Top 10 Most Important Players On the Browns Roster for 2023

9. Jakeem Grant, KR

Most may not look at Jakeem Grant and think he is a top 10 most important player on the roster, but an under-looked part of being a successful football team is having a great special teams unit.

An electric kicker/punt returner can change the tide of a game in one play by flipping the field and giving the offense a better field position. Great returners do not have a direct correlation to winning, but they do have the ability to get the fans and players pumped up, and the ability to swing the momentum of a game can change the outcome of drives and games, which is what can make them so important.

If you were to ask what is a piece the Browns are missing the answer is probably a good special teams unit. An electrifying kick returner is something the Browns have been missing since the departure of Josh Cribbs in 2012. There have been moments in recent seasons where a guy has emerged as a serviceable or even a solid returner but no one to solidify themselves as the guy.

A year ago there was huge hope that Grant would be that guy for the Browns until he suffered a terrible Achilles tear in the preseason. That left an obvious hole in the return game.

Other than a couple of returns by Donovan Peoples-Jones, the return teams were around league average to slightly above. Grant also possesses the ability to break the top off a defense and get open for those If Grant can return to that explosive kick returner the Browns had hoped for, he will be fun to watch this season.