Browns: LB Scott Fujita says improved offense will improve defense

The Browns wisely concentrated on bolstering their offense in the offseason. It didn't take a football genius to recognize that the unit required an overhaul just to raise its immediate level of play to respectability.

GM Tom Heckert, however, reiterated that the team would build almost exclusively from the draft. The Browns all but ignored free agency, signing only defensive ends Juqua Parker and Frostee Rucker. Given that they utilized just one avenue to better the team, logic dictates that significantly improving the defense through player procurement was impossible.

That leads to the following question: What gives anyone a reason to believe the defense will improve? The continued development of such young talent as CB Joe Haden, SS T.J. Ward and DE Jabaal Sheard is one, but veteran OLB Scott Fujita expressed another.

"One thing that will help the defense is that we're competing with a much more effective offense here in camp," he said. "You have Trent Richardson and Montario Hardesty running the ball this year. These things will make the defense better. No doubt about it."

Fujita has a point. The defense has suddenly been forced to cover more ground quicker, competing against strong-armed QB Brandon Weeden. Richardson, along with now-healthy running backs Hardesty and Brandon Jackson, are providing greater challenges in the ground game. The Browns are much faster and more athletic at wide receiver. The secondary is struggling at times keeping up with the likes of Josh Gordon and Travis Benjamin. New RT Mitchell Schwartz gives Sheard a strong and technically sound practice foe to battle.

Whether that translates to superior play, especially from a run defense that ranked 30th in the NFL last season, remains to be seen. There is still no substitute for talent. The additions of Rucker and Parker (the Browns could not get any worse on the right side than they were last year) could be offset by the loss of DT Phil Taylor (pectoral surgery) for a half-season.

The infusion of talent on offense is undeniable. There is no way the drafting of Richardson, Weeden, RT Mitchell Schwartz and supplemental pick Gordon hasn't upgraded that unit. But until the games begin, there will be no proof that the defense is improved. It can only be hoped that Fujita is proven right.

Stay dialed in on the Cleveland Browns on Twitter at @CBSSportsNFLCLE throughout the season with on-site updates from CBSSports.com RapidReports correspondent Marty Gitlin.