BEREA, Ohio — Dawand Jones perfectly fits the theme of the Cleveland Browns' 2023 draft class. The offensive tackle brought size and power.
Jones was listed at 6 feet, 8 inches and 374 pounds, coming out of Ohio State, where he was known as "Big Thanos." While his size is undeniable, it did come with concerns. He dropped out of the first three rounds before getting selected by the Browns with the 111th overall pick in the 4th round.
"I mean, he's not just big. He's like 'human orca' big. I just don't think you really see people with that size and that movement ability," said Browns General Manager Andrew Berry in his post-draft press conference back in April.
A player of Jones' profile is hard to come by, and now, the only thing dropping is the number on the scale.
"I just came out in OTAs and saw how twitchy and fast some of these guys were from college. They're just way more developed than I am for right now. I was like, 'Yeah, you're gonna have to do something to get to the next step.' I feel like losing weight was the best way," Jones said.
Working to get his body weight down has allowed Jones to improve other areas of his game.
"The next step was getting better at pass pro and run blocking. I feel like run blocking comes a little bit natural because I can move people, but I also need to learn how to move people with the weight I'm playing at, so it's definitely a grind," Jones said.
"I just see a young player who's a work in progress, like all of our young players, but the nice part about Dawand—he works. And you have to. He's made sure that every day he shows up here, and he's putting in that work," said Browns Head Coach Kevin Stefanski.
"He's getting better. He's maturing in small steps. He gets a little frustrated with some of the things that he's not able to do yet, but we just keep preaching patience with him. Everybody goes through it," said Browns Offensive Line Coach Bill Callahan.
Jones has already come a long way from when he first arrived in Berea. He played every offensive snap against the New York Jets in the Hall of Fame game last week.
"I've played whole games before—not at the next level—but on the stamina part, I was gonna be alright. The mental part —I had a couple flaws, but I just played to my best ability, in my opinion," Jones said.
While Jones believes he laid a foundation for himself in his first preseason game, he also feels like he put a target on his back.
"They wanna go after the big guy. It's easy. They're gonna make sure their name is called going against me every play now," Jones said.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. It just makes Jones hungrier.
Carly Mascitti is a sports anchor at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @carlymascitti.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
