With the NFL regular season kicking off this Sunday for most teams, analysts are making their final predictions for the 2024 regular season.
PFF analyst Trevor Sikkema is no exception to that rule.
Sikkema made predictions for all 32 franchises in a recent article, and the “bold” Cleveland Browns’ forecast should excite the team’s fans.
The analyst focused his prediction on one of the team’s biggest strengths: the cornerback room.
Sikkema forecasted that the Browns’ starting cornerbacks would become a force to be reckoned with during the 2024 season.
“Denzel Ward, Martin Emerson, and Greg Newsome make for a very talented cornerback trio, and that group could take the step into the top spot as the best cornerback room in the NFL in 2024,” Sikkema wrote.
What held these players back from accomplishing that in 2023 was health issues as injuries forced Ward and Newsome to be sidelined at one point during last season.
Keeping all three of these athletes on the field at the same time would be a nightmare for opponents, the analyst suggested.
“With health on their side, I can see a dominant year from that group – and the league’s highest coverage grade collectively,” Sikkema wrote.
A first-place finish would be an improvement over last year’s mark when the Browns recorded a 76.6 coverage grade, the 11th-best mark in the league in 2023.
Ward is entering his seventh season with the Browns, and the former first-round selection has earned three Pro Bowl berths since 2018.
Newsome – a fellow first-round selection – entering his fourth year with the team, and the Browns picked up his fifth-year option this offseason.
Emerson is the newest member of this trio of athletes, having started 12 games last season for Cleveland in just his second season.
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