Should Washington look to trade for Orlando Brown Jr?
Could the 24-year-old Ravens' tackle fill Washington's left tackle spot?
While the focus of Washington fans is rightly on the quarterback situation, the team also has other needs it needs to address. Washington’s offensive line had some issues during the first half of the season, but after shuffling a few pieces around, the team found a working combination with the interior three lineman. Wes Schweitzer at left guard, Chase Roullier at center and Brandon Scherff at right guard all settled in nicely down the stretch and provided some solid protection inside while generating plenty of movement in the running game. Schweitzer was brought in as a free agent last offseason and Roullier recently signed a contract extension, so Washington only needs to lock down Scherff to retain that trio.
At tackle, Morgan Moses had his best season in recent memory. He played to a much higher level than he had done over the last few seasons and should be the team’s starting right tackle going forward. On the left side, however, Washington still needs to find its long term solution. Geron Christian played better than anticipated before getting hurt, but not well enough to lock down the position. Cornelius Lucas also played well when Christian went down, but also had some bad plays in big moments. Saahdiq Charles was Washington’s third-round pick in 2020, but dealt with injuries throughout his rookie year and only played two snaps, both at left guard rather than tackle.
Targeting a quality starting left tackle is something that could be high on Washington’s list of priorities this offseason. One player that has recently been made available is Orlando Brown Jr. The Ravens drafted Brown in the third-round of the 2018 draft and he became the starting right tackle early in his rookie season. This season, however, left tackle Ronnie Stanley went down injured and Brown flipped over to the left side. He played well at left tackle and now has asked to be traded to a team that will play him (and presumably pay him) at left tackle. So could the 24-year-old Brown fill the left tackle need in Washington?
Washington could certainly do worse than Brown at left tackle, however, I don’t see him as an ideal fit for what Washington has built along its offensive line. The four lineman Washington has in place have played their best running the zone scheme, using their quickness and athleticism to get defenders moving horizontally and open up vertical cutback lanes for the running back. Brown is a monster of a human being, listed at 6-foot-8, 355 pounds. Anyone that can play football at a high level at that size is obviously athletic, but not necessarily the most natural fit with a primarily zone-based running scheme.
These plays show Brown on the front side of zone scheme runs. The first play Brown does a relatively solid job getting the edge defender to move outside. He uses high and wide hands, which isn’t necessarily ideal but also not unusual for a man of his size. Critically, he has strong hands so when he grabs onto the defender, he’s able to latch on and force him outside where he wants him to go. However, the second and third plays of the clip show Brown’s issues with the zone scheme. On the second play, his job is to clip the defensive tackle to allow the left guard a chance to reach the block before working up to the second level to pick up the linebacker. Brown does a good job helping the left guard secure his block, but can’t then peel off and reach the linebacker, who eventually makes the tackle. The third play sees Brown tasked with a similar assignment, but he allows the defensive tackle to work across his face and get outside. That allows the defensive tackle to occupy both Brown and the left guard, who continues to attempt to take over the block, with neither able to pick up the linebacker.
When Brown is on the back side of zone runs, he has similar issues.
The first play is about as good as I saw Brown do on the back side of a zone scheme. He manages to get himself in the way of the edge defender and cut him off, but the Ravens also had a sifting fullback in the area to cut off the same guy and Brown was fortunate the linebacker on the back side was held in place by the sift and the jet sweep fake. The second play is a good example of how Brown can struggle on the back side of zone runs. The left guard reaches across the face of the defensive tackle aligned in the A gap and gets a strong punch to stand him up, allowing Brown the opportunity to get across and reach the defender to cut him off. Brown, however, fails to catch up to the defender and gets caught behind traffic of other blockers, allowing the defender to work down the line freely.
Brown isn’t completely incapable as a zone blocker, but it’s not a scheme that plays to his strengths. He’s much more comfortable executing down blocks and using his strength to move defenders out of their gaps.
