BEREA — The way Browns safety Grant Delpit sees it, fix one thing and the rest fixes itself.
Cleveland’s defense was lacking in takeaways created a year ago. The safeties, in particular, were a position that was one of the biggest culpits.
Delpit is the first to raise his hand and acknowledge his own contributions, or lack thereof. For the first time in his career, he was without an interception, while also failing to force a fumble.
“Obviously I’m hard on myself,” Delpit said after the Browns’ fourth training camp practice July 26. “I haven’t been doing enough to help this team win in my opinion. So whatever I could do to improve that, improve myself, that’s what I’m going to do.”
The Browns are going to need that to occur if their defense has any hope of getting back to its level of 2023, when it was one of the league’s best. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has said before that creating takeaways isn’t a task placed at the feet of just one group, but he also acknowledged safeties need to be ballhawks for the whole group to take off.
Delpit and third-year pro Ronnie Hickman are the only returning safeties for the Browns with significant playing experience with the team. Despite signing veterans Damontae Kazee and Rayshawn Jenkins, it’s still Delpit — a 2020 second-round pick out of LSU — who is being asked to be the tone-setter for the group.
There’s one way Delpit sees to set that tone.
“I mean, of course it’s getting to the ball,” Delpit said. “Getting to that brown thing, like Schwartz says. I haven’t been getting enough takeaways and turnovers. So that’s a big focus that we got going on in this camp, whether it be punching the ball out, attacking the ball — it’s frustrating with quarterbacks just checking the ball down.
“So try to get in those guys’ heads, try to get them to throw the ball down the field a little bit, but gotta come up with more takeaways.”
Delpit wasn’t the first Browns defender to bring up the importance of takeaways for changing the way the defense as a whole plays. It’s what was one of the stark differences between the 2023 and 2024 versions of the Cleveland defense.
The Browns’ 12 total takeaways in 2024 was tied with the New England Patriots for 30th overall in the league, and just three more than the Jacksonville Jaguars, which left them 19th overall in the league. The 2023 top-ranked defense’s 28 takeaways ranked it in a three-way tie for fifth in the league and just three behind the league-leading Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants.
“Yeah, that’s a priority,” Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward said on the first day of camp. “I mean, it’s as real as it gets. I mean, getting on the JUGS machine, like, yes we may joke about it, but just actually going and being intentional about those times, the times you’re on the JUGS and catching the ball and putting yourself in different positions to catch the ball, and I think it’s gonna translate out here. So it’s definitely a focus.”
Still, all of that work doesn’t always translate into results. That goes back to Schwartz’s emphasis on the entire defense being responsible for turning the offense over.
Delpit said he understands that just snapping one’s fingers won’t accomplish the turnaround.
“No, I don’t think there’s any answer to that,” Delpit said. “Like a secret Krabby Patty formula to get interceptions and stuff like that, but it’s just about being in the right place.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Grant Delpit says he hasn’t ‘been doing enough to help’ Browns defense win games
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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