3 Cleveland Browns players to watch in Preseason Week 1

Footballs are flying through the air and that means several players will have a chance to compete for a roster spot during the Browns preseason opener. 

While the preseason isn’t the most exciting thing in the world to the casual viewer, it is highly important to shape out rosters. The Cleveland Browns will get their first glimpse at what this roster could be on Friday, August 12 when they travel down to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars in Week 1 of the preseason.

The game plan will be very vanilla, as most every preseason game is, as no team wants to show the rest of the league what they will be doing when the games count for real. What these games will do is help determine who will or won’t make the final 53-man roster. Now, this won’t be make or break during the first week of the preseason, but it could put some players ahead of others on the depth chart.

Depth is vital for any team in the NFL as injuries are bound to happen in such a violent sport. A lot of the starters are already set and likely won’t play this Friday, but those who play behind them could be called upon at any given moment, so these reps are important, especially against other NFL players.

A lot of difficult decisions will be made from now until the end of the preseason by head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry. Let’s take a look at three players to watch on the Browns in the Preseason Week 1.

3 Cleveland Browns players to watch in Preseason Week 1

Browns player to watch No. 3: Josh Rosen

Fifth time’s the charm, right?

Well, that’s not how the saying goes, but that is most certainly the question quarterback Josh Rosen must be asking himself heading into his fourth professional season.

The former 10th overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals back in the 2018 NFL Draft has not lived up to top-10 status. In fact, the Browns are his fifth team in his first four seasons. Cleveland passed on him with the first overall pick when they drafted Baker Mayfield instead, and now he’s also wearing new threads in 2022.

After Arizona, Rosen went to Miami, Tampa Bay (where he carried Tom Brady’s water bottle), San Francisco, and then Atlanta, before landing in Cleveland. Typically, a quarterback competing for the third position on the depth chart wouldn’t be a big deal, but it absolutely is with the uncertainty of QB1, Deshaun Watson. Jacoby Brissett will start in his absence, however long that is, so whoever is named QB3 will essentially be named QB2 until Watson returns.

Rosen and Joshua Dobbs will play a significant amount of the preseason games and both will look to make the roster. Whoever does not make the roster could be a good practice squad option for the Browns, should whoever that is clear waivers. The talent is there for Rosen; it’s just he hasn’t found the right fit yet in the early goings of his career.

In 24-career games, Rosen has thrown for 2,864 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions while completing 54 percent of his passes and being sacked 61 times. Yikes. The good thing about the NFL preseason is that second chances are given a ton, so hopefully, for Rosen’s sake, he can make the most of it this go around.