The Cleveland Browns will begin their preseason schedule a week earlier than most seasons when they battle the New York Jets on Thursday at the annual Hall of Fame Game. The Browns former great offensive tackle Joe Thomas is being inducted into the HOF on Saturday and thus the reason for Cleveland to get the honor of playing in this special game.
For both teams, neither will play any of their starters. Instead, we’ll get a chance to watch many of the rookies and other little-used players of past seasons in this game. While that may make this contest to be a bit bland as players are truly still learning the playbook, it will help Browns fans get even more pumped up for the upcoming season.
Many of the players we watch on Thursday will likely not make the final 53-man roster and that’s why for the few that do, it’ll be important for them to shine. Let’s discuss three players that you should be watching a little more closely than others as they try to make a statement and secure a spot on the squad.
Cedric Tillman, WR
(Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
The former Tennessee wide receiver was drafted by the Browns in the third round of the draft. While he’s not expected to have a huge role in this year’s offense, he does have the potential to become a Cleveland mainstay and we should get a chance to see some of the promising skill sets that have many folks excited to see him play.
Tillman’s football past has been marred by injury and he only had one college season where he played the whole campaign. In 2021, Tillman caught 64 passes for 1081 yards and 12 touchdowns.
His tall size at 6’3 could make him a prime target of quarterbacks Kellen Mond and Dorian Thompson Robinson on Thursday night.
With the pending contracts of current veteran Browns wide receivers Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones coming to a close, one has to believe Tillman was drafted by the team with long-range plans in mind.
Kellen Mond, QB
(Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
The former Texas A&M quarterback will get his first opportunity to play with the Browns who actually traded for him a year ago. He has sat as the third-string quarterback over that time. Will he be able to change that dynamic at all by a good showing on Thursday night? I’d say probably not, but if Josh Dobbs, the presumed backup quarterback to Deshaun Watson were to get injured, Mond could slide into that role at a moment’s notice.
Mond had a solid college career and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the third round a couple of seasons ago. He’s only played in one game where he threw two passes for five yards.
In this HOF Game, he’ll get plenty of chances to throw the ball and it should be fun to watch.
He’s also a tall quarterback at 6’3 so that will be a good advantage for the team as well. Gone are the days of small Cleveland quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel.
Hassan Hall, RB
Not many people have heard of running back Hassan Hall, but we’ll all get a look at him in this game Thursday. The former Georgia Tech player had a good second half of his senior campaign at Georgia Tech. In the fifth game of the season, the Yellowjackets had made a coaching change and with that Hall got his break and went for 521 yards and a touchdown the rest of the season. His one big game was against Pittsburgh where he broke out for 157 yards on 20 carries.
There are several other Browns running backs in front of Hall at the current moment including Demetric Felton, Jerome Ford, and John Kelly but I suspect we will see a lot of Hall, especially in the second half of this one.
There are many other talented rookies as well to keep an eye on in this game including tackle Dawand Jones, center Luke Wypler, defensive end Isaiah McGuire, cornerbacks Cameron Mitchell and Ronnie Hickman, and defensive tackle Siaki Ika.
While the stars of the Browns will be on the sidelines cheering these players on, we will hopefully get a great look at what the future holds for Cleveland. It certainly feels promising and that’s more than enough for this Browns fan to be ready for some football.
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