DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Jedrick Wills. Time to crown him a bust

Maybe the coaches might consider moving him to guard next year if we can find another LT. Just a thought.

I don't remember if his historical performance supports the idea of him being a better runblocker than passblocker, but I could see him moving back to his original RT position if we were able to find a more consistent pass-blocking LT. Jones has been good so far, but it's going to take more than 2 good games for me to dub him our LT of the future.

I think you meant vaunted, Steve. And from what I’m seeing in the first three games, this is a historic D at this point. I fully expect teams to catch up, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not expecting more of the same this week. And I think the lights came on last game for Watson, so if he’s not running for his life, I think we’ll be just fine. I think we’ll win this one handily but end up splitting on the season. The Ravens always get in our head at least one game.

Surely that thought couldn't have existed since Wirts had experience playing LT and RT in both high school and college. Wills on the other hand had never played a snap at LT until he came to the Browns. All the talk about it not mattering because he protected Tua's blind right side in college is hog wash. There's a completely different set-up and foot movement between the 2 tackle positions. The first step back is the most important because of the increased speed in the pros compared to college. Garrett would eat Wills up consistently if he played across from him. Like I said though, Wills is in his 4th year and still making the same mistakes he made in year 1. The Browns picked up his 5th year option, so he's guaranteed the 14.124M and has a cap hit for $14,581,352 next year due to restructuring his salary this year.

Cutting Wills isn't an option with a dead money cap hit of $15,953,409.
Trading Wills would require someone taking on his 14.124M guaranteed salary and still leave the Browns with a $1,829,409 in dead money charged to the cap.
Giving Wills a new deal would most likely cost the Browns at least 16.0M per season and probably more. That's the huge drawback of exercising that 5th year option and him playing all the time. I'm sure Wills and his agent believe he's worth a lot more than what we have seen on the field in his 4 years of starting.
Finally, the Browns could let Wills play out his 5th year option and let him walk after the season leaving the Browns with no LT with experience and the 2 off-seasons to try to address.  
As of today (this could certainly change) Wills is scheduled to be the highest paid OL for the Browns next season.

OT Wills: Contract = $4,925,729 APY, 2024 salary guaranteed 14.124M, 2024 cap hit $14,581,352
OT Conklin: Contract = 15M APY, 2024 salary = 4.5M, 2024 cap hit = 12.967M
C Pocic: Contract = 6.0M APY, 2024 salary = 1.66M, 2024 cap hit = 3.984M
OG Teller: Contract = 14.2M APY, 2024 salary = 1.5M, 2024 cap hit = $11,610,300
OG Bitonio: Contract = 16M APY, 2024 salary = 1.210M, 2024 cap hit = 12.135M
OG Forbes: Contract = 1.325M APY, 2024 salary = 1.125M, 2024 cap hit = 1.225M
OT Hudson: Contract = $1,068,104 APY, 2024 salary = 1.055M, 2024 cap hit = $1,253,104
OT Jones: Contract = $1,158,084 APY, 2024 salary = $915,000, 2024 cap hit = $1,113,084
C Wypler: Contract = $1,004,993 APY, 2024 salary = $915,000, 2024 cap hit = $959,993
C Deaton: Contract = $$935,734 APY, 2024 salary = $795,000, 2024 cap hit = $815,734
OG Dunn: Contract = 1.010 APY, 2024 salary = FREE AGENT
C Harris: Contract = $902,412, 2024 salary = FREE AGENT
OG Leatherwood: Contract = $216,000, 2024 salary = FREE AGENT

Interesting enough, the only player left out of all the OL players listed with enough salary for a restructure in 2024 would be Conklin which would free up 2.632M. All the other OL on the list are already down to the league minimum for salary, would bring less than $400,000 in cap relief, or can't be restructured.

...can you name a tackle that Myles wouldn't eat up consistently? We might get to see how Trent Williams fairs pretty soon.

Foot speed isn't Wills' problem. Neither is the side change. His technique is fine. He can perform perfectly well at LT.

Unfortunately, being able to do something and consistently doing that something aren't the same thing.

Another problem Wills faces is he follows Joe Thomas.

I am always hesitant to claim someone the best ever, but Joe was clearly on any short list of LT's.

I say this for illustrative purposes, but if you have driven a Rolls Royce for 10 years, then have to drive a Ford Taurus, no disrespect to the Taurus, it's a fine car, but it's just not going to stack up.

Wills may not even be a Taurus but there is some of that going on.

