Cleveland Browns: 4 players of interest who escaped franchise tag
By Randy Gurzi
1. Carl Lawson, EDGE
Anyone who watched Carl Lawson in Cincinnati knows that he has yet to really unleash his full potential. A fourth-round pick out of Auburn, Lawson slid in the draft due to injury concerns and those problems followed him into the NFL.
Lawson missed 13 games in 2018 and 2019 combined which threw some cold water on his 8.5 sack season as a rookie in 2017. Then in 2020, he returned to full health and had 36 tackles and 5.5 sacks. His numbers might not scream elite, but this kid has all the tools to be special.
On top of that, he was the only consistent threat on the Bengals defense, meaning he had more than his share of double-teams. He still made the most out of every snap and should be entering the best years of his career, especially if he lands with the right team — such as the Browns.
As far as Cleveland goes, they do have a hole at defensive end — a hole which was made greater with the release of Adrian Clayborn. However, they also have an elite edge rusher in Myles Garrett which makes the idea of such a signing even more intriguing.
By pairing Garrett and Lawson each with another player capable of putting up double-digit sacks it would not only help them avoid as much attention from offensive linemen as they have each been receiving, but it would also make life easier on the secondary since the ball would be forced out that much faster.
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Lawson won’t come cheap but adding him could make the defensive line in Cleveland the force they hoped it would be when they paired Garrett and Olivier Vernon.