Miami's Francis Mauigoa will be a player of great interest for the Browns at the NFL Combine.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
The Browns head to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis this weekend hunting for big game. Or, rather, big men. Specifically, big offensive linemen.
Their offensive line is at ground zero. All five starters from last season are free agents.
They may entice left guard Joel Bitonio to postpone retirement and return for a 13th year. Even so, a minimum of four new starters must be found.
“The offensive line, that’s a position group that I do imagine will have a fair amount of turnover as we go into 2026,” said GM Andrew Berry, in a classic understatement.
The Chicago Bears rebuilt their offensive line a year ago with two trades, one free agent signing, one pick in Round 2, and one returning starter.
Berry is expected to use similar means to rebuild in one transaction season an offensive line that got old, expensive and beaten down by injuries and penalties.
The first step was new coach Todd Monken adding peripatetic offensive line coach George Warhop to his first Browns coaching staff.
Warhop, 64, returns for a second tour of duty with the Browns, one of nine NFL teams with which he has served as offensive line coach. Bitonio just missed Warhop’s first stint by a year. Hall of Famer Joe Thomas, Bitonio’s former teammate, has conveyed his fondness for Warhop.
Warhop is the Browns fourth offensive line coach in four years – following Bill Callahan, Andy Dickerson and Mike Bloomgren.
Scouting the draft
While the Browns need linemen at all five positions, the critical voids are at left and right tackle, which have been problem positions for at least four years.
The consensus top five tackles heading into the draft season are Spencer Fano of Utah, Francis Mauigoa of Miami, Blake Miller of Clemson, Monroe Freeling of Georgia, and Kadyn Proctor of Alabama.
Right now, Fano and Mauigoa are considered ahead of the rest. But NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah said on a video conference call on Thursday that the gap to the others is not wide.
“Monroe Freeling’s going to have a lot of love as we go through the rest of the process,” Jeremiah said. “I don’t think it’s that big of a gap there with him and the top guys. I really like Blake Miller. I would say most teams would have Monroe Freeling over Blake Miller, but if you’re talking about the way I see them, the top two guys are my 12th and 13th [overall] players and the next two or the next three really are 23rd, 24th 28th … even 29th with the next one. So there’s a big clump of them there.”
Fano (6-6 and 302 pounds) played left tackle his freshman year and moved to right tackle his next two seasons at Utah. Mauigoa (6-6, 315) started 42 games at right tackle in three years at Miami. Freeling (6-7, 315) made 18 starts at left tackle in three years at Georgia. Miller (6-6, 315), who is from Strongsville, was an iron-man, 54-game starter at right tackle for Clemson. Proctor (6-7, 366) is a behemoth and is said to have agile feet but will always have to manage his weight, like the Browns’ Dawand Jones.
In his latest mock draft 2.0, Jeremiah had the Browns double-dipping at offensive tackle in the first round, taking Fano at No. 6 and Freeling at No. 24.
No team, however, has taken two offensive linemen in the first round in the draft since the Browns returned as an expansion team in 1999.
In fact, it’s rare for an NFL team to unearth two starting tackles in the same draft. It has been done only two times in the last five years.
In the last five drafts, nine teams have taken two offensive tackles. Green Bay has done it three times.
This past season, the Packers fielded starting tackles Rasheed Walker and Sean Rhyan, who both were taken in the 2022 draft – Walker in Round 7 and Rhyan in Round 3. Walker is a potential free agent.
That same draft in 2022, Seattle took Charles Cross in Round 1 and Abe Lucas in Round 3. They were instant starters as rookies and were Seattle’s starting tackles in their Super Bowl championship season in 2025.
On to Indy
Berry’s first draft pick as Browns GM was Alabama tackle Jedrick Wills with the 10th overall selection in the 2020 draft. Wills, a natural right tackle, started 57 games at left tackle through 2024 and spent 2025 out of the NFL after his Browns contract ran out.
The only other offensive tackles drafted by Berry were James Hudson in Round 4 in 2021 and Jones in Round 4 in 2023.
So unless Berry relies on free agency and trade to rebuild the Browns’ offensive line, he’ll have to do his homework on the tackle position next week at the Combine.
Position groups arrive at the Combine on a staggered schedule. Offensive linemen are the last to arrive in Indianapolis on Wednesday. They conduct team interviews through Friday, do media interviews on Saturday, and work out on the field on Sunday.
It will make for a long week for Berry, Monken and Warhop.