5 Browns New Year’s resolutions in 2023

Browns New Year’s Resolution No. 4: Learn to care about durability and strength conditioning

When the ball in Times Square dropped in 2022, we at DPD discussed the need for a new strength and conditioning staff in Berea. 2021 was full of injuries, especially on defense.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the same issue is taking place. Jadeveon Clowney, Denzel Ward, and Chase Winovich have all missed time this season. Throw in the fact that Anthony Walker, Jacob Phillips, Sione Takitaki, and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah are all on the IR and it looks even worse.

But that’s just on defense.

Cleveland suffered injuries on the offensive line with Jack Conklin missing the start of the season as he recovered from a knee injury. They lost starting center Nick Harris in the preseason opener, rookie Dawson Deaton also in the preseason, and Ethan Pocic for a stretch in the middle of the year. In addition to all their centers, Wyatt Teller also had to miss a few games.

Throw in injuries to David Njoku and the same trend has continued this year that we saw the previous years in Cleveland — durability is a concern.

With durability being a continual problem, Cleveland should make this resolution to not only improve their strength and conditioning staff — to try and figure out why hamstrings in Berea don’t ever heal — but they should also pay more attention to this in their scouting. Players such as Clowney and 2021 first-round pick Greg Newsome joined the Browns with some major issues with staying on the field.

Ability is great but durability is superior — I mean, it doesn’t matter if you have elite talent if you can’t play. That needs to be a focus this offseason as they continue to load this roster.