4 Takeaways from Cleveland Browns final practice of training camp Week 1

3. M.J. Stewart ready to step up

With Kevin Johnson tearing things up early in camp, it was easy to forget that he wasn’t the only defensive back with an impressive draft pedigree added to the Browns. Roughly a week ago, Cleveland claimed M.J. Stewart on waivers after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved on from the North Carolina product.

Taken 53rd overall in 2018, Stewart played in 21 games — with six starts — over the past two seasons for Tampa Bay and had 68 tackles and five pass defenses. However, he never carved out a consistent role with the team, as notated by our own Dan Justik, who says Stewart was on the field for just 29 percent of the team’s snaps in 2018 and 28 percent last year.

"“Despite being a second-round pick, Stewart never gained a significant role in the Tampa Bay defense. Stewart only played 29 percent of Tampa Bay’s defensive snaps in 2018, and then saw less playing time in 2019 playing 28 percent of the Buccaneers’ defensive snaps.” — Justik, DPD"

So far, Stewart has been playing well in camp and on Thursday, he had some solid plays in the slot. Head coach Kevin Stefanski has talked up a committee approach when it comes to replacing Johnson but there’s a chance Stewart could end up seeing the majority of the snaps that would have belonged to Johnson.