How the Cleveland Browns can go from good to great

Depth in the secondary

The Cleveland Browns defense was terrible all season, and it turned into a vicious cycle. Garrett was double-teamed constantly which slowed down the pass rush. Quarterbacks had all day to pick apart our secondary. All of that paired with two projected starters in the secondary not playing a snap in 2020 was just too much to overcome.

Grant Delpit was the second-round pick safety from 2020 who was a projected first-round pick. Many said this was the biggest steal of the draft, but an injury in training camp will delay his NFL debut until 2021.

Greedy Williams was the same story from the year before. A round-one talent the Browns scored in round two. After struggling with injuries as a rookie, Williams didn’t play a snap in his second year because of a nerve injury in his shoulder.

While hypothetically both will be healthy in 2021, can the Browns really count on this? We also can’t forget that Denzel Ward has yet to start a full season either and that Ronnie Harrison missed games in 2020.

The depth chart is loaded with talent but must have some depth with Andrew Sendejo, Karl Joseph, Terrance Mitchell, and Kevin Johnson all out of a contract in 2021. While Johnson could be worth bringing back, the other three appear to be likely departures.

Cleveland needs to focus on a physical corner and another safety that has strong coverage skills. The defense was limited to zone schemes in 2020 because of the injuries, but defensive coordinator Joe Woods will want to dial up the man-to-man coverage in 2021.

Tighter coverage in the secondary gives the pass rush a better chance of getting home and allows Woods to dial-up exotic blitzes on third down to try and force mistakes from opposing quarterbacks.