In a season of many issues, one of the biggest problems with the 2024 Cleveland Browns was the performance of the offensive line. What had been one of the team's strongest units for the past near-decade was suddenly a major weakness, as the new scheme implemented by new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and new offensive line coach Andy Dickerson simply never panned out. The offensive staff was gutted and now former Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren is coaching the line, bringing a more traditional hard-nosed style as the offense returns to a more typical Kevin Stefanski flavor, with some modern evolutions. Through two preseason games, there are a number of bright spots along with a few concerns to keep an eye on.
With all the issues last season, one of the most glaring was a lack of communication between the different players. Misdirection from the defensive line gave the Browns fits in what seemed like every single game, with teammates appearing to not know what their responsibility was and not knowing when or where to pass off a defender to someone else. That led to plenty of backbreaking sacks in crucial situations and is something that absolutely must be fixed. Through two preseason games, the Frankenstein'd first/second unit seems to be doing a significantly better job of that. Much of that appears to be due to third-year center Luke Wypler, who has looked excellent thus far. He's great at getting out into space in the run game and is an active and aware pass protector with three offseasons of an NFL training regimen having clearly improved his functional strength.
In the first clip below, the left side of the line is unable to provide much resistance, but Wypler, who snaps the ball with a defender shading the left A-gap, smoothly deals with the 4i while keeping his head up and sees the wide-9 stunting all the way over to the other side of the line, ensures that the 4i has been fully passed over to right guard Javion Cohen, and moves over to mirror the wide-9. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's very refreshing to see something like this be done so effortlessly.