Browns must not abuse Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s versatility as a rookie
Read any scouting report on Browns second-round pick Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and there is an instant and omnipresent buzzword: Versatile.
Owusu-Koramoah at Notre Dame was, at various times, a linebacker, safety and slot cornerback. His ability to play so many positions, and do so quite capably, was the biggest positive attribute for “JOK”. Yet the Browns would be wise to not lean too heavily on all that versatility right away.
Look no further than Isaiah Simmons from a year ago. Simmons was quite similarly touted as a versatile chess piece, a perfect embodiment of “positionless football” on defense. The Arizona Cardinals tabbed Simmons — to almost universal praise — with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft. He had the best odds to win defensive rookie of the year entering the season, too.
It didn’t go well for Simmons or the Cardinals, not nearly as well as expected anyway. And a big reason for the problem was that Simmons’ versatility became a negative in Arizona. They tried to have the athletically freakish rookie do too many things instead of finding one or two things he could do really well.
In limited reps spanning multiple positions, Simmons looked like he was always swimming upstream. Check out his usage, courtesy of Pro Football Focus:
EDGE – 89 snaps
Box safety – 193
Free safety – 8
Off-ball OLB – 89
Slot CB – 71
Outside CB – 15
He finished with an overall defensive grade of just 59.9 from PFF. That’s lower than Cleveland’s Sione Takitaki (a fourth-round pick) a year earlier.
Simmons’ best work came at his most natural fit, the box safety role. When the Cardinals effectively left him there in a five-week stretch midseason, Simmons flashed the skills that made him so coveted. He wasn’t great, but Simmons looked like a superb athlete with a bright future. Then the Cardinals asked him to play more slot and more off-ball LB and it was back to riding the struggle bus.
The Browns must learn from the Cardinals’ mistake. Find one specific role for Owusu-Koramoah to fit as a rookie and master. My personal preference would be as the dime-package LB, which is a role the Browns figure to use a lot more than most teams do. That capacity would take advantage of his natural coverage skills, sideline-to-sideline range and ability to “spy” on mobile QBs in a spread formation.
Let Owusu-Koramoah get confident and build around that foundation instead of asking him to be a free safety on first down, an overhang LB on second down and a slot CB on third down. While he can play all of those roles, the Browns don’t need him to be everything to everyone all at once.
