The Cleveland Browns defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars in both teams’ first preseason game. The Browns controlled the game from start to finish despite not playing their starters while the Jaguars played many of theirs.
For Cleveland, training camp and preseason games are more about staying injury-free and the back end of the roster than it is about installing schemes. Unfortunately, injuries hit two players during the game. Stephen Carlson will likely miss the entire season with a knee injury while Mack Wilson gets an MRI on his shoulder to figure out the damage.
With those priorities in mind, evaluating the team during the preseason will be interesting. Gone are the days of hoping a player pops off the screen and can be one of the team’s top five to ten players. Instead, the evaluation is about who can take the next step up, who is struggling and could not make the roster and what is learned about the team as a whole.
We start with our Browns stock watch and the positives of which players’ stock went up due to their performance in the game.