4 Browns we can safely call busts after the 2023 season

After witnessing so many players succumb to injuries during the 2023 campaign, it's easy to see how well Andrew Berry has done building the Cleveland Browns roster. While he deserves praise for the work he's accomplished, we also can't say he has a 100 percent success rate — which is true of every general manager.

Berry has much more hits than he does misses but there are a few moves that didn't pan out. With that being said, here's a look at four players we can call busts as we make our way through the 2024 offseason.

4. Marquise Goodwin, Wide Receiver

In search of a deep threat to stretch the field, the Browns signed Marquise Goodwin in free agency this past season. Despite being 32 when added, Goodwin was still producing when given a shot. With the Seattle Seahawks in 2022, he had 387 yards and four touchdowns on 27 receptions.

With Amari Cooper and Elijah Moore as the top two receivers, there was a belief Goodwin would provide them with some extra juice. While he had a huge 57-yard reception in the comeback win over the Chicago Bears late in the season, his impact on the team was minimal.

In 12 games, the veteran wideout had just four catches for 67 yards and 33 yards on four rushing attempts. That's a total of 100 yards from scrimmage and more than half of this came on a single play.

To be fair, Goodwin struggled with blood clots in his lungs and legs during camp which negatively affected his timing in the offense. But even after having time to get up to speed, he continued to be an afterthought making this a signing that won't be remembered for long.

3. Jacob Phillips, Linebacker

A third-round pick out of LSU in 2020, Jacob Phillips had the making of an NFL-starting linebacker. He missed seven games as a rookie but had 25 tackles and one pass defense. He was primarily a reserve but with their playoff spot already locked up, he got more time in Week 17 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

During their 24-22 win, Phillips showed off his potential with 10 tackles, one of which went for a loss, and landed a hit on the quarterback off the blitz. He added three more tackles in their playoff win against Pittsburgh and was expected to do more in year two.

That didn't happen since Phillips managed to play in just four games. He was placed on the IR in September with a biceps injury and returned in mid-December. Again, he finished strong with nine tackles, two tackles for a loss, and an interception in a Week 18 win over the Bengals.

Hopes were still high for Phillips but again, he spent much of the next season injured. This time, it was a pectoral injury that forced him out after just seven games. This was a major blow since he had 46 tackles and two sacks when he was on the field. But we haven't seen him in a regular season game since Oct. 23, 2022.

Phillips suffered a second pectoral injury and wasn't able to play at all in 2023. He's now entering free agency and there's not much of an expectation for him to return in 2024.

2. Jedrick Wills, Left Tackle

Jedrick Wills, Jr. was the first player Andrew Berry ever selected in the NFL Draft. Taken at No. 10 overall in 2020, Wills was a tremendous right tackle for Alabama and made a successful transition to the left side as a rookie. Since that season, however, he's been a problem for their offense.

Wills' efficiency has digressed over the past three seasons and in 2023, he was one of the worst run-blockers in the NFL. In addition to his struggles in the run game, Wills was allowing pressure consistently as well. According to Malachy Gardner of Cleveland.com, Wills gave up pressure on 36.7 percent of his snaps early in the season — and had a blown block rate of 3.3 percent.

"Wills is one of the worst pass-protecting linemen in the league, and is responsible for allowing 36.7% of the Browns’ pressures this season, giving him no redeeming qualities in the passing game either." — Gardner, Cleveland.com

An MCL injury ended his season after eight games and while Wills was playing better before the injury, he has a long way to go in order to return to the form we saw in 2020.

He's going to get the chance to rebuild his image since the Browns picked up the fifth-year option in his deal and his 2024 salary is guaranteed. Even so, the leash will likely be short, especially if there's an addition made this offseason to challenge him,

1. Siaki Ika, Defensive Tackle

After being bullied on the ground throughout the 2022 campaign, the Browns got serious about bulking up their defensive line. They signed Dalvin Tomlinson, Maurice Hurst, and Shelby Harris in free agency and used a third-round pick on Baylor's Siaki Ika.

Known for his massive size, Ika was seen as a potential run-stuffer in the middle of the line — but there were some concerns. Or at least there should have been. Despite losing around 20 pounds to help with testing, Ika scored near the bottom of just about every athletic drill for defensive tackles.

Cleveland still believed he could develop into a solid 1-tech but he hardly saw the field as a rookie. Ika, who was a healthy scratch for the first 13 games, appeared in the final four contests for the Browns and managed 100 snaps on defense. In those snaps, he struggled to get leverage or generate pressure and was a non-factor, finishing without a single tackle.

Sure, there's still time for Ika to develop — and perhaps he will. But over the past few seasons, the players who were selected in the third round and beyond that did develop for Cleveland at least showed their potential as a rookie.

That was the case for Donovan Peoples-Jones in 2020 when he had 21.7 yards per catch and a game-winning touchdown. Martin Emerson was on fire from the moment he stepped on the field and even Cedric Tillman and David Bell topped 200 yards receiving as rookies. Others who didn't last include Tommy Togiai and Anthonrookiesy Schwartz who were unable to make an impact as rookies and never took that step forward. Maybe Ika is the exception but his performance in 2023 is far from encouraging.

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