Grant Delpit knows 'it's on me' as Cleveland Browns safety enters career crossroads season
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Grant Delpit knows there was a perception of him last year. The Browns safety knows when the entire secondary struggled with communications breakdowns in the first part of the season, the blame fell on him.
Delpit knows all of that. He just isn't going to let it affect him.
"It don't matter, man, I take the blame," Delpit told the Beacon Journal in an exclusive interview during training camp this week at The Greenbrier. "It's on me. You know what I'm saying? I'll never put anybody under the bus, if it's on me or not."
It's true, some of the coverage breakdowns involved mistakes by the fourth-year safety out of LSU. Not all of them, though.
All of that isn't the point for Delpit. He's trying to keep his focus on what's arguably the biggest season of his career.
More than anything else, Delpit wants to be seen as a leader, both in the secondary and on the Browns' defense writ large.
"I'm out there," Delpit said. "I want to be that leader on the defense to say, all right, it's good. We going to get it fixed, whatever. You know what I'm saying? We going to get it fixed next week."
Delpit's coverage work a year ago wasn't awful, earning a 62.7 coverage grade out of 100 from Pro Football Focus. It wasn't close to being All-Pro, either.
When Delpit was taken in the second round of the 2020 draft (No. 44 overall), there were some who thought he was the next great LSU safety. In him, the Browns saw the legacy of Jamal Adams, Eric Reid, LaRon Landry and Tyrann Mathieu.
Then Delpit suffered an Achilles tear late in his first training camp, costing him his rookie season. In what seems like a blink of an eye, his second and third seasons in the league were gone as well, leaving him at a crossroads of sorts in the final season of his rookie contract.
"Yeah, honestly, I think we're so far past that," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. "He's so far past that first season and that injury. He continues to make great strides. I think he's a really good football player. … He's an older player now as he graduates into this season, where he can provide leadership as well.”
Delpit, who's played in 32 of a possible 34 games over the last two seasons, has five career interceptions. Of those five, three came in the final three games of last season, including a pair in a Week 17 win at Washington.
Was that just a tease, merely a flash of the potential and nothing more? Or was that something that portends to a season in which he can silence those who have been critical of him?
"It's football," Delpit said. "Everybody loves the game, so everybody (is) going to have their own opinion. But I get overlooked a lot, bro. Let's keep it that way. I like that."
For now, it's just about the work to get to the actual season. It's work being done in a new system under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, a system letting safeties be playmakers, shifting them around to maximize their abilities.
Delpit's been working with free-agent signees Juan Thornhill and Rodney McLeod as the three primary safeties. Thornhill was, in theory, signed to be the deep safety while Delpit played closer to the line of scrimmage, although it's been too early to tell in camp specifically how it will all play out.
The scheme is secondary to the mindset for Delpit, who is credited with 667 snaps in the box over the last two seasons compared to 696 snaps at free safety.
"I get on that field every day, every snap I take it to heart," Delpit said. "I want that Super Bowl more than anything in my soul, man. So that's what we doing out here."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Grant Delpit knows 'it's on me' as Browns safety reaches a crossroads
