Cleveland Browns: 5 offseason needs in 2020
By Randy Gurzi
2. One, maybe two starting safeties
This shouldn’t have been such a dire need based on what we saw in 2018. That season, John Dorsey looked like a genius as he flipped former starting quarterback DeShone Kizer to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Damarious Randall. A former first-round pick, Randall converted to free safety after playing cornerback in Green Bay.
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Randall, who played safety collegiately at ASU, excelled in the role. He quickly endeared himself to the Dawg Pound with his stellar play and the way he handled himself off the field. However, his attitude took a turn once he was unable to land an extension ahead of the 2019 season.
Playing in a contract year, Randall struggled to stay healthy and was inconsistent. Cleveland also had issues alongside him as Jermaine Whitehead never lived up to the hype the coaches sold fans on and Morgan Burnett took a while to get rolling. Then once he started to turn things around, he tore his Achilles and was lost for the year.
Now heading into 2020, this has become a massive need. Randall will surely be gone and even if Burnett somehow recovers quickly enough to be a starter by Week 1, they will still have just one player they can truly feel comfortable with.
They do have Sheldrick Redwine, who they believe can develop, but he’s really raw at this point. That means that in this coming draft, they need to find someone in the top 100 to compete for snaps.