3. A Washington vs Cleveland ‘Battle of the Lines’
Here’s a fun one for the football nerds of the world. An old school “battle in the trenches” between a stalwart Cleveland Browns offensive line and a game-wrecking Washington Football Team defensive line. Even if neither of these teams are particularly good, this right here should be a fun matchup to watch.
You have two teams facing off against one-another who have each invested heavily on their lines over the past couple of seasons. For Cleveland, most of the investment came this offseason, when the browns shelled out big money for right tackle Jack Conklin in free agency (who should be set to play in Week 3 after an injury held him out last week) and used their first-round draft choice on left tackle Jedrick Wills out of Alabama. Both tackles have provided noticeable instant upgrades, and have helped bolster an interior offensive line with three talented starters.
For Washington, it’s been a similar script, just on the flip side of the ball. The Football Team spent their second overall pick this year on Chase Young at defensive end, one of their first-round picks last year on another defensive end in Montez Sweat, their first-round pick the year before that on defensive tackle Da’Ron Payne, and their first-round pick before that on another defensive tackle in Jonathan Allen.
All four Washington first-round picks are listed as starters on the depth chart, and have contributed heavily to a group that leads the NFL in sacks through two weeks with 11. But the Football Team might have their toughest challenge yet in Week 3, heading to Cleveland to take on an offensive line ranked in the top ten in both pass and run block win rate.
Washington has shown they have the ability to take over a game and win convincingly by controlling the line of scrimmage, while Cleveland has shown a heavy reliance on their line to their offense running smoothly. Whoever can control the line in this game could come out on top, and both groups boast talented players.