4. Who emerges as the third receiver?
In 2019, Jarvis Landry led the team in receiving with 83 catches for 1,174 yards with six touchdowns. Right behind him was his close friend and former LSU teammate Odell Beckham, Jr. who had 74 receptions for 1,035 yards and four trips across the goal line. With both those stars returning, the Browns remain top-heavy at wide receiver.
The problem is, there’s not a whole lot of dependability beyond that. Last season, the third-best receiver as far as statistics are concerned was Damion Ratley who had 12 catches for 200 yards. He came in behind two tight ends and three running backs for total receptions, which highlights how small of an impact any receiver not named Landry or Beckham had for the Browns.
This wasn’t supposed to be the case for the Browns as they entered the year with Antonio Callaway and Rashard Higgins. Callaway didn’t last the season and is now out of the NFL and Higgins was in Freddie Kitchens’ dog house all season.
Higgins is back and with Kitchens gone, he should be able to win the No. 3 wideout spot. His main competition will be rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones, but there could be a dark horse in Taywan Taylor who was added in a trade last season but hardly saw the field under Kitchens.
Cleveland has options for the spot and their new coaching staff doesn’t seem as inclined to keep players benched as much as Kitchens was. That should lead to an interesting battle for the third spot behind Juice and OBJ.