Demetric Felton made the kind of moves he showed all throughout the preseason. Grant Delpit showed the kind of closing speed that made him one of the top safeties in college football.
On Sunday, both of the first-year players showed off those skills for the first time in front of Browns fans at FirstEnergy Stadium. And boy, did they deliver when the Browns needed them most.
Felton and Delpit carry the load in our 3 Big Takeaways from Sunday’s 31-21 win over the Texans.
1. Welcome to Cleveland, Demetric Felton …
This was the Felton whom Browns fans got to know in a hurry during training camp and the team’s three preseason games.
Felton, the sixth-round pick out of UCLA, provided one of the NFL’s top highlights from Week 2, as he took a quick screen from Baker Mayfield, made multiple Texans defenders miss, spun out of another tackle and raced into the end zone on a 33-yard touchdown. The score put Cleveland up for good in a physical game against a banged-up Texans team that simply wouldn’t quit.
“It’s a lot of things we work on in practice,” said Felton, who was also productive as the Browns’ return man on punts and kicks. “Making moves once you get to the second level. I just did what my coaches taught me to do, and it worked.
“It was awesome. It was a great experience. Everybody did their job and blocked for me and I was able to get in the end zone.”
With the Browns looking to close out the Texans midway through the fourth quarter, Felton made one of the biggest plays on Cleveland’s game-sealing touchdown drive. He took another short screen, juked the first would-be tackler and sprinted for an 18-yard gain that put the Browns in Texans territory. The Browns scored a few plays later on a Nick Chubb touchdown run to take the 31-21 lead they’d carry to the final whistle.
“Those are things I always knew he could do,” Chubb said. “I’m glad he showed everyone here he can do it.”
