As the Cleveland Browns get ready to tee it up versus the Kansas City Chiefs, the inactive list is sure to draw a lot of attention. Odell Beckham Jr. and Grant Delpit are two presumed Browns starters who won’t play in Week 1 while Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark won’t play for the Chiefs.
With players like Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins, Cleveland hopes that they can make up for the loss of Beckham. With Delpit’s injury last year, the team traded for Ronnie Harrison Jr. in 2020 and signed John Johnson III in the 2021 offseason.
One addition that could play a big role when the game kicks off in under an hour is defensive tackle Malik McDowell. McDowell was a second-round pick of Seattle Seahawks but never played for the team. Today’s game would be the former Michigan State star’s first professional game.
According to Yahoo’s Charles Robinson, McDowell is a player that the Browns organization are excited to see on the field:
Low key guy worth watching today, #Browns DT Malik McDowell vs. the #Chiefs. Cleveland staff is quietly very excited about him. He will be getting a lot of snaps. If his highlights in the preseason are a real indication of where he’s at, Browns will be a serious handful up front.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) September 12, 2021
With the Chiefs not much of a running team, McDowell could make an impact pushing the pocket from the inside. That kind of pressure could make life easier on Myles Garrett, Jadeveon Clowney and Takk McKinley on the outside.
In what may be the longest gap between when a player was drafted (2017) and when he makes his NFL debut, McDowell could be a big story Monday morning.
