David Njoku leading Cleveland Browns three-headed tight end monster

Cleveland Browns true five-headed monster at tight end

The Browns are currently featuring a three-headed monster at tight end, but they are not far away from having a five-headed monster, or maybe even five-and-a-half. Two very capable tight ends are on IR, and we are about to find out about Johnny Stanton, the quarterback turned linebacker turned fullback who has taken some preseason snaps at tight end. He has been promoted to the big club, due to a hamstring pull for fullback Andy Janovich.

Stephen Carlson suffered tears to both the medial collateral ligament and the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the preseason. Scott Kindberg of Observertoday.com reports that Carlson’s rehab is on course.

Obviously, it’s better to injure just one ligament rather than two, but it is still very possible to have a full recovery from an injury involving two or more ligaments. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, but there is every reason to believe that Carlson will be back in 2022.

The first thing that you need to know about Carlson is that in 2020 he was first-string on special teams, and had nine special teams tackles. He tackles like a linebacker. In addition, he has started seven games on offense in his career.

This wasn’t necessarily due to injury, but rather in certain formations, he rose to the top of the depth chart. He has taken 294 snaps on offense since 2019 and 449 on special teams. That’s a lot of football for a player that many casual fans may not even recognize. The point is, he’s a really good player and he is a young veteran, rather than a fringe player as might be expected.

By amazing coincidence, Carlson comes from Princeton University, the same school as Andrew Berry (gee, does that mean DPD should launch an investigation into possible favoritism within the organization?). Many NFL teams seem to fear Ivy League players, perhaps figuring they might be too smart for their own good.

The Browns are not bashful, however, with J.C. Tretter (Cornell) also on the roster and head coach Kevin Stefanski from Penn. Oddly, Carlson replaced another Princeton alum at tight end, Seth DeValve.

Given the small number of Ivy League alums in the NFL in general (only 13 when a count was made last January), the chances of two players from the same school playing the same position going to the same NFL team, one after the other, are rather low. Perhaps a mathematician fan out there somewhere can estimate how many years it might take until it happens again.

Carlson’s Pro Day was similar to Harrison Bryant’s. His 40-yard dash, at 240 pounds, was 4.77 seconds, with a 10 yard split of 1.64. Bryant ran 4.73 with a 10 yard split of 1.63. Carlson put up 18 reps of the 225-pound bench press versus 13 for Bryant, underscoring the need for Bryant to hit the weight room (which he has done, as mentioned previously).

Cleveland valued Bryant’s on-the-field performance over his Combine (or Pro Day) attributes, and the same case can be made for Carlson. This fan believes there are at least four proven starters on the Browns roster.

But wait, that’s not all. One of the training camp surprises was Connor Davis, a huge 6-foot-8, 271-pound converted lineman who had almost no stats in college (like 48 yards in a five-year college career at Stony Brook, an FCS School competing in the Colonial Athletic Conference).

Well, he’s big, so maybe he can block, was the prevailing theory. This fan wrote a cute article comparing him to Tim Tebow because both were truly long shots. Mr. Davis, I apologize. What we didn’t expect was a very high degree of dexterity at catching the ball. It was only preseason, true, but he lit up a few linebackers and made some really athletic catches.

We won’t know for certain until we actually see him in a regular-season game, but he totally passes the eyeball test, and you don’t argue with 6-foot-8 and 271-pounds. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury requiring surgery required postponing the experiment until 2022. Remember that name.

Finally, one more comment. Johnny Stanton is on the active roster as of this week. He is the 6-foot-2, 240-pound former quarterback-turned-linebacker-turned-fullback who also started taking snaps at tight end in preseason games. He had 10 carries for 23 yards, mostly in short-yardage situations, and five catches for 51 yards. Worth noting is that the former quarterback joins Odell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry as position players with a talent for throwing footballs incredibly well.

OBJ, in fact, has the reputation of being able to throw a football the length of a football field. Former Brown turned Steeler Joe Haden watched him do it and about fainted. What they didn’t tell CBS Sports, however, was that the field in question was a practice field that was only 70 yards long.

That’s still a very good trick, however, and most of the old-school quarterbacks cannot do that. The young dudes are able to throw footballs like we did not see 20 years ago. You may find on Youtube footage of younger versions of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers who weren’t able to do it, though after having had a few years to refine their throwing mechanics, they very likely have added enough velocity to do it today if they have to.

We have not seen an outrageous trick play from Stefanski and Van Pelt so far this season, but with three guys (at least) who can fling it, it’s coming at some point.