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Brandon Thorn is one of the most respected offensive line analysts online.

I have to say I was pretty worried about Jedrick Wills when we drafted him. I was worried about his switch from left tackle to right tackle. I was even more worried when there was no OTAs. I was peak level worried when there were bad reports from training camp. Almost all of my worries have been assuaged after these first two games. He has been more than competent.

I was also pleased with how well Chris Hubbard filled in last week. We didn't miss Jack Conklin at all versus the Bengals. I don't think he had one game like that all of last season. Having him backing up the tackle spots, with all of his experience, gives our line great depth.

Wyatt Teller has also been a huge surprise. I thought if he was league average our line would be pretty good. It turns out that Teller is good and so far our line has been elite.

Kid is going to be real good

I was fairly confident with Wills physical skill set he could make the transition. But mush as yourself, with the limited training camp and no preseason I feared it would take much longer than this for him to make the transition.

I still do not consider him a finished product but he's further along in the process at this point that I thought he would be. It's nice to feel this positive about a first round draft pick this early.

Early returns look highly promising. You weren't the only one very concerned about the RT to LT switch ... a lot of people made a lot of noise about it. When you draft that high you want a sure thing. Whether Wills was our #1 target or whether he fell to us when the other LT's were taken ahead of us, IDK. But I like the results so far.

I've seen that Andrew Thomas is struggling - not seen anything on Becton or Wirfs ... I would have taken any but was least hot on Becton worried his size will ultimately lead to injuries.

Those cuts are nice to look at ... simply you don't notice Wills, which is a GREAT thing for your rookie LT. The whole unit is playing lights out so far. Pittsburgh will be a real test in 3 weeks.

Becton has drawn rave reviews so far. Wirfs is the starting right tackle for the Bucks. I don’t know how high he is rated but the Bucks seem happy with him. We’ll see as the year goes on.

One word - Callahan.

That second clip is pretty damn impressive.

He was not good in training camp. He is good now. Kudos to him, the coaching staff, and the scouts.

Let's keep it going.

Becton is an enormous human being.

Can't disagree with anything you said, happily. We''ll have a good test this weekend with Washington, IIRC, they are leading the league in sacks.

GC. Haven't read any of this,

Didn't Chris Hubbard start for like 10 years with the Steelers before he even came to the Browns and all of last year, maybe 2-3 years with the Browns,
People say they think he does well for a backup,

I feel like, Oh No, this could be the first, almost hall of famer, who his team wouldn't admit he's a starter.
C'mon Man.

Love our OL coach Callahan.

We’re on way to having a dominant OL that mauls opponents. Hell, we might he already there, but if not we’ll only get better. I’m very optimistic. I’d like to throw 20 times a game and let our great RBs take us to the end zone.

I wasn't worried once he got The HOF's stamp of approval. Thought he might take a few games to get to the level he's at. Glad he's progressing faster than expected!

Joe Thomas’ stamp of approval is usually the kiss of death.

IIRC, Hubbard started a lot with the Steelers, but mostly due to OL injuries. He was the swing tackle/backup Guard. Even though it may have seemed like he was the starter, he started all over the the line. I believe he was more of a backup Guard than Tackle.

I believe there was a stat floating around this off-season about how Chris Hubbard has never taken a snap at guard in the NFL. For the Steelers he was a backup tackle and started ten games before becoming a free agent (and then we paid him).

Good stuff from Thorn. Thanks for posting it.

While Hubbard, who started 10 games last season, has mostly played right tackle, he's considered one of the league's most versatile linemen, taking snaps at both guard spots, left tackle and even blocking tight end for Pittsburgh.Mar 15, 2018

https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/browns-sign-former-steelers-tackle-chris-hubbard-20453259#:~:text=While%20Hubbard%2C%20who%20started%2010,blocking%20tight%20end%20for%20Pittsburgh

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Chris Hubbard started the game Sunday as a blocking tight end, it began an unexpectedly busy afternoon for the 26-year-old offensive lineman.

By the time the Steelers’ 26-9 victory against the Minnesota Vikings was complete, Hubbard’s time at tight end paled in comparison to the snaps he took at two other spots on offense.

