Excitement Around Browns Safety Grant Delpit Grows
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Players on the Cleveland Browns feel confident they can have one of the top secondaries in the league. Denzel Ward is coming off the best season of his career and Greg Newsome impressed as a rookie. John Johnson III played like he was expected the second half of the season after signing as a free agent, but fellow safety Grant Delpit's potential heading into year three is what could bring it all together.
TheMMQB's Albert Breer made an early stop to Berea on his NFL training camp tour and Delpit was the first player he mentioned.
There are several reasons the Browns should feel bullish on the former Bayou Bengal safety. It starts with the fact his entire NFL career has been with Joe Woods as his defensive coordinator.
Beyond continuity, which has value, Woods divides the safety position into three general categories - free, strong and slot. Being able to play the deep middle, covering man to man and playing downhill and being able to handle the physicality that comes with playing in the box.
As a rookie, Delpit was exclusively operating as the free safety. He was on track to start before suffering the season-ending injury to his Achilles'. Entering year two when there were still questions about how much he could do a year removed from the injury, he started out playing in the slot. As he got more comfortable and was able to play a full game's worth of reps, he eventually moved back to a split-high safety role next to Johnson. Delpit's move back to strong coincided with a dramatic improvement in play by Johnson and stabilized the defense as a whole.
Now, healthy for the first time since he was a rookie and able to have a normal offseason, he's going to be in the best physical shape of his his career but he will also be more mentally prepared than he ever has been.
This is where Woods being the defensive coordinator becomes valuable. His goal for the safety position is to have three players that can function in all three of those roles on any given play, regardless of where they line up, increasing the challenge offenses will have in determining what they will do.
With Johnson, who was a sought after commodity for the Browns in no small part because he was so versatile and now Delpit operating without any limitations, they have two talented safeties that can do everything Woods could want. Adding in Ronnie Harrison, Woods will have plenty of options not only in how he calls defenses but in how he can work to maximize the safety position.
Everything is there for Delpit to become a star at safety this year. Should that happen combined with the rest of the talent in that secondary, the Browns could boast one of the best units in the league.
