Prospect X Is Back For 2020: Who Is It This Year? Could The Cleveland Browns Go 2 For 2?
Last year, Sports Illustrated writer Kalyn Kahler introduced the world to Prospect X. Giving a little attention to a smaller school prospect they believed could contribute to a team in the NFL. It turned out to be Drew Forbes, offensive tackle out of Southeast Missouri State. He was drafted, selected by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round. This year, Kahler is back with Prospect X and the question is... who is it? I don't know, but I'm going to take my shot in this article to guess.
Last year, the Browns got appears to be a nice player in Drew Forbes. Entering his second, he appears to be in line to compete for the starting right guard job along with Wyatt Teller. Physically outstanding, he has tremendous size and movement skills, but played at a smaller college and needed to adjust to the speed of the game.
The Browns were bad enough at right guard last year after trading Kevin Zeitler and Forbes was able to do enough to at least get a look there. Ultimately, he suffered a knee injury just before the season, but the Browns were impressed with Forbes enough that they performed some roster gymnastics, so they could put him on short term injured reserve. They ended up cutting Greg Robinson for about 48 hours to then re-sign him in order to make it work. Forbes was designated to return, but didn't see any time on the field. Nevertheless, that designation allowed him to practice.
Fast forward to this season and Forbes is ideally suited to play in the wide zone scheme the Browns intend to play. He's more suited to be a guard in this offense and obviously the signing of Jack Conklin to be the right tackle only further steers him into that direction. Forbes consistently showed to be a powerful, dominant player in college, consistently looking to finish opponents and always had a nasty demeanor in how he played. If Forbes can win the job, he and Conklin could form a powerful right side.
In the event Teller were to win the job, Forbes is depth at guard, but the team also floated the idea that he could be a backup center, which could be the third snapper they would want behind J.C. Tretter and Evan Brown, in case of emergency. So, for the Browns, prospect X worked out pretty well for them.
As for this year's prospect X? I'm going with Matt Cole, receiver, kick and punt returner from McKendree Univesity.
