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Cleveland Browns May Have a Bust on Their Hands in Justin Gilbert

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Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

You know what’s never a good thing to have happen to an NFL cornerback? Having his name blow up on Twitter because of how badly he’s being torched by opposing wideouts. In a practice session.

This is what took place throughout this morning as the Cleveland Browns shared a practice with the Buffalo Bills. The cornerback in question is Cleveland’s first overall draft pick from last season, Justin Gilbert. This is also fresh off last week’s preseason opener in which Gilbert was yards behind almost every receiver he covered.

There’s still a few weeks remaining in the offseason before things really get going, so technically Gilbert has time to get his act together. That said, this isn’t what you want to hear about a player the team hoped would be the perfect complement to start alongside Pro Bowler Joe Haden. Right now, there has to be sizable concern the Browns wasted a pick on Gilbert, who looks more and more like a bust every day.

Upon selecting Gilbert last year, Cleveland received a lot of praise. He was seen by many as the best cornerback in the draft, and the Browns looked like they were putting together a fearsome secondary. Early struggles in training camp and preseason were simply labeled as typical rookie adjustments, nothing too serious to worry about.

Only as the season went on and minimal improvements were seen in Gilbert did concern really start to rise. It just seemed as though he was taking quite a while to get used to the pros, and his time on the field started declining significantly.

Eventually, word of character issues started leaking out of Cleveland. While late-round pick Pierre Desir and undrafted rookie K’Waun Williams both played and excelled, Gilbert kept finding himself on the bench. He was listed as inactive for the team’s final game last year thanks to his being late for a team meeting.

These were all hardly things you want to happen with your first overall pick. That safety Donte Whitner went out of his way to criticize Gilbert at season’s end didn’t help matters either. However, Gilbert admitted he needed a lot of work, and spent much of the offseason under the wing of Haden.

At the moment, it just doesn’t look like any of this is paying off.

As mentioned, Gilbert’s performance during Cleveland’s preseason game against the Washington Redskins left a ton to be desired. Of course, he believed otherwise, claiming his play was “flawless.” Knowing that this is hardly how you’d describe his performance, and combining it with the fact undrafted Bills receivers are working him over today, it just doesn’t sound like Gilbert is anywhere closer to living up to his potential.

Calling a player a bust is definitely a degrading process. Nobody wants to fall into Ryan Leaf or Jamarcus Russell territory. At the same time, the Browns didn’t draft Gilbert eighth overall last year with hopes he could be the team’s fifth best cornerback.

Right now, that’s exactly how Gilbert is seen in Cleveland.

The fact he believes he had a flawless preseason debut definitely implies he doesn’t think he’s struggling as badly as everyone is saying. This, of course, is a bigger problem. If Gilbert thinks he’s playing just fine, it’s tough to believe he’s incredibly eager to put in the effort to improve. Obviously, this doesn’t really bode well for his 2015 season.

Again, Gilbert has three more preseason games to help him get back on the right path. At the same time, his name is pretty low on the depth chart, much lower than anyone would’ve predicted. He’ll have to vastly change his approach to the game if he wants to do something about this.

If he doesn’t, if he keeps selling himself while getting blown out of the water on the field, the team will be getting closer and closer to officially labeling Gilbert a bust.

Casey Drottar is the Cleveland Beat Writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook

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