Collins Still Out, and the Browns Have No One Behind Him

Maliek Collins remains out with his knee injury as training camp opens, and there is still no public timeline for his return. He was the only defensive tackle who played meaningful snaps for Cleveland last season. The names behind him on the depth chart — Malik Jackson, Mike Hall — have not logged significant playing time at this level. That is the whole problem in one sentence.

It compounds what I noted earlier this week: the Clowney pursuit was partly about adding pass-rush juice, but it was also about masking what happens when the interior collapses. That plan is gone now. Clowney signed back with Houston on Saturday, and the Browns are left with the same front they had when camp began — thin, unproven behind the starter, and now missing the starter.

Andrew Berry spent real money shoring up the secondary, and those moves made sense. Ward and Delpit are locked in. But a healthy secondary only does so much when opposing offenses can run at will through the middle. The defensive tackle position is the one spot on this roster where there is genuinely no fallback, and right now the fallback is what Cleveland has.