Browns Defensive Linemen Continue to be a Huge Focus in 2023
Much has been made of what the arrival of new Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz will mean for the Browns defensive linemen. Schwartz, who is known for his penchant for pressure on the quarterback, has made it known he will seek to do just that in Cleveland in 2023.
To that end, GM Andrew Berry and his staff put a lot of effort into remaking the Browns defensive linemen as a group. No position on the team, outside of the Browns wide receivers, has seen as much of a shakeup from last year. Deservedly so: former Browns DC Joe Woods oversaw a unit with considerable talent that returned mediocre results. The team ranked near the bottom of the league in rushing yards. Sacks too, despite the presence of all-world Browns defensive line leader Myles Garrett. The defense also struggled in clutch situations – who can forget the colossal collapse against Joe Flacco and the almighty New York Jets in Week 2?
Five new arrivals in the top two rungs of the depth chart will generate some intriguing training camp battles. Let’s break it down.
Browns Defensive Linemen Who Will Start in 2023
Right off the bat, Browns defensive linemen Myles Garrett, Za’Darius Smith, and Dalvin Tomlinson have chokeholds on three of the team’s starting positions.
The Superstar
There is absolutely no question that for Cleveland to have a great season in 2023, Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett must have an exceptional year. The former first-overall pick is consistently rated right at the top of the league’s best pass rushers. He’s averaged close to a sack a game over the last five years. Offensive linemen fear his name.
So why is Schwartz planning to play Garrett less in 2023?
No, Schwartz isn’t crazy. He wants his defensive linemen “fresh” so that they can “keep throwing 100 mph fastballs.” What this means is Schwartz wants a Garrett who is playing at the top of talent at the END of the game. Not just at the beginning. Garrett, who took 85% of the team’s snaps last season, is expected to fit more into the 75% percentile in 2023.
In order for that strategy to work, though, there needed to be some changes. Including a whole lot more talent among the Browns defensive linemen than there was last year.
The Surprise Trade
For the last two years, Garrett has been paired with Jadeveon Clowney, another former first-overall pick. They were expected to be the best pass-rushing pair in the league, and lead the Browns defensive linemen to new heights. Clowney responded in 2021 with nine sacks, a near career high. Clowney came crashing back to earth in 2022, however, with just two sacks. Clowney’s personality issues – which have often hampered the nine-year pro – came to light during the last week of the season. The Browns told him to stay home.
Cleveland pulled off a surprise trade in May, however, adding three-time Pro Bowl pass-rusher Za’Darius Smith from the Minnesota Vikings, while giving up very little. Here, the stars aligned for the Browns, with Smith wanting out of Minnesota for contractual reasons. This combined with the Vikings need to clear cap space.
In Smith, the Browns defensive linemen get a clear upgrade from the ever-disappointing Clowney. Aside from 2021 which Smith missed due to injury, he has amassed 36 sacks in his last three seasons. If he can stay anywhere close to that pace, that’ll be a huge jump from 2022, where Garrett was responsible for nearly half the team’s sacks.
The Big Money Free Agent
Joining Smith will be his former Vikings teammate, defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. Tomlinson was given a $57 million contract on the opening day of free agency to join the Browns defensive linemen.
His arrival is intended to plug the biggest hole on the team: run defense. Tomlinson’s 33.2% run stop win rate well outpaced any of the Browns defensive linemen last year. Though run defense ain’t any kind of sexy, the strength of your pass rush means little when the opposing team knows they can run right up the middle of your defense all day.
Tomlinson has been remarkably healthy and a steady contributor to his teams. Though he did miss a month last year, he suited up for every game in his career before that. He’s averaged close to 50 tackles a season.
Browns Defensive Linemen Who Will Be in the Rotation
After The Big Three, there’s a fairly steep drop-off in talent among the Browns defensive linemen. It’s a mixed bag of underperforming draft picks and low-cost free agent signings.
Another Pass Rusher?
Weeks before the Browns managed to land Smith in a trade, they signed Ogbonnia Okoronkwo away from the Houston Texans. Okoronkwo was expected to fill in for Clowney opposite Garrett before Smith came available.
It’s a mark of how remarkably ineffective Clowney was in 2023 that many considered Okoronkwo, who only has 9.5 career sacks, an upgrade. Okoronkwo had a career year in his one and only with the Texans, pulling down five sacks and racking 13th in the league in pass rush win rate (19%).
