The Cleveland Browns need to be concerned about their offensive line

The preseason in the NFL is not always indicative of how the regular season will turn out. On average team starters don't take the field much, the playbook is shortened to not reveal certain schemes and plays, and often the team is more focused on operation things such as getting plays in and executing without penalties rather than actually winning. Sometimes though, the glaring issue becomes too big to ignore. The issue with the Cleveland Browns is the offensive line.

The problem with the offensive line isn't just one position, the whole unit has performed terribly the past two weeks. The unit as a whole gave up 26 quarterback pressures and the signal callers for Cleveland were sacked a whopping six times.

These stats are higher than the per-game average that occurred last year in 2023, a year where nine different offensive linemen started for the Browns. The run game is even worse as the Browns averaged 2.7 and 2.4 yards per carry the past two weeks. The Browns have not rushed that badly in a game since they played the number one rushing defense, the Chicago Bears in a game they trailed for the first 57 minutes of play.

It's not like the starters didn't see any action either. Four players who started games last year played at least one drive this season: James Hudson, Wyatt Teller, Ethan Pocic, and Dawand Jones. Three of which allowed a quarterback pressure with Pocic allowing a sack on the first offensive drive of the game vs the Green Bay Packers. To make matters worse the current starting left tackle James Hudson is now out with an ankle injury.

Speaking of injuries it would be remiss not to talk about the injuries in the offensive tackle room. There is still no timetable for Jed Wills, who needs to pass a physical to be elevated to the active roster and tackle Hakeem Adenji is out for several weeks with a knee injury. This leaves Germain Ifedi as the current left tackle starter, who hasn't started a game since 2021 when played right tackle for Chicago.

Now there is a sliver of hope through all this. Multiple reporters that attended Wednesday's practice spotted Jack Conklin working off to the side with a trainer during practice, all of them saying that the first time he's done that all camp. As for the other injured starting tackle practice, there's no update other than he will not practice at all this week. Neither will be playing this weekend in Seattle to face the Seahawks for the final game of the preseason.

There are a little over two weeks until the Browns season opener, so it's not impossible that either Conklin or Wills pass a physical before then. With Dawand Jones back and the entire interior of the offensive line healthy, getting one of the two starting tackles back would form a formidable line. They still need to figure it out quickly though as their home opener opponent, the Dallas Cowboys has one of the best pass rush duos in the league.

Their star defensive ends Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence combined last season for 18 sacks and 28 tackles for loss. It's not impossible to win without a starting-caliber left tackle in the NFL, but it certainly puts you at a massive disadvantage. Especially with Deshaun Watson coming back from injury, the Browns need to fix these offensive line woes.

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