Getting left tackle right

Before starting, it must be pointed the Browns’ offensive line this season (if there is a season) will be infinitely better than last season’s sad group.

That said, remarks made recently by the new position coach for that unit of the 2020 Browns should not be taken too seriously. At least not yet. Here are a few reasons why.

Bill Callahan is considered by many observers as one of the best offensive line coaches in the National Football League. Has been for years and he has the résumé to back it up. But he has a tendency, as do position coaches, to occasionally engage in hyperbole.

He has been around the NFL since 1995 – with the exception of a four-year stint at Nebraska – in a variety of capacities. He is one of just a few rookie head coaches to lead a team (Oakland) to a Super Bowl (XXXVII). The Browns are his sixth NFL team.

He inherits incumbents at center (JC Tretter) and left guard (Joel Bitonio).

In a videoconference with the Cleveland media recently, Callahan gushed about the Browns’ selection of Jedrick Wills Jr. with their first pick in the college draft. Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta said Wills was the top tackle on their board.

After listening to Callahan, who probably lobbied hard to put Wills there on that board, one can understand why. “You could feel him on film,” he told the media. “He came alive on tape and you got excited about what he was doing.”

An almost visceral way of explaining what he saw. He continued.

“He’s got those intangibles that show up in tangible ways on film,” he said of someone who is a mere NFL infant. “You watch him finish, you watch his detail and technique, you watch his consistent effort and his stamina throughout the game from start to finish and . . . that’s what appealed to me.”

Whoa! That sure sounds as though Wills has All-Pro written all over his 6-4, 305-pound frame. This is as can’t miss as can’t miss can get.

No wonder fans who pay rapt attention to talk like that are getting excited about the rookie from Alabama, who will be thrown into the pro football fire playing on the opposite side of the line as the one he played for the Crimson Tide.

Wills, who played a smidgen at left tackle in high school before switching to the right side until now, is the presumptive heir apparent to future Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas, who retired in 2017.

“I’m quite confident he is capable of being our left tackle,” said Callahan. “They are going to go through some lumps and they are going to have times when they are going to get beat, but the best in the game get beat.”

Wonder if Callahan knows that Jack Conklin, the Pro Bowl right tackle the Browns signed as a free agent, was an All-America left tackle at Michigan State? The only reason the Tennessee Titans switched the college walk-on to the other side was because Pro Bowler Taylor Lewan had the left side locked down.

So the best offensive left tackle on the current roster is listed on the depth chart as a right tackle. That would be Conklin, whose experience on that side dwarfs Wills’ experience at the position, Callahan’s effusive praise notwithstanding.

Why not keep Wills at the position that garnered him all this attention and subsequent lofty draft position? He’d be much more comfortable there in his rookie season whereas all Conklin would need to do is quickly relearn to play a position he has always played until the NFL.

Muscle memory would return a lot quicker with Conklin than Wills. “From a muscle memory standpoint,” said Callahan, “you’ve got to get into a groove and a lot of that depends on the training and all that.

“But when you’re grooving a player, they need constant consistent reps day in and day out to get their game up to the level you want it.” Sure sounds a lot easier for Conklin than it would be for Wills.

“You talk about a system fit,” said Callahan. “You couldn’t get a more perfect tackle in free agency than Jack. . . . I’m really looking forward to digging down in the trenches with him and seeing how we can tweak some things and help his game.”

Maybe, just maybe, somewhere along the line between now and the start of the season (if there is a season), Callahan will discover the best and quickest way to strengthen the line will be to slot Conklin on the left side and Wills on the right.

That way, right guard, which Callahan labeled “up for grabs,” becomes the only slot that might cause concern. “I really believe we have some excellent players in there in Wyatt Teller, Drew Forbes, Colby Gossett and Willie Wright,” he said. 

Chris Hubbard, who struggled a right tackle the past two seasons and is now tethered to the bench, is an outside possibility at guard. “I really like Chris,” said Callahan. “I think he’s got a lot of value and a lot of upside and definitely will help us at some point.”

Upside at age 29? With seven seasons in the NFL? Hyperbole cuts in many different directions.