6 Cleveland Browns benchwarmers who may emerge in 2023

The Dawg Pound eagerly awaits news of the signing of draftees, free agents, and undrafted rookies who might lead the Cleveland Browns from their moribund 7-10 record to the Super Bowl in 2023. However, the Browns have at least six players who might be ready to start or make major contributions.

Second and third-year players are almost always better than they were as rookies, so maybe this year the Browns should actually use some of these players rather than cut them loose in favor of poorly trained rookies with uncertain futures.

Moreover, after a year of juggling the roster, the weak ones have been weeded out of the pool of second-year players. True rookies, on the other hand, are guaranteed to have a certain number of imposters among their number. Some could play at the college level but cannot make the transition to the NFL game.

Others have size and speed but are just unable to learn the intricacies of playing the hardest game in the world. If you make a mistake and put these imposters on the field, like the Browns do every year, it will cost you ball games.

Without further ado, here are six players currently on the roster who have a real chance to become major contributors right now in 2023.

6 Cleveland Browns benchwarmers who may emerge in 2023

6. Isaiah Weston, WR

Isaiah Weston is a prototypic physical wide receiver, with good size (6-foot-3, 214 pounds) who knocked out a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at the Combine. He wasn’t drafted, however, probably because he comes from FCS Northern Iowa.

It has been a few years since Kurt Warner attended that school, and without a gunslinger quarterback, Weston did not put up huge numbers or generate a fantastic highlight reel. In addition, Weston was redshirted due to injury and is older than the typical rookie.

The Browns generally like to draft players who are around age 21, based on the theory that they have greater potential to be developed than a player who is 22 or 23.

In training camp, no one could cover him, but a knee injury put him on IR for the 2022 season. But what we saw of him we liked. Weston appears to have all the necessary tools to be an NFL receiver, and frankly, he looked better than some of the players that the Browns drafted in the middle to late rounds the past few years. The eyeball test says that Weston should be not lower than WR4.

Andrew Berry hates to cut players he has drafted, and the fact of the matter is that wide receivers often do not perform well until year three of their NFL careers. Nevertheless, it is not clear that Anthony Schwartz and Michael Woods II will automatically get a free pass this season over Weston. The Browns should probably obey the eyeball test if they want to win.