Browns' safety ranked in top 32 but it's probably not who you think

Safety was a position group that needed attention this offseason after the Browns let go of Juan Thornhill and lost Rodney McLeod to retirement. Cleveland didn't use any draft picks on a defensive back and instead addressed the depth of the room by adding veterans Damontae Kazee and Rayshawn Jenkins after the draft.

Heading into mandatory minicamp, the assumed starting safeties are Ronnie Hickman at free safety and Grant Delpit at strong safety. PFF continued their league rankings for every position, with Zoltán Buday tasked with ranking the NFL's safeties. Despite having a contract that puts him in the top half of safeties, Buday completely omitted Delpit from his top-32 safeties. However, Hickman did make a somewhat surprising appearance, coming in at No. 24 on the list.

Ronnie Hickman comes in at #24 in PFF top safety ranking

After listing Hickman at 24th, Buday provided the following excerpt to explain his decision:

Durability has been a concern for Hickman, who has played only 785 snaps over the first two seasons of his career. However, when he is on the field, his ability warrants his inclusion on this list.

Hickman's 77.2 PFF overall grade in 2024 ranked 13th among safeties, similar to his 81.7 PFF run-defense grade.Zoltán Buday

While Hickman has been a diamond in the rough as a UDFA in 2023 and hopes to thrive in a more significant role this season, this passage about him is misleading. Yes, he's only appeared in 785 snaps over his first two seasons, but he only missed three games in that time due to injury. Hickman missed those three games this past season as he battled an ankle injury, but his lack of playing time before that came because he was a UDFA trying to earn a role on the defense.

Hickman has already surpassed career expectations and will look to build on the strong start, but to say he's been better than Delpit to this point in his career is a clear-cut way of proving this writer's ranking came almost solely off PFF grades. Since Hickman joined the squad in 2023, Delpit has posted nearly 1,000 more snaps in two years with respectable PFF grades nearing the 70s.

Hickman has been good and his PFF grades reflect that, don't get me wrong, but his grades are also heavily skewed by the fact that he hasn't recorded nearly the number of snaps as Delpit. Moreover, the two play different roles on the defense. As the free safety, Hickman spends most of his time in the high hole in cover-one man defense, where he primarily reads the quarterbacks' eyes and reacts. For Delpit, his position at the strong safety gets him moved around the defense more, specifically in the box to defend against the run.

Should the Browns' defense return to their elite form shown in 2023, these two starting safeties will need to outperform the current opinion of them and both find themselves near the top half of the league. Maybe a slightly improved offense that keeps them off the field more could help in that department.