Cleveland Browns bye week report cards: Offensive line

Giving out mid-term grades for the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns enter their bye week with a record of 5-3, and since they’ve played half their season, it’s a good time to give out mid-term report cards for each of the position groups.

Next up is the Browns offensive line, a position group that was completely rebuilt over the offseason, and that investment is paying off. The group is performing well in both pass protection and run blocking, a stark contrast from 2019.

LT Jedrick Wills Jr.: A

The Browns never expected Jedrick Wills to be on the board when they selected at 10th overall, so his announcement was one of the quickest of the night. A collegiate right tackle, Wills made the difficult switch to the left side during an offseason where he wasn’t able to work in-person with OL coach Bill Callahan, which just makes his performance to this point all the more impressive.

He’s been a significant upgrade over what Greg Robinson provided last year, and has earned a 79.8 pass-block grade from Pro Football Focus, which ranks 13th among all starting tackles. His run-blocking has been poor, but since he excelled in that area in college, that likely has a lot to do with the switching sides. That’s a trade-off teams will take 10 times out of 10, and as Wills continues to get more comfortable on the left side, he will improve, and he’s already a pretty good player. It seems like the Browns finally have their Joe Thomas replacement.