When Alejandro Villanueva exited because of a stomach illness, Hubbard moved into the starting lineup for 21 snaps at left tackle. When Marcus Gilbert left in the fourth quarter because of a hamstring injury, Hubbard moved over to right tackle for the final 15 snaps.

Oh, and Hubbard also played 10 snaps while taking his regular turn on the special teams coverage units.


To recap, that’s four positions — if you count special teams — played by Hubbard in one game, and that’s not counting the practice reps he has taken at center and both guard positions since the start of training camp.

https://archive.triblive.com/sports/stee...ity-on-display/

I definitely don't know much about the nuances of O Line play but watching those videos its clear even to my untrained eye just how important those seemingly small things he does are to a successful play.

Watching that trap replay, it illustrates that Wills is a guy who's cool under fire. How many times have we seen a defender break free on a delayed blitz or rush because the O Lineman "needed" something to do and jumps in on a double team when they really don't need to? He trusted Bitonio and stuck to his assignment. Really impressive.

Those are some pretty promising clips and reviews. He seems athletic and tough. I like it.

Teller has also been a huge steal for us

Video #1, Thorn writes...

"Wills gets his outside arm trapped by Lawson's chop but check out the athletic ability to recover. So impressive. Then Teller just wins his rep handily vs. Hubbard kicked inside. Smacks him around."


My review of Wills on this play is 'a bit' different. I'm not going to make excuses for Wills..he clearly gets beat by an outside rush that very well could have been a sack had the QB not avoided the rush by stepping forward, then rolling to his left.

I'm not sure that Wills that awkward looking shuffle is going to be quick enough to keep up with defenders who specialize in the outside speed rush..on this play Wills shuffle didn't work.

As for Thorn's comment about Wills athletic ability to recover...as a last resort to save Mayfield from being sacked, Wills sticks his arm out in an attempt keep the DE away. It was an act of desperation after being beaten by the speed rush.

The rest of the OLine on that play...great job!

So, anyone else think that maybe Joe Thomas had a small hand in this?
I'd say that, at the very least, Wills spent a LOT of time studying film of Joe and then practicing the things he saw.


With the question of Wills all but resolved, and Teller looking to beast out and lock down RG permanently, it's pretty safe to say that our OLine is beyond solid; we've got studs at all 5 spots. We have the kind of line that was only a pipe dream back in the days of Orlando Pace buying a house in Sandusky. On top of that, with Hubbard acquitting himself fairly well, and Drew Forbes still having solid potential, we have five studs AND depth. Add in our skill positions and this offense is really just an embarrassment of riches. I honestly cannot recall any team being this stacked at EVERY position.

Drew Forbes opted out of the season.

The quickness of the feet to set up! Wow!

I'm going from memory here .... but there was some really excellent analysis and breakdown of film on all the top tackles pre-draft. I forget who did it - but they were plenty good and deep. From memory the biggest single criticism on Wills (other than the probable switch from RT to LT) was that he had a tendency to take a big initial kick back to get into position - at the time he was playing RT that initial step was with his right foot. The film highlighted how some rushers could exploit such a big initial step by coming back inside.

Looking at this one clip - Will is showing really fast feet, but perfectly in control with smaller steps. It seems to be a really significant change already and he's now on the flip side. Impressive learning curve.

I’ve said it before, but, this offense is a simple scheme for the linemen. Which is good. Very good. Because it is schematically easy, it is much more technique-driven.

It looks like the o-line has learned the scheme, and now will keep on working the technique and execution.

Callahan was a HUGE addition for this team.

This wasn’t a bad line last year, statistics have shown, it is now gelling into a great one.

Actually the zone blocking scheme isn't simple at all.

Actually it is.
Just difficult to master,because it relies heavily on team work.

I remember an episode of the Thomahawk podcast where they talked about how easy it was to pickup Shanahan’s offense.

j/c:

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but ZBS is more complicated than Man blocking. By far.

I will say that BC is correct in that working cohesively is the biggest factor in the success of ZBS. I've said this before, but it's like a synchronized swim team or a dance team. Timing, synchronicity, and cohesion are huge. You want smarter guys playing in a ZBS. Any dummy can man block, as long as is powerful enough. LOL.....that's not actually true, but there are big, dumb guys who can dominate in a Man or Base blocking scheme and would be ineffective in a ZBS.

