The idea of triplets in the NFL goes back a long time. For some, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irving are the first threesome thought of when talking about triplets in league history.
While everyone knows that an offensive line and tight ends are vital parts of any offense, the increased participation in fantasy football has increased the focus on quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers.
Over the years, the Cleveland Browns have seemed to have one or two solid pieces of the triumvirate but always missing the final piece. Going into 2022, the team hopes that has changed but still has a huge question mark surrounding QB Deshaun Watson.
With that in mind, ranking the Browns in any way going into this season is difficult. We saw that with Bill Barnwell’s offseason rankings.
When CBS Sports put out its “NFL 2022 ‘Triplets’ Part I” it was interesting to see if Watson’s question marks would keep Cleveland low on the list or if they would use it to exclude them from the rankings. On the field, we know that Nick Chubb, Amari Cooper and Watson are all very good players but would the unknown hurt their ranking?
We had to wait until “Part II” came out with the Browns sniffing the top 10 at #11:
The Browns were tough to rank. We don’t yet know if (or how many games) Watson will play this season, nor what he will look like after a year of not playing at all. We also don’t know how Cleveland’s offense will change with him under center, or what it will look like with Brissett out there, if Watson is indeed suspended in the wake of his being accused by 20-plus women of sexual misconduct. We do know the Browns have one of the best running backs in the league in Chubb, and that they stole Cooper from the Cowboys, but this ranking seems like the group collectively throwing up its hands. Until the league office makes a decision on Watson’s status, what we should think of the Browns is almost impossible to accurately gauge.
The highest the CBS group had Cleveland was eighth while the lowest was down at #16.
For now, the combination of Watson, Chubb and Cooper could be the best triplet combination for the Browns since the return and, given time, possibly fight to get near the top of the list all time. For now, the three have not seen the field together for one snap so this ranking seems more than fair given Watson’s uncertainty.