3 Cleveland Browns who should have been in the Top-100

2. John Johnson III, Safety

He may not have played for the Cleveland Browns last season but their top free-agent signing surely should have been on the Top-100 list. In Prisco’s defense. he did mention safety John Johnson III in his “just missed” list but that list itself was incredibly long and featured several other Browns players — as well as just about every player you could think should have been included.

Johnson was a third-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 out of Boston College and played for the Rams for the past four seasons. He started 48 of 54 games played and twice hit the 100-tackle mark.

In all, he had 350 tackles with 32 pass defenses and eight interceptions. Despite all the success he had, Cleveland landed him on a rather team-friendly deal as Johnson admitted he wanted to go somewhere that they were building something special.

Like J.C. Tretter, Johnson was one of the top-rated players at his position last year with Pro Football Focus ranking him third overall behind Jessie Bates of the Bengals and Adrian Amos of the Packers.

Adding him to a secondary that was a weak spot in 2020 was a huge plus for this defense. Throw in the addition of rookie Greg Newsome, Johnson’s former teammate Troy Hill and the return of Grant Delpit and Greedy Williams from injury — along with their lone star from last year, Denzel Ward — and this unit could be rather impressive.