Brian Winters, veteran right guard for the New York Jets, was released on 8/2/2020 after 7 seasons with the team.
He now becomes a free agent which begs the question: Should the Cleveland Browns sign him?
The short answer is YES PLEASE and do it quickly.
A surprise release: Jets are cutting last season’s starting right guard Brian Winters, per source.
As a starting guard, Winters is not expected to be without a job very long.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 2, 2020
In 2020, when Andrew Berry is being super aggressive with filling the holes that hampered this team in the past couple of years, it begs the question why hasn’t the right guard position been evaluated more closely already?
Partly because there are not an abundance of guards on the market and partly because it is an often overlooked position.
Let’s take a look at the right guards currently on the Browns roster.
Neither of the right guards on the Browns roster is exactly a household name.
Both are hard-working players who have limited NFL experience.
1. Wyatt Teller
Teller is 25 years old.
He came into the NFL in 2018.
A Virginia Tech graduate, he played for the Buffalo Bills.
He started as a left guard during the last half of the 2018 season (Week 10 forward) with the Bills.
In 2019, the Browns acquired Teller via trade, and he started from Week 9 through the end of the 2019 season.
Another what I believe is a good team block from Teller and Tretter on a 1st and 10 run play. pic.twitter.com/t0IQBDUZRv
— ChadP71 @BrownsAccess (@chadp71) March 10, 2020
Wyatt Teller’s play has a lot of upsides.
He is still inexperienced and has not played a full season with an NFL team.
Because of the timing of his trade, he did not have a full preseason or training camp with the Browns in 2019.
He gained starting duties because the team was not playing well.
But he seemed to make the adjustment from left to right guard relatively well in the midst of all those changes.
2. Malcolm Pridgeon
Another young player, Malcolm Pridgeon, is 2nd on the Browns depth chart at right guard.
Pridgeon was an undrafted free agent in 2019.
Initially, he signed with the Texans, but after being waived, the Browns signed him to the practice squad.
He had a great collegiate career at Ohio State, playing in every game in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons after playing 2 seasons as a tackle at Nassau Community College.
Ohio State’s Malcolm Pridgeon’s journey has been a long, winding one. He started college football at Nassau Community College in New York. Now he’s a starting guard for the Buckeyes.
“Saturday was an amazing feeling. It was an amazing feeling that I knew would come.” pic.twitter.com/LpF2MqzjvP
— Derrick Webb (@dw1509) September 5, 2018
Pridgeon is clearly a hard worker and a good up-and-coming player.
Why Brian Winters?
He fills a lot of the gaps that the Browns have at right guard.
Winters has the right mix of age and NFL experience to be an immediate impact player for the Browns.
Injuries are a concern, of course.
Winters has finished 2 of the last 3 seasons on IR (2017 and 2019).
In 2017, he injured his abdomen in Week 2 and tried to play through it before ultimately being put on IR in December.
Winters suffered a shoulder injury during a 2019 preseason game that plagued him all season before going on IR in November.
The Browns need to sign him because he is a step up in experience and skill in the position.
And he is not going to be available long.
The Jets are releasing G Brian Winters, per @AdamSchefter
Winters allowed 1 sack in 346 pass-blocking snaps last season pic.twitter.com/eYW8ggomiR
— PFF (@PFF) August 2, 2020
Stefanski’s former team, the Minnesota Vikings, has a need at this position and may consider signing Winters.
I bet Baker would like Winters blocking for him.
Mayfield was sacked 25 times in 2018 and 40 times in 2019.
Andrew Berry needs to act fast and get Brian Winters in the orange and brown ASAP.
