to routine to the position he was drafted to play is the acquisition of Damarious Randall from the Green Bay Packers. When the Packers came looking for DeShone Kizer, the Brown front office, including a number of personnel that had a hand in drafting Randall, wanted to get their man to the Browns.
Randall played free safety in college at Arizona State and was arguably the top rated at his position when he was in the NFL Draft. The Packers selected him despite already having HaHa Clinton-Dix at free safety and opted to move Randall to corner, where he was pretty average.
Randall has been pretty open about his excitement to back ‘home’ as he called it. So, the Browns have Peppers and Randall going back to the positions their ‘true’ positions. Since he is a true free, Gregg Williams should be able to play single high without putting him 30 yards away from the ball.
Between his own experience at free and the team’s upgraded talent at corner, the defense should be far more aggressive and shouldn’t need their defense to consistently look like punt return in fear of getting beat over the top. The one thing Randall has done since he’s gotten into the league is found his way to the ball and forced turnovers, which had to be a huge reason the Browns wanted him, forcing just seven interceptions in 2017.
Derrick Kindred had an impressive 2017 season at strong safety. His play was largely that of a linebacker, showing tremendous instincts against the run and behind the line of scrimmage, leading the team with 11 tackles for loss.
Kindred is not bad in zone coverage, but he struggles mightily in man, getting picked on quite a bit last year. Teams would find a way to isolate him, often with a stud tight end and exploit it. That’s the big challenge for Kindred to improve on as he enters his third season.
Kindred has value in his current form, but that’s the difference between being a full service starter and quality depth with a few specific roles. For the Browns, that could be as an extra linebacker/safety in nickel or dime packages that can play zone or blitz. He could also find a niche in short yardage situations and against heavy run teams.
One player people seem to have largely forgotten is on the team is Derron Smith. Perhaps that is because he was brought in on waivers toward the end of last season when the Cincinnati Bengals let him go and then he didn’t play. By that point, the Browns had made their peace with the season and let Peppers go ahead and finish the year. In the last game of the year when Peppers played strong, Kai Nacua played free, who has since been waived.
Smith was a worthwhile player for the Bengals, but they just had a ton of talented safeties in front of him. It’s not entirely clear why the Bengals opted to waive Smith when they did, but he wasn’t playing and they proceeded to draft Jessie Bates III in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft to replace him.
Smith hasn’t played much since he was drafted as a sixth round pick in 2015, but he is a good athlete and was a productive player at Fresno State. He’s still just 26 and in the last year of his rookie deal, so it’s a pretty good situation for the Browns. Of course, that also means that they can easily part ways from Smith if they decide they prefer someone else.
Where things get interesting is if the Browns want to keep a fifth safety. First, Justin Currie is now called a linebacker but has experience at strong safety. Mike Jordan can play free safety as well as corner. So, the Browns aren’t forced to keep a fifth one if they don’t have someone they like.
Elijah Campbell is perhaps the most appealing of the group. A free safety and a good athlete out of Northern Iowa, Campbell made a lot of plays on the ball, leading the team in interceptions and pass deflections this past season.
The other player that stands out is Tigie Sankoh, which was assigned to the Browns out of the NFL’s International Development program. Sankoh grew up in Maryland but moved to England at 15 years old and has been playing in the British American Football League. He’s got size and he’s only 20 years old.
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In the event the Browns don’t keep Sankoh on their 53-man roster, they can sign him to their practice squad where he would enjoy a special exemption and not count against their overall total. This is the most likely scenario for Sankoh.
It’s quite possible that the Browns may keep five safeties on their roster and the fifth one isn’t currently on the roster and when teams start roster cut downs, the Browns may find someone they want to scoop up, but given what’s on the roster now, Peppers, Randall, Kindred, Smith and Campbell seem the most likely players to make the final roster. It should be an upgrade from last season with far less uncertainty about roles, enabling them to take a big step forward and make more plays.