It was looking pretty good with Garrett and Okoronkwo. With Smith now in the fold, the Browns defensive linemen have three strong pass rushers. The run defense, however, remains another story.
The Challenged Starter
Jordan Elliott has played every game for the Browns defensive linemen in the three years since he was drafted, a feat unmatched by even Garrett. That’s unlikely to change in 2023, though Elliott’s starting position is tenuous at best.
After letting both of their defensive tackles walk in 2022 free agency, the Browns decided to rely on Elliott, a former third-round pick, to step in and fill the gap. It was a calculated gamble – at $9.4 million, the Browns spent near the bottom of the league on their interior defensive linemen.
The results were… not so good. Elliott was largely ineffective, and the Browns defense ranked near the bottom of the league in rushing. A crushing blow for a Browns defensive linemen corps with high expectations.
Elliott, who barely averaged a tackle a game, is still penciled in as the Day One starter. But he’s got a lot more competition than he had last year.
The Draft Pick
For a team with seemingly little draft capital after sending three first round picks to Houston for DeShaun Watson in 2022, the Browns made the most of them, managing to land perhaps three key contributors. For the Browns defensive linemen, that name is Siaki Ika, a huge third-round draft pick. Ike was a first-team selection in 2022 with 24 tackles, six for a loss, and four sacks in 13 games.
No one is about to mistake the 6-4, 350lb Ika for a pass rusher, but that’s not his job among the Browns defensive linemen. Schwartz and company expect Ika to push Elliott for the starting job sooner than later. Ika lining up next to Tomlinson to would anchor the middle of the defense with almost 700 pounds between them. 700 pounds of block-eating, solid Browns defensive linemen.
Two Low-Risk Additions
With the Browns top pass rushers in place, the team added two more defensive tackles during the offseason.
The Comeback Kid?
Oakland Raiders fans might remember Maurice Hurst, a fifth-round pick who became an instant difference-maker in his first year with the team. He pulled down 31 tackles, four sacks, and three passes-defended. It looked like Hurst had a solid future with the team.
However, Las Vegas Raiders fans probably don’t remember him at all. And therein lies the problem. Hurst’s stats dropped off a cliff the next two seasons, and he eventually caught on with the San Francisco 49ers instead. Hurst then played two games in 2021 and none in 2022 after suffering multiple injuries. The Browns added him in the winter, hoping he could reclaim his former Oakland glory.
The Reclamation Project
In addition to Hurst, Cleveland also added Trysten Hill to the Browns defensive linemen. Hill is a former second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys who has battled injuries and ineffectiveness in his four seasons in the NFL. Dallas eventually gave up and waived him in the middle of last year. Arizona claimed Hill, but he wound up on injured reserve and never played a game. In fact, he’s never played more than seven games in a season in his career.
While neither of these two looks like a world-beater, the team is gambling that at least one of them will step up and be a solid contributor among the Browns defensive linemen. Both Hurst and Hill are defensive tackles by trade, though they are considerably lighter than Tomlinson and the mammoth Ika. If one of them can step up and fill in the bottom of the rotation, that’s a big short-term win for the Browns while others can develop.
A Slew of Picks Rounds Out a Huge Rotation
The Browns are expected to keep at least nine defensive linemen, and possibly more. That means everyone mentioned above is likely to make the final roster. Except perhaps Hurst and/or Hill, depending on how one or both recover from injury.
At the bottom of the Browns defensive linemen are a whole lot of recent Browns draft picks. The team is hoping the increased opportunities provided by Schwartz’s defensive line rotation will speed up the development process for some of these players.
Notably among these is Alex Wright, a pass rusher who was thought to be something of a project. The Browns took him in the third round out of UAB in 2022. At the time, he was considered to be athletic, but still developing his body and technique. In that same draft came Perrion Winfrey (4th round) and Isaiah Thomas (7th round). The Browns didn’t stop there, adding Ika and Isaiah McGuire in the 2023 draft. They also retained Tommy Togiai, a 2021 draft pick.
The Browns defensive linemen will be used a lot differently in 2023 than they were last season. Whether that’s a good thing, we won’t know for a while yet. But what’s clear is the team’s commitment to the position, and that it has a lot of potential.
Main Photo: Frank Jansky
