Cleveland Browns vs. Falcons: 5 Players who must show out in Preseason Week 3
By Sam Penix
2. DT Tommy Togiai or DT Marvin Wilson
The Browns decided to go with quantity over quality this offseason when rebuilding the defensive tackle room. Only Jordan Elliott returns from last year’s group, and beyond the two starters (Malik Jackson and Andrew Billings), the room is extremely young and unproven. There’s a chance the team could decide to keep six DTs, but five appears to be the more likely number. Only Jackson and Billings are truly guaranteed spots, with the other three (potentially four) going to the winners of the battle between Elliott, Sheldon Day, Tommy Togiai, Malik McDowell, and Marvin Wilson.
Day was initially thought to just be a camp body, but he now has a legitimate shot at the roster, less so because he’s been great this preseason (he’s been fine, nothing more) and moreso because the rest of the room has struggled. Elliott did have a very nice game against New York, and was a third-round pick in 2020, so it would be a surprise to see him cut.
Togiai and Wilson, however, have just not been good. Togiai, a fourth-round pick out of Ohio State, is extremely strong, but he didn’t play a whole lot in college, and didn’t have the chance or the need to develop a technical repetoire, which is painfully obvious from his preseason tape. Wilson was much more refined coming out, but he’s also shown next to nothing through two games.
It’s disappointing, but there’s not a whole lot the team can do about it now. They just have to hope that the non-rookies can play well enough to where Togiai or Wilson, whichever one makes the team, doesn’t have to take meaningful snaps. If either player could just show something, anything against Atlanta, that would be very encouraging for the future.