It's a minor point, but Thomas was the only LT taken ahead of us at #4. Becton was the first pick after us, and Wirfs 2 picks after Becton.

I was curious. Thomas was supposed to be the "plug-and-play" LT. Has anyone seen him play? How has he been?

I haven't seen him play but PFF has a 56.0 rating on him FWIW. But is is only two games which is a very small sample size. Compare this to Wills who has a score of 66.4.

Thank you for the reminder ... I knew there was a run, for some reason I had it flipped. 3 OT's in 4 picks and we were the first to pick after Thomas went #4.

j/c

I was 100% on the Becton train before the draft. I ranked the top 4 like this. Becton, Thomas, Wirfs and Wills. I still think Becton will be a fine pro. But I am very happy with JWills. The Browns talent evaluators knew the skill set they wanted at the position and Wills is delivering.

I'm off work today so I have time to play...
Wyatt Teller

Nice article. Thanks, Good read.

It does start with a misstatement in the 1st sentence:
"Since the controversial trade of Kevin Zeitler, the Browns have been seeking to fill the void left by his departure at right tackle, currently on third-year guard Wyatt Teller."

Zeitler's departure was not at right tackle.

Yeah, that does stink. Calls for some kind of deodorant. Right Guard?

Cup of Joe: How do you make an O-lineman uncomfortable? Tell him how great he is

In his weekly column, Joe Thomas praises the Browns O-line while explaining why it's a weird feeling to be on the receiving end of it

Sep 24, 2020 at 10:25 AM
JoeThomas-Author
Joe Thomas
Columnist



Catch Joe Thomas TONIGHT at 6:30 p.m. when he co-hosts "Browns Live" powered by FirstEnergy with Nathan Zegura. The 100 percent fan-focused show, which will stream on all of the Browns social platforms, will feature multiple segments with Coach Kevin Stefanski, interviews with players, film breakdowns and more.

Each game week, Joe will share his insights, memories and more in this weekly column, "Cup of Joe."



Offensive linemen aren't wired for praise and adulation. It makes us uncomfortable.

That's because, as an offensive lineman, you learn that attention is usually a bad thing. You usually shun it because the only type of attention that an offensive lineman is usually getting is when it's bad: penalties, offsides, holding, false starts, sacks allowed, pressures, quarterback hits, mental errors. There are very few times in an offensive lineman's life cycle where he likes to have the spotlight on him. Even when you make a nice block and you scored a touchdown, typically, the focus is going to be on the person that scored the touchdown. You can run over there and do the Joel Bitonio and try to get your face on camera by giving the running back a little hug but even still, most of the time the camera and the ball carrier are saying "Get out of my way. I'm trying to show my friends and family at home who scored this touchdown."

We would always say in our o-line room, "I don't want to be the reason." If you're a receiver and you're the reason, that typically means you're the reason you won, made a great catch. But when you're the reason as an offensive lineman, they're talking about the reason you lost. You just don't want to be singled out.

Over the past week, I'm guessing there have been plenty of uncomfortable moments for the Browns offensive line. They've been the focus of a lot of praise — a lot of it coming from me! — since last week's dominant performance against the Bengals.

It had to be one of the most dominating performances that I can remember in recent memory. Thinking back, the last time the Browns offensive line and running game was that overwhelmingly dominant was probably 2014 when we played the Steelers at home in that great blowout win. Unfortunately, that was the game that Alex Mack broke his leg but I think that was the most recent game where everything you did was dominating the defense. They had their heads on a swivel because they had no idea what play was coming, and it didn't matter anyways because they couldn't stop any of them.

It's early, but what I've seen has been impressive. And I give Kevin Stefanski a lot of credit because when we had Kyle Shanahan in 2014, we really didn't run anything but outside zone. It takes some time to learn and gel because it is very different and the coordination needs to be spot on. It has to be like that Swiss watch, a timepiece that is perfectly machined and coordinated, or it doesn't work and you have big losses. But Kevin hasn't only featured outside zone. He smartly realized, "Hey, I've got Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller and JC Tretter. Those are guys that are very good at getting out in space, pulling, hitting targets." And so he's featured and sprinkled in a lot of that stuff early on.


https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/cup...how-great-he-is

With Conklin back, will Hubbard or Teller be at RG?