Austin Barber’s history at guard was nearly nonexistent.
“I think at Florida I did two or three reps in one-on-one pass pro at guard my freshman year,” he said last week. “But other than that, no.”
That changed drastically three weeks ago when the Browns coaching staff moved the rookie from tackle to right guard. He’s spent most of his time there since, including the final two preseason games.
Spencer Fano’s climb to No. 9 pick started with dad-demanded footwork drills when he was 6
Not only has Barber impressed, coach Todd Monken hasn’t ruled out the third-round pick starting the opener next Sunday in Jacksonville. Veteran Teven Jenkins is expected to get the nod but has missed time with a sore back.
“If he’s not able to go, then Austin will be our right guard,” Monken said.
“It’d be amazing to start as a young guy, but it’s just coming in, doing your work every single day,” Barber said.
He has taken the move in stride.
“The transition has been good,” Barber said. “Just the way I’ve been practicing and just hearing feedback from the vets and hearing feedback from the coaches, it gives me the confidence I can go there and play. Doing it for two games and it’s just given me confidence I can go out there and do it.”
KC Concepcion proves he can handle variety of roles, earns trust of coaches
Offensive line coach George Warhop has been in the league for 30 years, and Barber is surrounded by veterans along the line.
“There’s some things you got to work out, but at the end of the day, you’re playing offensive line,” Barber said. “They’re really good coaches and I got really good vets in the room that have been helping me out a lot.”
Right tackle Tytus Howard, 30, center Elgton Jenkins, 30, left guard Zion Johnson, 26, and Teven Jenkins, 28, are those veterans and have nurtured the development of Barber and rookie left tackle Spencer Fano.
“You lean on those guys because they’ve been in it,” Barber said. “They’ve been in the war, they’ve been in the fight. So you just take as many things from them as you can. You take nuggets from them that they’ve learned from their experiences.”
He said the best advice has been “how to be a pro.”
“Just how to handle your business, how to work, how to do stuff after practice, take care of your body,” he said. “Those are some of the things that they’ve been telling me.”
Barber (6-foot-7, 320 pounds) spent five years at Florida. He started five games at right tackle in 2022, then 34 at left tackle over his final three years, earning third-team All-SEC honors in 2025.
He was drafted as a tackle but was told there was a chance he’d shift inside.
“That’s kind of how they put it,” he said. “Stay out, move in, play both, any way to help the team and ultimately any way to get on the field.
“You just got to be ready for both either way.”
Moving inside requires a different skill set, including the ability to react quicker because the space at tackle has been removed.
“The guys are bigger,” Barber said. “You got to see a lot more in there.”
He worked with the first team during a practice last week when Teven Jenkins was out.
“He’s only going to continue to get better,” Monken said. “He’s still a young player working his way through the bumps and bruises of the offense and whatnot, but he was fine.”
Defensive tackle Mason Graham likes what he’s seen from Barber.
“Stout, strong, I feel like he’s never really messing up playbook-wise, so I feel like he’s on his stuff for the most part,” Graham said.
One of the keys to succeeding inside is getting leverage by staying low. That can be a challenge at 6-7.
“Being so tall, yeah, you got to get the pads down,” Barber said.
“I like the way he’s wired, the way he works,” Monken said. “Nothing about what he’s shown thus far tells me that he’s not capable of executing what we’re going to ask him to do at guard or at tackle.”
Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas and longtime left guard Joel Bitonio visited camp and met with Barber.
“He’s someone that you have to talk to being here,” he said of Thomas. “He was showing us tips on different things that he adopted and that did during his career. You definitely take those things and keep them for sure.”
Barber plans to follow up with Bitonio.
“I’ve talked to him a little bit,” he said. “But definitely now that I’m inside, I have to get on that very, very, very soon.”
Monken pointed to a screen pass as a sign of progress for Barber in the move to guard. He said Barber was “a little bit casual down the field” against the Bills, then made the adjustment four days later against the Patriots.
“He accelerated and ran through the defender and did a great job,” Monken said. “He certainly takes coaching from the meeting room, from his past experiences to the field.”
“It’s just don’t make the same mistake again,” Barber said. “I watched the film and I saw what I did and I was like, ‘If it happens again, I got to be ready.’ And funny enough, it was called and it happened the way I wanted it to.”
