CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns are playing the numbers game right now with their outside linebackers. They're hoping that more bodies means more pressure on opposing quarterbacks this season.

"We're treating it like the more the better," outside linebackers coach Ryan Slowik said. "Meaning ... the thing about the NFL is competition and anytime you can create competition, especially at a position like that, it's going to be successful."

"There is an element of that, for sure," Paul Kruger said when asked about the numbers in the room at the start of the off-season program. "The more guys that are excelling at that, the better. Everybody kind of feeds off each other in that way."

Let's start there -- with Kruger -- as we take a peek inside a crowded group with high hopes and plenty to prove.

The Veteran

Here's the good news for Kruger: It's an even-numbered year. He's had seasons of nine sacks (2012) and 11 (2014) in just such years. The odd-numbered years: 5.5 sacks in 2011, 4.5 in 2013 and just 2.5 in 2015. So even from a just-grasping-at-straws standpoint, this season should be better for the now clean-cut Kruger.

"There's so many other things that go into sacking the quarterback nowadays that a lot of it, it's becoming harder and harder to do every year," Slowik said when asked about Kruger's sporadic sack numbers. He also praised the veteran's leadership.

For Kruger's part, he seems headed back to a more familiar role after the previous defensive staff asked him to drop in coverage more often.

"Yeah, it seems like that's the way things are headed is more of a traditional, at least for me, more of a traditional role," he said at the start of the team's off-season program.

The up-and-comer

Nate Orchard went almost a full year between sacks. The man who racked up 18.5 during his final season at Utah didn't get his first NFL sack until Dec. 13, one week shy of the first anniversary of his final game with the Utes. He got his money's worth, getting to 49ers quarterback Blaine Gabbert twice. Now it's on to Year Two for the 2015 second-round pick with an eye towards more production.

"Things are starting to slow down a little bit for him in a good way as they do from a rookie to Year Two. ... His blinders are kind of coming off and his vision is expanding," Slowik said.

"Last year was definitely a roller coaster," Orchard said last week, "but I grew tons. Mentally, physically and getting used to the playbook was something which was huge, being the first time in the NFL and having a lot thrown at me. I think I handled it well and as the season went on, towards the end, I started to pick up and started to get in my groove."

The reclamation project

You don't get picked sixth overall in the NFL Draft if you aren't some kind of elite athlete. As we've seen with Barkevious Mingo, however, it takes more than that to become an elite NFL player.

"If you watch him on the field he runs like a gazelle," defensive coordinator Ray Horton said.

Slowik agreed. "You can see it. He's got those pretty white gloves that just keep going and going and going."

Mingo's potential has so far gone untapped due, in part, to ill-timed injuries and, perhaps, to a lack of ideal size. He's taken care of the latter, thanks to an aggressive diet. The new coaching staff will try to unlock the Mingo mystery this season by using him in multiple roles.

"We're going to move him around," said Horton. "He's not going to line up at just one position and win that way. We are going to move him around. Sometimes, he is going to drop. Sometimes, he is going to rush, and I have plans for him to be on the field running around."

"How much he moves around is up to him," Slowik said. "As far as how much he embraces the defense and continues to grow in it, but so far that's the plan. Get him active in different ways, doing different things."

Horton didn't mince words, though, in assessing Mingo's drive.

"Now, how much does he play?" Horton asked. "That will be his choice."

The freak

Emmanuel Ogbah is listed at 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds. Oh, and he ran a 4.63 40-yard dash at the combine.

"He's big and he can get off the football and rush the quarterback," Slowik said. "We all know that."

"To be honest, I'm a very athletic dude," Ogbah said with a laugh during the team's OTAs when a reporter asked if he felt he was athletic enough to make the transition to a 3-4 outside linebacker, including dropping into coverage.

That's the challenge for Ogbah, who started playing football in junior high after coming to the United States from Nigeria. It's the same for every player trying to make that transition, including his teammate, Orchard.

"What I'm seeing in him now is a lot what I've seen in myself when I first got here," Orchard said. "Being someone that's been playing in a 4-3 scheme for high school, college. He's never dropped into coverage and so it's something that's going to be new to him but he's adapting quick, he's learning fast, he's getting the playbook down, which is big, and he looks comfortable out there."

"We've seen him rushing and to see him and experience him dropping already," Slowik said, "he has the base to do it. Every day he's gotten better at it and now he just needs to start tying in the techniques with each pass drop coverage and he's going to continue to grow."

"When he figures it out, I don't think he knows how good he can be," Horton said.

The underdog

Joe Schobert knows about long odds. So much so that making an NFL roster as a fourth-round pick shouldn't seem too intimidating.

Schobert received no FBS scholarship offers out of high school and joined the Wisconsin Badgers as a preferred walk-on, earning a scholarship and now, four years later, a shot at the NFL.

"Fortunately for me ... there is a long list of guys that have done that before me," he said on a conference call after getting selected by the Browns in the fourth round of draft, "so I knew that if I put my head down, worked hard, did what the coaches said that I would have a chance. It worked out. I have always believed in myself, and now, I think that just helps me go into the NFL because I know how to work hard."

Schobert joins a crowded room and, like a lot of players trying to make their way into the league, may find himself doing plenty of special teams work this season.

"I'm excited about him," special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said. "Some things are new for him, with regard to our world and what we do, but he works extremely hard at it. He has a chance to be a good player."

"Just athletic, versatile, tough, good football player at Wisconsin," Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown said. "Can rush the passer, can drop, can run. I think he has a very well-rounded skill set."

That's a long ways from no one at the highest level of college football being willing to offer him a chance four years ago.

The hopeful

Cam Johnson (57)

Speaking of guys trying to make it, Cam Johnson is one of a handful of practice squad players from last season getting another shot. The Browns elevated Johnson from their practice squad towards the end of last season. He appeared in one game.

Slowik called Johnson a very pleasant surprise.

"I didn't really have much tape on him," Slowik said, "but he comes out, he works his tail off and he does everything you tell him to do."

The unknown

Jackson Jeffcoat most recently spent time with Washington. He was waived after being placed on injured reserve last season.

Jeffcoat was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 for Texas, so he fits the mold of a decorated college player the Browns emphasized in the draft.

"He's starting to get healthy, he's starting to pick up the defense and kind of flash some pass rush skills, so we're excited about that," Slowik said.