I don't disagree with what you have said but I don't think many people are or were expecting another Thomas out of Wills. The expectación level is certainly high but to be a Thomas would be a hard sell. The issue is that it is year 4 with a guaranteed 5th year option and Wills has never had a PFF grade above the low 60's and most of the time in the 50's. He's sitting at 47.3 right now and that's a far cry from Thomas' consistent mid to high 90's. They both were 1st round picks and accepting or even suggesting that Wills 47.3 PFF grade is an acceptable average play is looking at his play with blinders on. Really, the Browns have a rookie tackle on the right side out playing him right now - and "tackles are tackles" according to the Browns GM. The minimum acceptable PFF grade for a 1st round pick like Wills should be 75.0 and that would put him 16th in the league currently. Wills hasn't sniffed anything close to a 75.0 PFF grade in 3 plus years now and that would be outwardly accepting 20 points lower than Thomas as being acceptable play.

The question remains as to how long the Browns will continue to pay for his subpar play? Do they continue to wait for the lightbulb to finally come on or do they pull the plug after the 230M QB gets broke in two and out for the season? Wills footwork and speed has to be evident on every play, not just when the moment suits him. There's a lot of cap tied up in the position he's paid to protect every play. A 47.3 PFF grade is not cutting the mustard and nowhere close to being average tackle play (not being ranked 63rd out of 67 ranked tackles currently).

I would agree w/that Peen. Having to follow Thomas isn't easy, especially here (and when we are supposed to be competing)

But but, but …. Aaron Rogers followed Brett Farve, and that turned out ok.

Agreed it can happen, but it is rare.

Wills has some back-breaking penalties. Holding, false start just off the top of my head.

[social:insta]http://twitter.com/Rob_Shenanigans/status/1708543044390105256[/social]

I dunno. That one to open the game on Cooper was pretty bad. He was just lazy and grabbed the DBs arm without putting hardly any effort into actually blocking the guy. I hope Jed's condition isn't contagious.

I'm growing worried about our OL in general ... and we don't have Chubb to cover up the warts

Wills is a popular scapegoat around here (not trying to defend him, he's earned his criticism), but I'm way more shocked at the play of the interior than our tackles. Bitonio and Teller, in particular, have looked dreadful compared to their usual level and we're supposedly an embarrassment of riches at center but I'm just not seeing it. Wills gets hammered on here in terms of penalties and missed blocks but off the top of my head I'd assume he's not that far out in front of the more popular starters (please correct me if I'm wrong).

You're right .. Bitonio and Teller have been sub-par and it's hurting our entire offense

I think a part of the problem might be guys are putting too much focus on trying to be technically perfect in games instead of just going out and playing. It almost looks as if they are caught up too much in what it's supposed to look like instead of responding to what's actually happening. It can be good to drill down on the details, but this may be another case of "too much of a good thing." Or that appearance may simply be due to the fact that passblocking is by nature reactive and we're somewhat giving up the initiative by default.

Or it may just be adjusting to game speed/intensity. Though, one would hope that would have happened by week 4.

The Ravens seemed to be playing like their hair was on fire on D. Maybe more running calls would have helped us to meet that intensity. I (and the coaching staff) might be too focused on the "intellectual" side of the play calling (number advantages, coverage weaknesses, etc) and not enough on the visceral side. Pass blocking is kind of like absorbing body blows, sometimes you've got to do it to set up a knockout punch. If the knockout blows aren't landing, though, you're taking a lot of damage and the opponent is going to start slipping more serious blows through your sagging defenses. Perhaps we do need to run more, or at least use more aggressive forms of passblocking (and/or RPOs). Let our OL take the fight to them. Even when the defense is setup to stop the run, maybe we need to let the OL punch them in the teeth anyway. "Pass"-ivity might not be the best fit psychologically for the guys we have on the OL. Jed certainly seems to suffer from (the) passivity at times. Our OL might be better suited to be "brawlers" than technically focused counter punchers.

We were behind the sticks a lot. "Analytically," runs aren't generally successful in those situations. Especially when Chubb isn't your RB. I do think his loss made us re-think our offensive identity and we were still figuring that identity out before he went down. Perhaps too much focus was on the QB and not enough on the OL as far as offensive identity goes.

Perhaps we can figure out a (new) way to passblock with more of a Brawler's mentality. Callahan may have his work cut out for him.

