The Super Bowl lineup is now set, and yet another team will make their first trip to the big game before the Browns. Now only the Cardinals, Panthers, Texans, Lions, Jaguars, Saints, and Seahawks join Cleveland as having never made a Super Bowl appearance.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, interestingly enough, feature four players who were with Cleveland just last year. As the Browns contemplate getting a left tackle so Ross Verba can move inside, their 2001 LT, Roman Oben, will be starting for the Bucs in the Super Bowl. (His backup is Lomas Brown, another former Brown). At tight end — another position from which the Browns need more output — Rickey Dudley sees plenty of snaps for Tampa Bay behind starter Ken Dilger. And while we bemoan the defensive line’s lack of performance, the backup we let get away, Greg Spires, started every game this year for the league’s best defense. Then there’s DeVone Claybrooks, injured and cut by the Browns in July and signed mid-year by the Bucs as backup defensive tackle.