Cleveland Browns biggest questions for 2020 season ahead of the Combine

Is there anyone who will tackle this season?

There weren’t many things more frustrating in 2019 than the Cleveland Browns inability to tackle anyone. For whatever reason, the players just simply whiffed repeatedly on the season. Many fans were irate and calling for the head of Steve Wilks, but this has been a problem for a lot longer than just this one season.

As noted by Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report, the Browns actually improved in this area last season — but that’s not saying a whole lot because they were still beyond atrocious.

"“The Browns had Pro Football Focus’ worst tackling grade in 2018 and the most missed tackles as a team (169). They improved to 20th in PFF’s rankings this season, but still struggled (See: Mixon, Joe), and had the seventh-most missed tackles (129) in the regular season.” — Knox, Bleacher Report"

Clearly, that can’t happen in 2020 if Cleveland wants to find success. They’re rumored to be hiring San Francisco defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Joe Young as their new defensive coordinator. What they need to do after making that move is to decipher whether the problem was due to the scheme or the players themselves.

Personally, I believe missed tackles are on the player, but perhaps Woods (assuming he is hired) will feel like he can address this issue. If he and the rest of the staff agree that it is on the players, then they could be ready to make some big moves to start changing out the problematic players.

Either way, they need to decide who they have on the defensive side of the ball they can trust, and who needs to go.