Don’t know if he’ll amount to much, but it was nice to see that the Browns signed a nose tackle this week. Louis Leonard, a rookie released by the Chargers and Rams, shares his names with two of the greatest boxers in history and weighs roughly as much as both of them combined.
By now it’s as obvious as a punch in the nose that the defensive line is the limiting factor to the Browns’ success. It’s a concern I have expressed repeatedly:
- in March of ’05, with the new regime sold on switching to a 3-4 and converting two more linemen into Browncos
- in the spring of ’06, when not a single defensive end was drafted or signed as either a veteran or rookie free agent
- again this fall, when the depth chart along the defensive front left me grasping back into the past, as I am wont to do.
I was among those fans hoping that Babatunde Oshinowo would develop into a credible option, if not at the nose, then at end. That would have made the draft day deal of ’06 a slam dunk for Phil, right in Ozzie’s face. Now it’s clear to see that Mt. Washington is over the hill, Roye (perhaps the most valuable Brown of the expansion era) is a rotational end at best, “Down Goes” Fraser is still a severe liability against the run, and Kelley doesn’t hold the line like a man his size should.
Robaire Smith is the best lineman on the roster right now, really the only solid one. We need Shaun Smith and maybe LL (only the second such initialed player in Browns history) to develop in a hurry. The two DEs draftees on the practice squad will need much more time to grow into their positions, if they ever do.
It’s a sad, even desperate, situation, and it seemed preventable. Everyone knows the importance of stopping the run. It’s been a longstanding problem. It’s not like the unit is devastated by recent injuries. Blame the over-reliance on Jason Fisk first and Ted Washington next at the crucial nose tackle position. Re-signing Nick Eason may not have been the answer, but he did accept a vet minimum one-year deal from the Steelers and is seeing plenty of playing time for a top-flight defense.
Anyway, I want to briefly note the departure of Scott Player (the extra punter cut to make way for Leonard), the latest oddity in Browns history. We shan’t see the likes of his single-bar facemask again. It harkens back to the origin of the face mask itself (invented by Paul Brown and first worn by Otto Graham in 1953) and the strange fact that three of the last straight-on placekickers all played for the Browns (Don Cockroft, Steve Cox, and Mark Moseley).
