3 Cleveland Browns breakout candidates for the 2023 season
By Kyler Blasing
1. Dawand Jones, OT
Dawand Jones has looked outstanding so far this preseason and he may be challenging Jedrick Wills Jr. for a starting spot. As Greg Newland of DPD has pointed out, Wills Jr. had another lackluster performance against the Washington Commanders where Chase Young exposed him a number of times. Meanwhile, Dawand Jones has made very few mistakes while playing a bulk of the preseason so far.
At 6’8” and 374 pounds, Jones is neck and neck with Daniel Faalele and Jordan Mailata for the largest player in the NFL. Offensive Tackles of that size have actually had a very high success rate in the NFL recently. Four of the top five heaviest Offensive Lineman in NFL history have debuted in the last five years, with two of them already off to excellent starts in their career (Jordan Mailata and Orlando Brown Jr). Jones also has surprising levels of quickness for a man of that size. Take a look at him stuffing one of the best edge rushers in the game in Brandon Graham:
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1691487178516299776
Jones was also seen taking reps at Left Tackle in last week’s practice, so it seems the Browns are interested in seeing if he is capable of playing both sides of the line. If Jedrick Wills Jr. has another poor start to this season, or there is an injury to either Wills Jr. or Conklin, the rookie Offensive Tackle may be starting sooner than expected. And it seems that he may just be ready for that already.