Cleveland Browns roster: 3 backups who will see most time in 2021

Three Cleveland Browns players who may not start but who will still play significant roles

Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has built one of the best rosters in the NFL, one with impressive depth at certain positions. Here are three players who won’t get the starting designation, but who will play starter-level snaps nonetheless.

3. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, ROVER

It may be a surprise for a player almost universally hailed as a top-15 prospect to start out as a backup, but that’s the situation that JOK is in. As of now, it appears that the team will develop him as a will linebacker, the position that Malcolm Smith currently plays.

Owusu-Koramoah may be labeled as an LB, but that spot brings with it plenty of new challenges for him. At Notre Dame, he didn’t do LB things; he rarely lined up between the tackles and never engaged with offensive linemen.

JOK does possess excellent coverage skills and is a fantastic athlete, so he’ll play; he’s too good not to. The question is how quickly he’ll pick up the physical aspects of the position, and he probably won’t play much on obvious run downs. If he were to play against the run, he wouldn’t be a liability, and even if he were, it wouldn’t really matter because of what he provides in coverage and as a pass-rusher.

There’s a chance he could take the starting job from Smith, but as long as Smith is on the roster, the veteran will be the starter.