- CORNERBACK

Safeties communicating with CBs last season in Cleveland was about as comprehensible as a Jamaican truck driver using Russian radio code in Newfoundland. Fans screaming blame at former DC Joe Woods for the frequency of crossed signals was louder than house music at a rave in a wine cellar. The expectation is that new helmsman Jim Schwartz will clean that up.

The evident locks here are: Denzel Ward with his market-topping (at time of signing) contract, Greg Newsome II (2021 1.26) — in spite of all the chatter about him being unhappy with his role last year which seems to be more related to Joe Woods' system than a specific aversion to the slot, and Martin Emerson Jr. who was a revelation as a rookie last season — a home-run pick by Andrew Berry at 3.68 (he was my best available CB on the board at the time).

As an exclusive rights free agent, A.J. Green III was due only the minimum for his two years of service ($940K) in order to prevent him from negotiating elsewhere. Berry, in a stroke of either behind-the-scenes brilliance or skull-numbing idiocy, gave him almost half a million more than that. So presumably there's a bit of a wink going on here so as to indicate that paying the guy more than you need to this season makes it easier to retain him as an RFA in 2024 and/or when he's unrestricted after that — almost like an advance on earnings to curry favor in future contract talks.

Green played well on the outside in his first full season (2021), but frequently looked a bit out of sorts last year moving back and forth from the slot to the boundary like a coked-up clock pendulum. He has $900K guaranteed in his current deal; he'll be on the team in September as the fourth corner.

Thomas Graham Jr. filled in as the slot CB during week 12 last year for the Browns and seemed far more comfortable in his 33 snaps there than did Green in his 75; he had half as many reps as Green on the outside in 2021 (80 to 161) and looked good there too, with Chicago at the time. Despite posting similar, but better, performance grades to those of A.J. Green III, Graham appeared to be on his way to the waiver wire even before his ankle injury in the first preseason game. Also a 2023 ERFA, Graham was due just his minimum to stay in Cleveland and that's what he's signed to: $940K with zero guaranteed. Either Green or Graham would be good as a depth piece in this group, but they shouldn't be separated by this much coin.

Cameron Mitchell is a 2023 draft pick (5.142), and as such, is a Brinks-cash-vault lock to make the 53 even if he were to drive a stolen dump truck through the oncology department at Kaiser on LSD. Mitchell played less than 5% of his snaps in the slot over four seasons with Northwestern (79/1667) despite being sold to Cleveland fans as having inside/outside flexibility in a post-draft press conference — an assertion made even more confounding by the fact that Texas A&M's Antonio Johnson was available at the time (second/third round grade). He played more than 1000 snaps in the slot for the Aggies and another 400-plus at the traditional safety positions. Possibly selected in the fifth as an attempt to assuage the somewhat irked Newsome (as the two played together in college), we'll begin to find out what the team has in Mitchell this training camp.

Tanner McCalister and Caleb Biggers are rookie UDFAs getting their feet wet at the pro level. McCalister was listed as a safety at Ohio State and Oklahoma State before that, but during his five-year college career he played in the slot more than anywhere else. Biggers played about a quarter of his college snaps at safety across five seasons at Bowling Green and Boise State, the first of which (2018) he played almost exclusively there, so he has some versatility too. But these two are fighting an uphill battle, as is Chris Westry: a 6-foot-4-and-a-half, 210-pound leviathan with a nearly 82-inch wingspan; he's been bouncing around the league like a racquetball on a bumper-car course ever since going undrafted in 2019.

Thakarius "BoPete" Keyes was signed as Dawson Deaton was waived/injured. Having had seven prior teams already since being taken in the final round of the draft by Kansas City in 2020, his tires have been kicked more than a heavy bag in a Muay Thai gym. Last year he was a PS-only player and hasn't seen live action since 2021 when he played a whopping eight regular-season snaps for the Colts. He's been virtually boundary-only as an NFL CB. His chances of making the roster are almost half as good as fishing with dynamite in your living room aquarium without getting the floor wet.

Update: Keyes has now also been waived/injured.

Taking Keyes' place is someone just as likely to cure childhood obesity in extra terrestrials as he is to make the Browns' initial 53: Lorenzo Burns. Burns has been with the two-time USFL champion Birmingham Stallions since being drafted by them in the 11th round in 2022; he was teammates there this season with Browns' recent WR signing Austin Watkins Jr. Burns was signed by the Cardinals as a UDFA the year prior to being drafted by Birmingham, but was waived (twice) and ultimately landed on Jacksonville's PS. With the Arizona Wildcats in college he was primarily an outside corner.

Now entering the realm of unlikelihood: Gavin Heslop. Signed after Graham was lost to an ankle injury expected to drag into the regular season, Heslop has spent the three years since 2020 yo-yoing between practice squads and activation like a rubber elevator on bungee cords.

A great signing by AB & Co., Mike Ford Jr. has $925K in guarantees ($325K as a signing bonus which isn't reimbursable). His full note is $1.5M and he'll be worth every bit of it to STC Bubba Ventrone. We'll discuss Ford more in part 11: safety.

- What it should look like:

CB Denzel Ward21

- Martin Emerson Jr23

- Greg Newsome II0

- AJ Green III38

- Mike Ford Jr28

- Cameron Mitchell29

- What it's more likely to look like:

CB Denzel Ward21

- Martin Emerson Jr23

- Greg Newsome II0

- AJ Green III38

- (Mike Ford Jr28: cut 8/29, re-sign 8/30)

- Cameron Mitchell29

Position groups will be posted throughout August.