CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Joe Woods got everything he wanted for Christmas this offseason, and then some.
Executive vice president of football operations and general manager Andrew Berry gifted him an overhauled defense – front to back – through in free agency and the draft to help position the Browns to take the next step in January.
“Very excited. Not only me, the whole entire defensive staff,” Woods said Thursday following the completion of minicamp and the offseason program. “I feel like AB, the scouts, I think they did a great job in free agency. A great job in the draft, just in terms of bringing in talented players at key positions. We are excited about the future and cannot wait to get training camp going.”
Now the pressure is on Woods to deliver schematically and situationally this fall with his rebuilt roster.
“I will be honest with you, it is the NFL [and] I have been in the hot seat for 30 years,” Woods said. “Every year, you get contracts, but you keep your job based on how your players, your position or your unit performs. I was very excited of what we were able to accomplish. It has not been done around here for a long time, but this is a show me game. That is the NFL, and I have to produce. I am in charge of the defense, and I am excited about it. The players we acquired, I am excited to get going and really hopefully play better defense than we did last year.”
In 2020, opponents converted nearly 44% of the time on third down and an astonishing 81.5% on fourth down.
Despite being outscored during the regular season by 11 points, the Browns managed to win 11 games to end the league’s longest playoff drought at 18 years. Granted, the plus-minus differential was skewed by two blowouts – 38-6 at Baltimore in Week 1 and 38-7 at Pittsburgh in Week 6.
With a revamped defensive line, upgrades at linebacker and in the secondary, Woods is expected to be able to turn his guys loose on opposing quarterbacks, receivers and running backs while running the schemes he wanted to now that he has the personnel to do it.
“Last year, there was a whole lot of things you can say but we have the mindset of no excuses, no explanations, week-in and week-out try to find a way to win,” Woods said. “So just based on practice time, players available, there were certain things that we were not able to get to. But now, moving forward, we already started the process in the offseason of installing some new defensive packages and some new cover schemes, just so we can dictate the tempo a little bit more.”
Jadeveon Clowney and Takkarist McKinley were added in free agency to line up opposite of Myles Garrett and after cutting Sheldon Richardson and losing Larry Ogunjobi to the Bengals in free agency, the competition at defensive tackle should be fierce in training camp.
The gang up front is drawing comparisons to what Woods worked with in San Francisco during the 2019 season.
“We have not played a game yet, and on paper, it all looks good, but it is all about what you do between the white lines,” Woods said. “In terms of the comparison, you can see we have ability, but it is all going to be based on how we perform if we are similar to that unit.”
Linebacker Anthony Walker was added in free agency while Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah fell to the second round of the draft and the Browns moved up to grab him. They used their first-round pick on Greg Newsome II, a cornerback from Northwestern to pair opposite of Denzel Ward.
“I believe we were considering both players at No. 26,” Woods said. “To me, it felt like we got two first-rounders, for sure. Both Greg and JOK, those guys are very smart players, and they are very competitive players. They just bring a different element to the team.”
Safety John Johnson III was signed to help anchor the back end of the defense and a healthy Grant Delpit debuts as well.
The Browns defense is now faster and more versatile, by design.
In all, Woods is expected to field nine new starters this year and getting them to gel will be a priority in camp and the preseason.
“I feel like it will not be as much of a problem as people may think it will be,” Woods said. “Again, there may be six or more starters [added to the roster], but I am excited about that just in terms of what we were able to bring in.”
