Cleveland Browns: Position battles to watch during training camp

Linebacker

This position battle is the the most intriguing because of how much talent there is at the position. The Browns entered the off-season with three solid starters in Joe Schobert, Christian Kirksey, and Jamie Collins.

But after adding a versatile and experienced linebacker in Mychal Kendricks, it creates the massive question of who will be the starting linebackers. Especially in a league where defenses typically play with only two linebackers as they mostly play in their nickel defense.

Kendricks can play all three linebacker spots in a 4-3 defense. And after not receiving the amount of playing time he wanted in Philadelphia, Kendricks most likely wanted to sign with a team that was going to put him on the field a lot.

So that means he is going to have to knock one of the Browns returning starters out of their starting job. So all four players will be battling to earn their roles during training camp.

But after what Browns linebackers coach Blake Williams said about Schobert, it is hard imagining Schobert not being one of the starting linebackers – via Patrick Maks of clevelandbrowns.com.

"“He’s got a chance to probably be the most intelligent player and most intelligent MIKE we’ve ever coached in this system — his capacity for understanding and thinking quickly and knowing what the offense is doing,” said Williams, who spoke of Schobert in the same breath as linebackers and former pupils such as London Fletcher, Jonathan Vilma and James Laurinaitis."

If Schobert maintains his role as the starting middle linebacker, that means Kendricks will be battling either Kirksey as the weakside linebacker, or Collins as the strongside linebacker.

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With Collins coming back from a knee injury, there is the possibility that Kendricks shares time with him as the SAM. But Kendricks has mostly worked at WILL since joining the Browns, so Kirksey may be the guy fighting for his starting job.