0% accuracy

I concur with your 0% accuracy. It is true that Bitonio and Teller have slipped a bit in their PFF Grades (currently ranked Teller 20th @ 65.6 and Bitonio 21st @ 65.2 among 76 rated guards) from the last couple of years when they have been in the top 10. I think you need to consider the situation presented to them different from years past. The Browns have a rookie RT who is performing well by most standards considering he's a rookie but he's a far cry from Conklin who had a PFF Grade of 74.5. Jones has needed help and has a current PFF Grade of 55.5 and ranked 53rd of 69 rated tackles warranting help that normally isn't needed. Pocic is currently the 5th best PFF Graded center in the NFL with a 72.2 grade. The huge chink in the armor is at LT where Wills right now is not only the worse or close to worse LT in the game, but he's also PFF Graded as the 64th ranked tackle out of 69 NFL ranked tackles. Almost 25% into the season and our first-round draft pick LT who just had his 5th year option picked up for 14.2M has a PFF Grade of 45.4 through 4 games. Wills is performing 10.1 grading points lower than our 4th round rookie RT Jones.

If I were a betting man, I would attribute Bitonio and Teller's slip largely to covering for the tackles. One is warranted to need help while the other, after getting an undeserved guaranteed 5th year option in his 4th year, is stinking up the joint.

People can spin it anyway they want - these are just Wills performance numbers, consistent poor numbers over his 3 plus years, and the numbers say we have one of the worse tackles in the NFL protecting Watson's blind side and it is getting worse.

They need to play better. Jones was our highest graded OL vs the Ravens. That matches what I've seen on re-watching the game, though it's not saying much. The OL struggled. Different players at different times, but they didn't do DTR any favors as a unit. DTR's inability to hit the broadside of a barn on anything down the field did the OL no favors.

Looks like Wills is more of a focal of attention than some believe here.

https://brownswire.usatoday.com/lis...m_source=pushly&utm_campaign=3624135


Do the Browns have any other realistic options at left tackle?
Cory Kinnan
October 3, 2023 4:31 pm ET

The Cleveland Browns have a problem at left tackle and a big one. Former tenth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft Jedrick Wills started his career out as a promising rookie on a playoff team. However, since then his play has not only plateaued but fallen off of a cliff this season. This comes on the heels of giving up another three pressures in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Through just four games, Wills has already surrendered 11 total pressures, one sack, and two hits on the quarterback. For reference, Wills gave up just 15 total pressures in his rookie season and 19 in his second season in the NFL.

The Browns picked up his fifth-year option this offseason, guaranteeing him about $15 million in 2024. However, as it currently sits, this is not a viable option for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

The tough reality, however, is that there are not 30 good left tackles in the NFL, let alone enough for every team to have two. And this is what the Browns have to come to terms with. There are no tackles on the open market to come in and plug-and-play.

The options are limited, and the bounds of reality have to be stretched to get here. However, here are a few options, including a couple that may not be all that realistic.

OT James Hudson III

Do you want the most realistic option to get Wills off the field? Bench him and start James Hudson III.

The only issue is that Hudson III has not been great when he has come on the field in relief of players like Jack Conklin and Wills over the past two seasons. His performances in the preseason against second and third-stringers did not do much to instill confidence either.

There is a reason rookie Dawand Jones was named the starting right tackle after the injury to Conklin despite Hudson’s spot-starting experience a year ago. But hey, a change could be a change at this point.

Broncos OT Garett Bolles

The obvious name on the trade market is Denver Broncos’ starting left tackle Garett Bolles. However, Bolles is already 31 years old as he was a rather old rookie out of the University of Utah and is under contract just through 2024. To add to that, his cap hit in the 2024 season is at $20 million, making the price to acquire him plus the price to pay him a bit much.

A mainstay of the Broncos since he was drafted, Bolles recently expressed his frustration with losing games in Denver. With Sean Payton now at the helm as well, he could be a coach who is looking to bring in all of his guys as well. This Broncos team is not good, and they may begin stockpiling assets.

Some think Bolles is a realistic option, and he is a player the Browns could go out and get still, but this kind of move would stretch Cleveland thin of assets.

Raiders OT Kolton Miller

Another starting tackle that would not cost their current team much money in dead cap space to move, Kolton Miller is an athletic specimen at the left bookend for the Las Vegas Raiders. And realistically for the Raiders, they will likely be looking for a new head coach and quarterback this offseason.
This lends a hand to a possible rebuild and toward the search for more draft capital at the expense of currently high-paid players on the roster. Like Bolles, however, the cost to acquire Miller would not be a cheap one for the Browns. However, if they were able to add Miller, they would inherit just a cap hit of around $15.6 million per year and a player who is under contract through 2025.