On the first play of this clip, Brown works against defensive end Myles Garrett, perhaps the best defensive end in the league. The Ravens pull both the center and right tackle to the left side of the line on a counter scheme run and Brown is tasked with blocking down on Garrett and pinning him inside. Garrett looks to attack the inside shoulder, making Brown’s job slightly easier, but he shows off his strength, driving Garrett further inside and sealing him off to clear the path to the edge for the running back. The second play is a similar assignment for Brown. The edge defender aligns outside of him but stunts inside off the snap. Brown takes the defender where he wants to go and then pins him inside, allowing his running back a clear lane to work with. The third play is where Brown shines most. In short yardage situations, like down on the goal line, the Ravens often opted to run behind Brown because they could trust him to block down on his defender and seal him inside. Brown drives his defender from the middle of the field to the hashmark, taking him out of the equation as the running back walks into the end zone for a touchdown.
Washington could certainly use that type of strength in their running game, particularly in short yardage situations, however it’s not what the rest of Washington’s offensive lineman excel most at. If Washington were to add Brown, it would have to adapt some of its running schemes to mix and match the skillsets of the offensive lineman, which is possible but not easy.
Ultimately though, a left tackle is paid to protect the blind side of the quarterback, rather than their run blocking abilities. At his size, Brown is a tough blocker to beat. If he gets his hands on a defender early, he’s very much capable of stonewalling them.
On the first play of the clip, Brown faces Bills defensive end Mario Addison. Addison attempts to work to the edge but Brown is able to cut him off. Addison lands a hand on Brown’s chest, but Brown has long enough arms to still reach Addison and keep his own hands on Addison. Addison’s long-arm rush gets no movement from Brown, who keeps his hands on Addison and negates his rush. The second play of this clip sees Brown working against Garrett again, but this time on a play-action pass. The play-action fake certainly helps Brown as Garrett has to take a moment to diagnose run or pass, but Brown makes the most of that hesitation. He gets his hands on Garrett early and mirrors him well, preventing him from working either side of him. Unfortunately the rest of the protection doesn’t hold up as well, but Brown did his job.
While there are downsides to Brown’s size, the undoubted upside is his length. His arms are long enough to outreach most defenders, allowing him to get his hands on defenders to control blocks. While he’s not necessarily the quickest, his length enables him to stay with quicker rushers off the edge.
Here we see Brown up against Bills’ pass rusher Jerry Hughes. Hughes challenges Brown with speed to the edge and manages to knock his hands down as he attempts to turn the corner. However, Brown is able to recover just enough because of his length. He reaches out with his left arm and has the strength to force Hughes to run by the quarterback, allowing the quarterback the opportunity to step up in the pocket and avoid the rush. We can see the same thing on the second play, but this time against Garrett. Garrett gets his inside hand on Brown’s outside arm, knocking it down as he attempts to bend the edge. However, Brown is able to get his inside arm on Garrett’s shoulder and with his length and strength, extends the arm to force Garrett to run by the quarterback.
Clearly then, Brown is a solid left tackle option for someone in the NFL, but his fit in Washington’s isn’t exactly ideal. The asking price from the Ravens would likely start with Washington’s first-round pick, 19th overall. While that’s not necessarily a bad price for a good left tackle that is as young as Brown, Washington also has to consider that the quarterback position remains the priority and that 19th overall pick is their most valuable asset in any potential trade for a veteran quarterback or trade up in the draft for a rookie. With Brown not being an ideal fit in Washington, along with the cost involved, I’d expect Washington to look elsewhere for the solution to the left tackle spot.
Darrisaw would seem to be the ideal scheme fit, no?? Pretty high likelihood he will be there at 19. Guy out of Texas is another possible to plug and play. Later picks prob need development and mandating guy like Lucas as a bridge. Cannot overstate how important it is to not overload $ into 1 unit. Scherff and Brown would both be very high dollar contracts. Would mean Qb would have to be lower, ruling out Dak or Wentz or others. WR? Pricey.
Your description of Brown sounds a lot like Lucas. They're both massive humans who use their size and long arms to their advantage in pass pro, but don't have as much athleticism and are both average run blockers.