BEREA, Ohio -- Last year in Arizona, new Browns defensive coordinator Steve Wilks played three safeties on most of the defensive snaps during his one year as the head coach of the Cardinals. This year, figure Damarious Randall and Morgan Burnett as the two starters at the deep safety spots for the Browns, but you still need a third safety to put on the field most of the time, often near the line of scrimmage.

Who? The guy Wilks singled out as one of the leaders of the defense during OTAs, even though Wilks is just getting to know him and most Browns fans hadn’t heard of him before this spring.

Jermaine Whitehead.

What’s his deal?

“Extremely smart. Very intelligent. Takes control when he is out there," Wilks said. "Knows how to really communicate and articulate the defense and get everybody on the same page.”

If you know the defensive starters should be Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon at end, and Larry Ogunjobi and Sheldon Richardson at tackle (unless Gerald McCoy signs and mixes in), and Joe Schobert and Christian Kirksey at linebacker, and Denzel Ward and either Terrance Mitchell or Greedy Williams at corner, and Randall and Burnett at deep safety, then the Browns need a primary 11th guy.

So much on defense is a sub package now that getting stuck on the idea of starters is antiquated. But your best 11 when it matters is a big deal. So here’s one point, which you may already know. I’m not sure who the Browns’ third linebacker is, because they don’t have one. In two OTAs that reporters have watched, I didn’t see a snap with a third true linebacker. Again, no surprise, but make sure you realize it.

That means that 11th guy could be a true corner like T.J. Carrie, who makes a lot of sense covering slot receivers and ranked fifth on the team last year in defensive snaps. Carrie has seen a lot of OTA time. But the other option is Whitehead, and he fits the scheme that Wilks chose a year ago. Arizona played 5-foot-10, 195-pound safety Budda Baker near the line of scrimmage a lot last season in that three-safety look, and to double-check, I asked Wilks if that’s what the 5-11, 195-pound Whitehead could do in Cleveland.

Yep. That’s the potential fit. That’s what Wilks has shown he prefers. It’s clear the impression Whitehead has made on Wilks in a short time.

“He’s been in the league for a while, been on several teams. It just shows who he is as an individual,” Wilks said of Whitehead’s efforts so far. "He puts a lot of time into his craft. He studies the game a lot, and it really shows out on the field.”

Whitehead confirmed he loves being around the line of scrimmage, and said the Browns have a name for that package, but he didn’t want to share it. But they use it a lot. When near the line of scrimmage, Whitehead could be seen blitzing one play, covering a tight end the next and helping in run support on another, where he’s a willing tackler.

“Tight ends in the league are becoming more like glorified receivers, so we try to match up with those guys with a safety and put guys in position where we’ve got the advantage,” Whitehead told cleveland.com. “I just like being the ultimate playmaker. Even if I don’t make the play, I can help my teammate make the play. I’m definitely great around the line of scrimmage, definitely great when the ball is in the air.

“But I don’t like to brag about myself. I’d rather prove it. But hopefully when the season comes, I’ll be someone to watch.”

You’re forgiven if you’re wondering how the 26-year-old Whitehead, who was undrafted out of Auburn in 2015 and is entering his fifth season of bouncing around the league, is suddenly worth watching. The Browns signed Whitehead on Nov. 7 last year after he was released by Green Bay the day after slapping New England offensive lineman David Andrews after a play, which led to his ejection.

Not the most egregious act ever seen on a football field. But the Packers also put out the word that Whitehead, after spending most of 2016 and 2017 on the Green Bay practice squad, didn’t fit what they wanted, looking instead for “someone with true safety ability and better size,” according to one report.

They had liked him enough to give him 221 defensive snaps during his eight games in Green Bay in 2018. The Browns played him just seven defensive snaps after they signed him. But now, with a fresh start under a new staff, it looks like the Browns are ready to count on him.

“This is the breakthrough point in my career,” Whitehead said. “I think coming to this situation I see the rights and the wrongs done by me and I’m trying to correct those every day here.”

He’s another part of the connection to Green Bay, where John Dorsey right-hand men Alonzo Highsmith and Eliot Wolf worked before coming to Cleveland. Dorsey also worked in Green Bay before he became the GM in Kansas City, and this front office has shown it likes guys that it knows. Randall and Burnett also came to Cleveland from Wisconsin, so it’s possible this three-safety look could be made up of all former Packers.

It’s just that Whitehead hadn’t done much. He was in San Francisco and Baltimore before landing in Green Bay. Then in the midst of his first shot at real playing time, he was suddenly done.

Whitehead said Highsmith and Wolf liked him in Green Bay. He said Randall and Burnett are great teammates and they play well together because of their familiarity. So he started with the second team when OTAs began. Then, like that, he was running with the ones.

When we saw Whitehead last week, Burnett was on the side with an injury, so Whitehead was working at first-team deep safety with Randall. The week before, Burnett and Randall were typically paired together and Whitehead was in that third safety role closer to the line.

He can play either. One way or another, it looks like he’s going to play. He’s certainly acting like it.

“He’s shown a lot of range back there,” Denzel Ward said of Whitehead, “and a lot of communication. That’s what you like as a corner, somebody that’s going to talk to you and get you in the right formation and right coverage, so I’m liking Whitehead back there.”

So is Wilks. The new boss of the defense knows how he wants to play. In Whitehead, he seems to have found someone to help him do that.

Get Browns Insider texts in your phone from Mary Kay Cabot: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the award-winning Browns reporter, just like you would with your friends. It’s just $3.99 a month, which works out to about 13 cents a day. Learn more and sign up here.