Again, we are scraping the barrel for any realistic tackle options, and the bounds of realism have to be stretched a bit.

The road forward is not optimistic.

Here is the reality of the situation: Jedrick Wills is guaranteed about $15 million next season. If the Browns decide to go out and get a Bolles or Miller from a bad team who might be looking to reset, they will have to give up a pretty penny and then try to get Wills off their books, so they are not over-invested at left tackle.

Left tackle is a hard position to find, so there is a possibility the Browns could find a taker. I mean, look at what Jawaan Taylor and Andre Dillard just got this offseason.

Reasons for optimism are all but lost with Wills. And to make matters worse, there is no real possibility of getting out of this rut without being financially reckless. The Browns have been careful with their rollover cap because that is how this spending spree is sustainable long-term.

The fiscally responsible thing to do is ride it out with Wills or bench him in favor of James Hudson III, but neither of those provides much of a promising outlook. They have put themselves in a position to compete for a Super Bowl. Every chip is in the middle of the table, so they may have to ask themselves if over-extending on the books this year (which will have repercussions in future years) is worth it to throw in one more chip.

I have the same questions at work. Everyone can identify the problem. What is the best solution?

In this case, what options are available that are better than Willis?

I personally am ok with Willis. He is average to above average. Watson and Willis need to work things out.

If you were the GM and disagreed with me, share your solution.

Not sure where Cory is getting his numbers as compared to Zegura on Browns State run radio. Zegura stated on Monday that Wills gave up 6 pressures alone in the game against the Ravens. He went on to say Wills has accounted for 18 of the 44 total pressures the OL has allowed thus far in the season.

It raises an eyebrow when the Browns own radio show permits the hosts to bag on a player.

One of these things is not like the others with the #Browns offensive line. Here are the PFF pass-block/run-block grades with pressures allowed and sacks given up:

- Wyatt Teller: 78.2/63.3 (5 pressures, 2 sacks)
- Joel Bitonio: 74.1/59.0 (8 pressures, 0 sacks)
- Dawand Jones: 71.5/41.4 (8 pressures, 0 sacks)
- Ethan Pocic: 65.1/71.8 (5 pressures, 1 sack)
- Jedrick Wills: 53.8/44.0 (18 pressures, 2 sacks)

Wills is an absolute liability at left tackle. The Browns cannot continue putting him out there and expecting anything to change. Wills gave up 41 pressures on 1,152 snaps in 2022 (0.03/snap). He's already given up 18 on 301 snaps this season (0.06/snap).

Also, the offensive line as a unit is not good. Out of 134 offensive lineman with at least 200 snaps played this season, the Browns don't have a single player graded inside the top-20:

- LT Wills: 45.4 (125th)
- LG Bitonio: 65.2 (48th)
- C Pocic: 72.2 (23rd)
- RG Teller: 65.6 (47th)
- RT Jones: 55.5 (102nd)

The complete drop-off of one of the best offensive lines in the NFL is disappointing to say the least. Without Nick Chubb and without a dominant, mauling offensive line, the Browns are suffering from an identity crisis on offense. And fans can absolutely feel it.

It was that second part of that tweet that I was trying to point out. IMO, I think that's more shocking than Wills continued decline (though to be honest, that first part of the tweet paints a far worse picture of Wills than I thought).

Is age finally catching up to Bitonio? I get Teller having to help Jones and the unfamiliarity there, but Bitonio has been playing next to Wills for a while now.

We've also played 4 stout dlines in a row to start the season (and have our toughest test coming up).


Wills has been steadily building the argument to NOT be our starting LT for the future for a while now. The problem is that in order to get him out of that spot, you have to find someone better, and that challenge is compounded by our salary cap.

I think we eagerly watch how Jones handles the year, and make a decision on him in the off-season (IIRC, he was a LT in college?). His passblocking seems to have held up well for a rookie and his strength should improve once he gets a full off-season with our training staff and going forward.

Jones played RT. Paris Johnson Jr. played LT.

I'll try.

Ther Browns are the highest spend team in the NFL this season. They basically have put all their eggs into the basket for this year because changes WILL occur next year. How do you then go into the "bye week" with almost 25% of the season gone with the worse or close to worse LT in football and expect to win? Not unlike Stefanski, it's no secret that Wills has played poorer each year. It's grossly obvious that picking up the 5th year option was a huge error in judgement also. That aside, the Browns can't continue to gamble week in and week out that this won't be the game that Wills misses a block that takes out an already injured 230M QB. The thought process that Wills is average to above average is a joke. Wills is an o-line liability at this point in his career plain and simple - his PFF Grades confirm this.

