The Browns didn’t hand Austin Barber a Week 1 job on draft night. Not even close. But Teven Jenkins’ back injury has pushed Cleveland into an early look at what its offensive line could become, and Barber is suddenly right in the middle of it.
Todd Monken said Friday that Barber will start at right guard Sunday in the opener at Jacksonville, with Jenkins ruled out on the official injury report. It’s a significant turn for a rookie who entered camp as a tackle prospect and spent plenty of time as the backup to Tytus Howard at right tackle before his preseason play changed the conversation.
Back in April, Monken made it clear the Browns saw more than one path for Barber.
“We see him as a tackle to start, obviously has some flex,” Monken told reporters back on April 24. “We think he could move inside.”
That flexibility looked like a nice bonus when the draft ended. By the time preseason arrived, though, Barber’s guard work had started to stick.
Early in camp, the idea of him at right guard faded as veteran KT Leveston took meaningful snaps there and Barber settled in as the clear No. 2 at right tackle. But Leveston’s own move from tackle to guard never really took hold, and Barber ended up getting the start at right guard in Cleveland’s second preseason game.
He played well enough against Buffalo to keep that spot for preseason Game 3 against the Patriots.
Now he’s one of two rookies set to open the regular season in the starting lineup, joining first-round left tackle Spencer Fano.
Fano sounded genuinely fired up about it.
“I’m so excited,” he told Browns reporter Camryn Justice Friday. “Me and Austin really have the same mindset ever since coming in here which is we’ve just been trying to get better every day and find our role.
And, I don’t know, it’s crazy being on this end of it from where we started in the spring. It’s been awesome.”
Barber may be filling in for now, but the preseason suggested this could be more than a short-term patch. Cleveland drafted him with long-term tackle plans in mind, yet he looked comfortable enough at guard that the next few weeks could tell the Browns a lot about where he belongs.
The numbers backed up the eye test. Pro Football Focus graded Barber as Cleveland’s top offensive player in the preseason, with a 76.4 pass-blocking grade and an 80.5 run-blocking grade. That kind of movement skill showed up repeatedly, especially when he climbed to the second level and cleared out smaller defenders in the run game.
That’s part of why right guard can be such a telling spot for a player like Barber. For a right-handed quarterback like Deshaun Watson, it’s often the place where a team wants its best run blocker working in sync with the tight end, and Barber’s athleticism gave Cleveland a real look at that style of play.
Jenkins had been the favorite to open the year there since the Browns’ first veterans-only minicamp in April. Even so, Monken never fully locked the position down, and Jenkins missed several practices in camp with an undisclosed injury. Before Wednesday’s practice this week, Monken said Jenkins was expected to be the starter, but added that he wanted "to see it play out the rest of the week."
Now the decision has been made for him, at least for Sunday.
The bigger question is what happens after that. If Barber keeps playing like he did in the preseason, the Browns may not be in any rush to hand the job back.
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