Arizona just landed Brian Winters for next to nothing. Given Winters wealth of experience as a starting Guard in the NFL relative to his very low cost RG Brian Winters was a great depth signing. At 6”5/320 Winters is a good run blocker and above average pass protector allowing 3.0 sacks in 2020 and just 1.0 sack the year before in 2019. AZ will have a nice 3 way competition in camp for that starting guard job between 2020 3rd round pick
6”5/320pd OT/G Josh Jones who was ranked as one of the best tackles in the 2029 draft posting the highest pass protection grade at LT of 93.9 coming out allowing 1 sack in 3 years and ranked 14th overall in PFFs top 100 big board. AZ is so loaded down at tackle AZ plans to get Jones on the field at RG. Also competing will be 6”5/315pd RT/RG Justin Murray who’s a beast run blocking and is an average pass protector usually keeping his overall PFF grade in the low 70s.. 6”5/320PD RG Brian Winters has his hands full with those two along with back up C/G Lamont Gaillard who is getting better and better and pure back OG 6”4 Max Garcia. I don’t see Winters beating out Murray or Josh Jones but he gives AZ one more quality backup along that OL.
T/G 6”5 Josh Jones possess elite athleticism, elite foot speed and quickness and he has great hands with perfect technique. Josh Jones is the guy I think who will get the starting nod as Josh Jones has Pro Bowl caliber talent and ability.
The rest of the OL around Kyler Murray will be one of the games Elite top 3-5 OL”s. 2015 1st round pick Elite NFL LT DJ Humphries has developed into a 1st Team All Pro caliber tackle and he had an All Pro caliber season last year in 2020. The 6”5/310pd Humphries posted an Elite 88.5 PFF Grade while Playing THE MOST snaps in the NFL among OTs of 1129 and he also posted an elite 91.3 run blocking grade. Humphries is a beast. Next to DJ is former 2013 1st round pick 6”5/320PD LG Justin Pugh is an excellent above average LG himself ranking as a top 10 pass protecting OG in the NFL allowing just 1 sack and he ranks above average overall in 6”5 LG Justin Pugh.
Massive 6”3/300pd Elite All-Pro Center Rodney Hudson is an ABSOLUTE BEAST on the field in every sense of the world ranking both as not only elite but as THE BEST pass protecting Center on the face of the earth and he is even more dominant run blocking, making him the best overall center on planet earth. Hudson has allow ONE SINGLE Sack in the last SIX YEARS dating back to 2015. Going from one of the worst to arguably thee best center in the NFL is a massive upgrade for Murray and AZs offense and for Murray we like see his passing really take off and improve now that he has a pocket he can confidently step up into and he no longer has to worry about pressure in his face, it’s why Russell Wilson wanted an upgrade to an elite center so badly.
At RG I think last years draft picks massive 6”6/310pd Josh Jones will start. Jones was as dominant as they come at OT coming out of school ranking as the highest graded player 8 of his last 9 games. Jones was ranked 14th on PFFs top 100 for a reason and that is with his elite athleticism/ quickness paired with his size makes one of the best T/G prospects in earth posting an elite 93.2 overall grade an elite 89.2 overall pass protecting grade with an elite 92.7 run blocking grade allowing 4 pressures and zero sacks all year long in 2019 with an ELITE Pass-Blocking Efficiency of 99.2 which is unheard of, just off the charts.
Jones has taken to Guard like a duck to water and has excelled at RG over the course of his entire rookie season just getting better and better in practice. At 6”5/320 with his elite power and athleticism Josh Jones is going to be something special as he in all likelihood is going to be a multi time All Pro slash Pro Bowl RG and that all starts week 1 in all likelihood. And behind Jones AZ has another excellent above average mauling starting RG in 6”6 Justin Murray so talent is not an issue.
Starting at RT is an excellent well above average NFL RT starting with 6”5/305pd RT Kelvin Beachum who’s an excellent well above average NFL RT and he excels in pass protection. Beachum can also play LT, Josh Jones can play LT & RT/RG, and Justin Murray plays RT/RG so there is a lot of positional flexibility which AZ requires in their OL men.
More importantly as to why AZ finally has an elite top 5 caliber OL (allowed 2nd fewest (27) and fewest QB Hits among OLs n 2021) is that they have one of the best OL coach’s and run game coordinators in the NFL in Sean Kugler who is an absolute savage on the field and he knows how to draft and develop OL Men. The majority of OL Coach’s know how to draft line talent but they don’t or can’t develop it, Kugler doesn’t bring a player in without a long term development plan specifically for that player. You get a guy who actually knows how to draft and develop offensive linemen, who knows what to look for In the good offensive linemen and you all of the sudden have one of the games elite top 5 offensive lines.