Carl Davis must impress this coaching staff if he's going to make the team

The Cleveland Browns added Carl Davis in a waiver claim before the season started only to not use him basically at all. It's not entirely clear why, but there's a new coaching staff in place and Davis has to impress if he's going to make the final roster.

One of the biggest mysteries of the 2018 season was why Carl Davis didn't play for the Cleveland Browns. He was on the team. He was on the roster. He just didn't play. 31 defensive tackle snaps was it. After the Browns had waiver priority over a number of teams that tried to put in claims for Davis, he was inactive for most of the year.

No injuries were mentioned or listed last year. And after running Larry Ogunjobi into the ground at nose, when Gregg Williams finally went to use someone else, he opted for Brian Price.

Whether this was an issue between the former defensive coordinator or perhaps then defensive line coach Clyde Simmons and Davis is anyone's guess. Now, Davis has to impress Steve Wilks and Tosh Lopoi to get on the field.

And the Browns need someone who can be productive at the nose to spell Ogunjobi. In a perfect world, they'd be someone that can really clamp down on the run, allowing Ogunjobi to play as many pass snaps as possible.

Davis's former draft status as a third round pick and his name no longer mean anything. He's simply a player competing for a job and while he may be more well known than the others he's competing against, it's unclear if he has any meaningful edge at this point.

Davis should be a better athlete than players like Price and Daniel Ekuale and that would be an advantage, but it's got to show up in practice and the preseason. It's also not clear that any of the players on the Browns roster are good enough to hold down the backup nose tackle job, which has been a glaring hole since the team opted to trade Danny Shelton and was a major factor in their run defense falling apart this past season.

It's unlikely the Browns will return to the form they had with Shelton and Ogunjobi, but they have to be better than last year. Davis will have his opportunity to show he's the man to do it, but he has no guarantees at this point and he's fighting for job like everyone else is. Maybe that is the extra incentive he needs to perform at a high level this year.