For years, the Cleveland Browns built a very young roster with the goal of building a foundation on the way to winning. Sometimes that was due to veteran players not wanting to play for the Browns, sometimes it was because the team was in another rebuild.
Sometimes it was both.
Going into the 2022 season, Cleveland is in a different place than in many previous years. Super Bowl aspirations based on a talented roster and some recent success have many wondering how far the team can actually go.
The possibility of a suspension for Deshaun Watson has mostly calmed the highest of expectations. If the team can weather a potential suspension for the quarterback (or if none is levied), the sky is the limit for the Browns.
On top of that, the Cleveland roster is still full of a lot of young players:
# of players currently age 28 or older on 90-man rosters:
1) HOU – 28
2) NE / NO / TB – 25
5) ARI – 22
6) DEN / SF – 21
…
26) GB / PHI – 12
28) KC / LAR – 11
30) CIN – 10
31) CLE – 7
32) DET – 4— Anthony Reinhard (@reinhurdler) May 25, 2022
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Looking at the list creates some interesting dichotomies. Houston has the most older players but is not considered a competitor like the rest of the top six. Similarly, Cleveland is surrounded by mostly competitive teams except for Detroit, which has the least amount of players 28 years and above.
A look at the Browns roster page shows just two players over the age of 30: OL Chris Hubbard (31) and long snapper Charley Hughlett (32). OL Joel Bitonio sits squarely at 30 years of age.
As the organization hopes its Super Bowl window has just opened, a young roster gives them hope of being competitive for a long time.