Browns 2023 draft picks - profiles by Dane Brugler

Kvoethe

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

TexasAg1969

@kvoethe said:

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

Find weaker safeties to make them look better in comparison.??

Kvoethe

@texasag1969 said:

Find weaker safeties to make them look better in comparison.??

Well played!!!

syd

@kvoethe said:

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

i don't no man how bout beefing up the front line ? oh wait they did that

Orion

@kvoethe said:

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

Berry was a guest on ESPN Cleveland’s radio show yesterday and stated the Browns still have some moves in the works:

“There may be some other things that we’re looking to do, either on the veteran market or trade market over the next several weeks.”

Kvoethe

I hear we siged some old guy from the eagles that was good back in the Big dick Nick foles era.

Trust the process.

Flugel

@kvoethe said:

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

Getting better IDL/DTs via free agency and the draft were impressive efforts to help a LBer Corps that lost 4 LBers to IR in 2022. That should keep a lot of interior OL off of the LBers. Adding Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz should also help this unit a lot. My guess is he can get more out of JOK than Joe Woods did. Anthony Walker has been a good LBer for the Browns (and the Colts previously).

FWIW, I remember a lot of us were worried about the LBer Corps heading into the 2020 season. The Browns finished that year with an 11-5 record and a post season win at Pittsburgh's dump.

Flugel

@syd said:

i don't no man how bout beefing up the front line ? oh wait they did that

You beat me to it Syd. Sorry for repeating what you already wrote.

Kvoethe

@texasag1969 said:

Find weaker safeties to make them look better in comparison.??

We got a old guy from philthy

TexasAg1969

@kvoethe said:

We got a old guy from philthy

SdBacker80

@kvoethe said:

What are we gonna do to help our weak LB corps?

We need Anthony Walker to play 17 games…and JOK too. The depth here is very suspect.

I will say my piece here again we had three levels of failure last season right in the middle of defense. Safety play was awful at times, LBs especially bad at times (we made a midseason trade to correct it) of course IDL. I gave our Front Office a pass too - you can’t fix it all in one offseason especially when we were searching for a QB last year. Fast forward another year and the excuses need to go away at some point and these picks over the years need to start to develop.

Joe Woods leaving is a plus.

Unsympathetic

also about the LB play -- every down Jacob Phillips sees is a wasted down. Phillips could be decent at ST but that's not what you want out of a rd3 pick.

Fields was actually recognizing and doing better in passpro and fits second half of last season than Phillips ever did. You can do a lot worse with the final rostered LB who gets snaps.. He was projected as the "poor man's JOK" in that draft and that's nearly exactly what he's developed into.

Orion

When the Cleveland Browns selected DT Siaki Ika in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft, it seemed that the team found their big nose tackle, plugger. Soon after, the team released “the call” video that was made to Ika where DC Jim Schwartz told him that he was a “not a dump truck anymore... you’re a Ferrari.”

Fans, media and Ika were all confused by the statement.

The logic all made sense: A player who was better in college at setting an anchor than creating penetration doing the same at the NFL level. The problem becomes that Schwartz’s “Ferrari” comment is now understood by Ika, as shared by The OBR:

“Real fast, explosive, and vertical,” Ika said. “It’s a little bit different than I’m used to. To get here to a system where everything goes forward, vertical, and disrupt, I’m excited about it.”

So that is what Schwartz meant?

Taking a large human whose athletic testing scores were not great and asking him to do more athletic things than large human things? Just looking at his “Relative Athletic Scores” gives you a simple idea of what Ika is best at (hint: Its not the areas in red):

It is possible that Cleveland’s front office and coaches see something in Ika that his testing doesn’t show and was not readily apparent on film. It is also possible that they have confidence in their own ability to mold the former Tiger/Bear into a dancing bear.

For now, the concern is that the Browns are trying to “square peg, round hole” a player they spent a third-round pick on. Could it work? For sure. Is it a risk worth pointing out?

tiamat63

@orion said:

When the Cleveland Browns selected DT Siaki Ika in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft, it seemed that the team found their big nose tackle, plugger. Soon after, the team released “the call” video that was made to Ika where DC Jim Schwartz told him that he was a “not a dump truck anymore... you’re a Ferrari.”

Fans, media and Ika were all confused by the statement.

The logic all made sense: A player who was better in college at setting an anchor than creating penetration doing the same at the NFL level. The problem becomes that Schwartz’s “Ferrari” comment is now understood by Ika, as shared by The OBR:

“Real fast, explosive, and vertical,” Ika said. “It’s a little bit different than I’m used to. To get here to a system where everything goes forward, vertical, and disrupt, I’m excited about it.”

So that is what Schwartz meant?

Taking a large human whose athletic testing scores were not great and asking him to do more athletic things than large human things? Just looking at his “Relative Athletic Scores” gives you a simple idea of what Ika is best at (hint: Its not the areas in red):

It is possible that Cleveland’s front office and coaches see something in Ika that his testing doesn’t show and was not readily apparent on film. It is also possible that they have confidence in their own ability to mold the former Tiger/Bear into a dancing bear.

For now, the concern is that the Browns are trying to “square peg, round hole” a player they spent a third-round pick on. Could it work? For sure. Is it a risk worth pointing out?

The film, when singled up or playing a shade, showed pretty consistent push and ability to get into a single gap upfield.

The RAS, while not great, echoes what I said about taking height and weight into consideration. Ika is taller, heavier, has a greater wingspan, yet still has a better 10 yard split than Tommy togiai. I don't really focus on shuttle or 3 cone for IDL. Elite change of direction for IDL has little correlation to success. His ability to burst vertically to disrupt zone runs was pretty apparent at times. So if I saw that, then there's no way professionals missed it.

The 'round peg, square hole' is... tired.

I said this about Ika and Mazi Smith - because of their builds, they'll be cliched as the 2 gap nose. Ika is playing under an aggressive 1 gap coach, Mazi is doing much of the same under Dan Quinn. By no small coincidence I linked both rookie players also by their coaches, who share similar structures in their fronts, but also in their overall blitz percentages and 4 man stunts.

This really is no great mystery. If you find a big man who can win against a variety of blocking schemes, like what the Browns and Cowboys believe they have done, then you have a nice chess piece to help rebuild the foundation of this defense.

Orion

@orion said:

“not a dump truck anymore... you’re a Ferrari.”

...I kinda' felt like we needed a dump truck.