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Cleveland Browns 2027 Week One Roster Prediction - Offensive Tackle
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Previous Position Room

We will start by looking at how Andrew Berry's position room has been built to start the season each year:

2020 - Wills, Conklin, Hubbard, Lamm
2021 - Wills, Conklin, Hubbard, Hudson
2022 - Wills, Conklin, Hubbard, Hudson, Haeg
2023 - Wills, Conklin, Hudson, Jones
2024 - Wills, Conklin, Jones, Hudson
2025 - Jones, Conklin, Lucas, Leveston
2026 - Fano, Howard, Barber, Jones

Cash Spending Per Year

Here is the cash they have spend on the position room and the % of the salary cap:

2020 - $38,218,142 (19.28%)
2021 - $16,708,003 (8.22%)
2022 - $21,598,674 (10.37%)
2023 - $18,929,097 (8.42%)
2024 - $29,995,000 (11.74%)
2025 - $14,125,000 (5.06%)
2026 - $45,648,148 (15.16%)

Current Contracts

This looks at the cash in each players contracts and the amount of guarantees they have in their deals:

Tytus Howard
2026 - $21,000,000 (fully guaranteed)
2027 - $21,000,000 ($13.5m guaranteed)
2028 - $21,000,000 (no guarantees)

Spencer Fano
2026 - $20,803,784 (fully guaranteed)
2027 - $2,351,174 (fully guaranteed)
2028 - $3,817,348 (fully guaranteed)
2029 - $5,283,522 (fully guaranteed)
2030 - Fifth Year Option

Dawand Jones
2026 - $1,500,000 ($1,245,000 guaranteed)

Free Agency

Here is a look at the list of current unrestricted free agents sorted by the amount of snaps they have played so far this season:

The Draft

This chart shows the ages of the draft class at the time of the draft. Greens signifies the age of 66% of the prospects they have drafted in this range, yellow 33% and red is an age they have never taken in this range. So while it is unlikely they select a red player, it isn't impossible.

OBR VIP's can see my full October draft board with each position on it here.

Conclusion

Fano has been fantastic straight out the gates. We have seen several of the top tackles in the league struggle for the first half or full season as they adjust to the NFL but Fano has taken it all in his stride. No doubt there will be rough games to come as he has rookie growing pains at some point. Next week he will turn 22, so there is a very real chance he is their left tackle for the next ten years.

Howard had a rough first three weeks but then has been great since then. Returning to what he was across the rest of his NFL career, an above pass blocker but a below average at run blocking. That level of production is a good return for Cleveland through 2026 and 2027 as they reset their offensive line and look to compete. While they could get better, they could get significantly worse.

Dawand Jones has struggled, so this off season they need to go out and find a new swing tackle in free agency. This will likely cost around $3-5m but is worthwhile investment as you can't let an injury derail the offensive line. Someone like Josh Jones or Broderick Jones might be worth keeping an eye on, we know Andrew Berry loves to target a former first round pick and able to play at an acceptable level for a swing tackle.

It makes sense to draft someone on day three, you don't want to be using a premium pick when you have more pressing needs such as quarterback and edge to mention some. But once you get to the late third round where the Browns might be picking, anything is in play there.

No harm in having players like Dawand Jones and KT Leveston around the roster battling for a spot as there will want competition in camp.

Final 53

Spenser Fano
Tytus Howard
Free Agent
Day Three Draft Pick

This article first appeared on Orange and Brown Report and was syndicated with permission.

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