Cleveland Browns: Sheldrick Redwine ‘almost cried’ day of Grant Delpit’s injury

Cleveland Browns rookie Grant Delpit will be greatly missed as a key piece for the defense this season.

Talented safety Grant Delpit appeared to have been a really promising second-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2020. Delpit was a great contributor for the LSU Tigers defense, and while him dealing with injuries throughout 2019 did cap his ability some, leading to some tackling problems, he still made his share of plays.

Delpit did not have the production of his 2018 campaign, in which he had five interceptions, nine passes defensed, 9.5 tackles for loss and even five sacks, but he was still mostly in the right spots in coverage.

Delpit was the Jim Thorpe Award winner as the nation’s best defensive back in 2019 on the NCAA champion Tigers, too. He had two picks, seven passes defensed, 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. Delpit seemed finally fully healthy in LSU’s two College Football Playoff games as well, and that showed in relation to his tackling and burst it seemed, in particular.

Now, unfortunately in what was a crushing blow for the Browns earlier this week in practice, Delpit tore his Achilles, as DPD’s Mitch Zoloty alluded to. Delpit’s season is over before it even started.

In that regard, these recent comments from Browns safety Sheldrick Redwine just further emphasized how much of a loss Delpit is for Cleveland in the back end, via Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.

Redwine’s comments said it all in relation to Delpit being a huge loss for the Cleveland Browns.

Delpit’s ability to make plays on the ball and also his capability as a blitzer, along with being able to competently defend in the slot at times, led one to believe he’d be an impact player for Cleveland. That’d be feasible even as a rookie, but the 6-foot-2, 213 pound safety won’t be able to go at all in 2020 for the Cleveland Browns.

As a result, it’d seemingly mean that veteran free agent depth pickup Andrew Sendejo will be needed more than was likely expected, and Redwine himself will likely receive a higher snap count on defense. On a positive note, as the aforementioned Zoloty did touch on, Redwine did show promise in 2019 as a rookie fourth-round player and had 42 tackles and two passes defensed.

But he is likely not nearly the very versatile coverage piece Delpit could’ve been, and the Browns should be on the market for a more viable starting replacement.

Moreover, the Delpit injury is again such a crushing blow for the Browns defense, which had its other injury losses such as Mack Wilson (who could seemingly miss most of this season), Greedy Williams and Kevin Johnson. Redwine’s above reaction of how he “almost cried” on the day of Delpit’s injury was something Browns fans assuredly can relate to.

This situation is far from ideal, as though fellow veteran free agent acquisition Karl Joseph should add a thumper element to the Browns run defense, he has had his share of the injury bug thus far in his career back with the Oakland (and now Las Vegas) Raiders. He’s reportedly missed practice time in regards to a foot issue, of which cut his 2019 to only nine games, too, for context.

Circling back, Delpit’s injury is gut-wrenching for the Cleveland Browns defense with his varying skill set and range in the back end, as Redwine’s comments seemingly demonstrated. Look for the Browns to further address the safety spot as a result, and we wish Delpit the best of luck in his recovery from this Achilles tear.