The Cleveland Browns need someone to step up.
They didn’t draft any wide receivers despite having a myriad of draft picks, which means that they either didn’t think they had a need at the position or they felt like they had bigger areas of concern.
Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is that their wide receivers room is far from impressive right now.
With that in mind, Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report predicted that they would have to rely heavily on one of their youngsters.
In his latest column, he chose second-year WR Jamari Thrash as a potential breakout candidate:
“In the Browns’ case, the fact that they didn’t take a wide receiver despite losing Elijah Moore this offseason says they like who they have at the position,” Ballentine wrote. “That would indicate confidence that a player like Jamari Thrash is going to step into a bigger role. He only had three catches as a rookie, but he’s already been highlighted for a few catches in OTAs, and there’s clearly a path for him to carve out a role alongside Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman.”
The fans expected Thrash to get a longer leash at some point in his rookie season, especially considering how much the team was struggling and the fact that they weren’t going to make the playoffs.
That wasn’t the case at all.
Then again, just like Ballentine pointed out, Thrash has drawn some rave reviews in the early phase of OTAs, and he’s getting reps with the first team, meaning that he might be a starter right out of the gate.
Given how things fared for him as a rookie, one would assume that the Browns would go with Cedric Tillman ahead of him.
Nevertheless, even if he has also shown flashes of great play, the team has never given him a legitimate opportunity to prove his worth since he entered the league a couple of years ago, so nothing’s set in stone right now.
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