Better options:

1) First and foremost, Berry should have been banging the bushes long before now to address the LT issue via trade, FA, or PS players. I don't believe for a moment that there are not opportunities out there to correct the issue. Unfortunately, taking that path means that the Browns as an organization would have to admit that they were wrong about Wills. IMHO, that more than anything is the reason for the dragging of the feet in this case.

2) In the short term, if Berry is not going to spend the money, the most viable option is to move Bitonio to LT and play Dunn at the guard position. The snaps that Dunn has played has shown a comparable level of performance as Bitonio in pass blocking while Bitonio would be a huge upgrade in pass blocking compared to Wills at this stage of the season. Run blocking as a tandem (Dunn and Bitonio) would be a huge upgrade over the grades Bitonio and Wills as a tandem have generated. If Bitonio has lost a step, the move to LT might be a smart move.

Biggest Fear:

The biggest fear is that Berry will continue to sit on his hands. 2, 3, 5, to 7 weeks from now finally coming to the conclusion that Wills is not the guy will have irreversible damage to the Browns 2023 season. The loss of Chubb is and will have a dramatic effect on the team progressing through 2023. Compounding the problem by failing to address the LT issues would be an even greater loss to the success of the season. As a fan, I'm pissed off that this issue wasn't addressed after the last 2-years of regression by Wills and then handing him an unearned and undeserved 14.2M guaranteed 5th year option. However, we are where we are and ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away. I just hope that Nick Bosa doesn't break Watson in half in a couple of weeks. It will be too late then to address the problem.

The thing missing is root cause analysis.

WHY is he giving up as much as he does after getting tested and doing so well as a rookie? WHY did he do as well as he did as a rookie?? What is the change/difference??
Is it lingering injury issues?
Is he not getting help that he used to get??
Has he been "figured out" and he doesn't have an answer for how to handle what defenses are doing to beat him?
Is it Bitonio??
Are defenses doing things that our blocking scheme doesn't handle well?


Without knowing the WHY, you can't formulate a proper HOW.
The big problem for us on here is that pretty much none of us can know the WHY.

Wills and Bitonio have been awful handling stunts. Teams have been using them a lot. Unfortunately, it seems that when Wills is thinking about the stunts, he gets beat outside.

Wills stinks and is either lazy or just so slow to react to things. Couple that with no RB and an injured QB ... and we've got our work cut out

True, Wills is a mystery as to the why? ... but a residual effect has been with the two man game together with Bitonio who seemingly doesn't trust Wills, because Wills is not in good position (hips not parallel to the LS) to exchange and pass off the DT in order to pick up the outside DE looping around into the B gap in the heat of battle.

I don't believe that Joel forgot how two play the two man game ... that old saying of "you're only as strong as your weakest link" rings true once again.

We know that Joel is good player, but he can't be expected to block two pass rushers at the same time.

DCs' will find your weak link and find multiple ways to exploit it.

Our adjustment (in part) was to use Bryant to help on the edge to cover up for Wills propensity to open his hips and get beat on an inside move ... but he had a least one wiff on the edge, and really he's not that guy, also if you're using Njoku all the time, then you're making it easy for the defense to double your WRs'.

Then there's Hudson in his third year who hasn't pushed Wills whatsoever for playing time, and Jones (rightfully so) started ahead of him.

If I'm AB this would be my #1 priority before the trading deadline, and the sooner the better imo...

Stefanski LOVES Bryant ... and he is a liability in the blocking game (and then when he either fumbles or drops passes, one has to ask WHY does Stefanski love him lol)

maybe we should be kicking the tire on Lael Collins during this bye week?

The armchair OL coach in me says his problems boil down to two main issues:

1. Motor to complete a play/Inconsistency
2. Upper body strength.

I think he actually has really good foot work and overall athleticism. But I think he loses a lot of battles not being strong enough to maintain his blocking. Maybe that has to do with lower body strength too, but I see him getting handled when it comes to fighting off various arm moves and using his arms to guide his defender away from the pocket.

might not be a bad idea

Looking to dump Wills?


https://brownswire.usatoday.com/lis...m_source=pushly&utm_campaign=3661426

Dump? Probably not.

Bench? Maybe.