In an out of Cleveland’s lineup this season due to injury trouble, Jedrick Wills will begin to play an unusual role for the Browns beginning after their bye week. The 2020 first-round pick will open Week 11 as a second-stringer.
Wills missed Weeks 1 and 2 due to the nagging knee injury that ended his 2023 season, but the fifth-year left tackle also missed two more games — Weeks 4 and 8 — before being active against the Chargers.
Upon returning, however, Wills played behind second-year blocker Dawand Jones. That adjustment came about in part because of Wills’ trouble staying healthy, but Kevin Stefanski said (via the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Ashley Bastock) the Browns will stick with Jones coming out of their bye.
This will mean a true demotion for Wills, who had been the Browns’ LT starter (when healthy) throughout his career. This offers a hurdle for Wills during a key point in his career; the Alabama alum’s rookie contract expires after this season.
“I would say more generally the tackles, we need all three,” Browns GM Andrew Berry said of Cleveland’s tackle situation. “We‘re going to need all three of ’em. They’ve all prepared really accordingly, just because we’ve had a little bit of, maybe a little bit of a carousel there early in the year because of injuries and availability. So really all three of those guys, they just have to continue to be ready and play good football.”
Tackle No. 3 in this equation is Jack Conklin, who remains unthreatened at right tackle. Conklin joined both Wills and Jones in suffering a season-ending injury last year, going down in Week 1 with an ACL tear. Conklin has an extensive history of knee trouble, and he has joined Wills in being unable to provide dependability for the Browns this season.
Conklin has played in just four games this season, his ninth in the NFL. Conklin has two ACL tears an a patellar tendon tear on his medical sheet. Missing all of training camp, the former Titans first-rounder did not debut until Week 6 this season but has been a consistent starter since.
Conklin, 30, has logged 100% of the Browns’ offensive snaps over the past two weeks. Jones, who suffered a knee injury in a December practice last year, returned on time for Browns camp this year and has played both right and left tackle in 2024.
Jones had filled in more often for Conklin (334 RT snaps) than Wills (146), but it appears the team will use the former fourth-round pick at LT moving forward.
Pro Football Focus is not bullish on the Ohio State alum, ranking him 73rd among 77 qualified tackles this season. PFF ranked Jones 48th at tackle last season, when he played only right tackle. Jones started at right guard in 2021 and right tackle in 2022 with the Buckeyes, as eventual top-10 pick Paris Johnson Jr. manned the blind side that year, making this LT placement in front of Wills interesting.
This Browns change throws a wrench into Wills’ future. A starter for top-tier Browns O-lines during the earlier part of this decade, Wills was not regarded as a Pro Bowl-caliber blocker like Conklin or guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. (PFF has yet to rank him in the top 50 for a season.) But he started 53 games until suffering MCL and PCL sprains, along with bone bruises, midway through last season. Now, Wills faces the prospect of losing value in free agency.
Cleveland has bigger issues than its O-line moving forward, with Deshaun Watson‘s guarantees a reality through 2026, but Wills and Conklin probably face some cloudy futures with the team. Conklin is signed through 2026 (four years, $60M) but has no guaranteed money remaining beyond this season. Wills may need a strong finish to prove worthy of a long-term commitment in 2025, and a midseason demotion is obviously not a good development for those prospects.
