Cleveland Browns biggest questions for 2020 season ahead of the Combine
By Randy Gurzi
What will they do at offensive tackle?
Remember when the Browns had Joe Thomas and Mitchell Schwartz on the same team? That was an impressive set of offensive tackles that could keep opposing edge rushers at bay. The problem is, they didn’t have a good quarterback during this time to take advantage of the good blockers.
In fact, they rarely had anyone play well under center during the entire career of Joe Thomas, who played every snap of his sure-fire Hall of Fame career with Cleveland. That’s why Thomas was able to taste a winning season just once in his career, and that happened to be during his rookie campaign.
Once Thomas retired, following a triceps injury in 2017 that ended his incredible iron-man snap streak, the Browns knew they needed to find someone else capable of protecting their quarterback’s blindside. Even though they knew this, they did very little to address it.
John Dorsey refused to use a draft pick on a tackle, instead, he took Austin Corbett who was a tackle in college but kicked inside in the NFL — who is no longer in Cleveland. They then tried to replace Thomas with undrafted Damon Harrison, a plan that blew up in their faces.
From there, it was Greg Robinson who had a decent stretch to close out 2018 but then struggled mightily in 2019.
All that being said, the Browns have to make sure to find a legitimate starting left tackle this offseason. They also need to find a better right tackle as Chris Hubbard hasn’t lived up to his contract signed ahead of 2018.
It would be hard to find two starters in the draft, and they have plenty of other needs that will have to be addressed as well. That means they need a plan that will involve a combination that includes draft picks and either free agency or trade. Whatever they do, they have to make sure they do not enter 2020 with Robinson and Hubbard as the starters.