Malik McDowell has made the Browns' roster after four years without football in his troubled life. (TheLandOnDemand)
Making the Browns’ initial roster is not the end of the comeback story of Malik McDowell, only the beginning
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Former Browns GM John Dorsey believed in giving second chances to players with blots on their character record. His faith in Kareem Hunt was rewarded. Not so with Antonio Callaway.
We don’t know how the Malik McDowell story turns out, but it is the first test of GM Andrew Berry’s judge of character. The man who espouses “tough, smart, accountable” traits in every player acquisition has put his sterling reputation on the line for a promising player with a bad reputation.
“This being my last chance, you’all give me this opportunity, I won’t make you look bad, AB in particular,” McDowell recalled saying in his job interview in May with the Browns. “Sticking his neck out for me. Definitely, I don’t want to let anybody down.”
So far, so good.
McDowell, a 6-6, 295-pound behemoth, can be a terrorizing force in the middle of the Browns’ defensive line. Just playing his way onto the initial roster of 53 is truly an amazing story.
The Detroit native hasn’t played football since his last year at Michigan State in 2016. Head injuries suffered when he totaled a souped-up ATV changed his life and, some say, his personality. A series of criminal offenses followed – at least four arrests -- mostly involving alcohol, resulting in a 11-month jail sentence. He served about six months.
“I really feel that time helped me out a lot because I wasn’t in the best head space at the time,” McDowell, 25, said. “It gave me time to talk to therapists and do what I needed to do to talk to people and getting my mindset where it needed to be.
“I say my real hunger … while I was in jail gave me a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do in life and where my life was heading. That really gave me the motivation to push, to try to fight back what I lost.”
McDowell reportedly lost a significant portion of his original $3.19 million signing bonus after the Seattle Seahawks drafted him 35th overall in 2017. He never even practiced with them. He didn’t practice with any NFL team until joining the Browns in May.
McDowell said the lowest point of his descent was having to call his mom, Joya Crowe, and tell her, “I’m in trouble again.”
“Just disappointing my mom was the biggest low. I disappointed myself a lot, but just hurting her, she was the only one that really stuck by my side, and I put her through some unnecessary pain,” he said.
McDowell’s play on the field has offered just a glimpse of what he could be. He pulverized blockers in his limited game action against the Giants and Falcons in preseason. Former MSU teammate Jack Conklin told Joel Bitonio that McDowell is looking like the highly rated player in college.
“He is very powerful – you saw that on tape – but also has versatility to play either tackle position and to slide out and play D-end for us, so he has versatility in that way,” Stefanski said.
McDowell said he already is a much better player than he was at MSU because coaches with the Browns have taught him how to use his hands to aid his pass rush.
“I definitely think I’m a better player than I was, but not better than what I could be or what I should be,” he said. “I’m trying to get back to where I should be at this point. Trying to stuff five years of missing the game into one year and getting back to playing good football.”
It appears the football will come naturally. The harder part may be keeping his life in order.
“He is well aware of what is at stake,” Stefanski said.
“Everything, for me,” McDowell said. “My career is at stake. My livelihood. Taking care of my family. Just to do what the everyday person can’t do – go out there in front of thousands of fans and play a game and get paid lots of money to do it. That’s my dream.
“I know what my life would be without football. The stuff I fell into without playing football. I just want to get some more structure back in my life. I didn’t have any structure in my life around that time. So my driving force really is where I was at and the best place I could be right now.”
