3 Cleveland Browns sophomores who will shine in 2021

2. Grant Delpit, Safety

With their second pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Browns landed another LSU player in safety Grant Delpit. He joined many other LSU stars in Cleveland and then Jacob Phillips was also added to the roster in the following round.

With them joining players such as Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham, Jr., and Greedy Williams, the Browns got the nickname ‘LSU North’. Unfortunately, two of those players never saw the field at all in 2020.

Williams missed his second season in the NFL with a shoulder injury and Delpit had to spend his rookie campaign sidelined due to a torn Achilles suffered in training camp.

Both injuries were devastating as the secondary struggled mightily. There were flashes from Ronnie Harrison but most of Delpit’s snaps went to Andrew Sendejo and he wasn’t nearly as explosive as what they hoped Delpit would be.

The good news is, the safety should be ready to go in year two and while an Achilles injury is nothing to shrug off, he’s still young enough that he should be able to make a full recovery.

If he does, look for the young man to really shine as a sophomore — and one of the reasons to feel confident is the arrival of John Johnson.

Adding another safety in free agency — especially one of Johnson’s caliber — takes all the pressure off of Delpit which will keep him from pressing when he does return. Instead, he can work his way into the lineup at his own pace and once he’s ready to go full speed, the secondary will be vastly improved.