Cleveland Browns: 3 secret weapons for the 2022 season

No 1 Jacob Phillips, LB

Jacob Phillips has been a relative unknown to many over his first two seasons in the league. He suffered a serious injury prior to the start of the 2021 season so he’s not had much of a spotlight put on him so far, but that might be changing for the young man as he enters year three with the Browns. The linebacker was drafted at pick No. 97 back in the 2020 NFL Draft out of LSU.

While at LSU, he was a tackling machine. He totaled 218 tackles, 13.5 for losses, had two sacks and a forced fumble in his three seasons as a Tiger. In his senior season, he recorded four games of 10 tackles or more. He was a big part of LSU’s National Championship season and in the title game against Clemson, Phillips had eight tackles, including one for a loss as LSU beat Clemson 42-25.

As a Brown, that type of dominance hasn’t shown up yet but it certainly could in a big way this season. With teammates such as Anthony Walker and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah playing beside him on the field this season, Phillips should have a breakout campaign.

The nice thing about Phillips is that because of missing a lot of last season because of the injury, he’s been able to stay under the radar, but this last secret weapon of Cleveland will make his presence known pretty quickly this year.