Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has been active in bolstering his team’s defense in the offseason. For one, he brought in Za’Darius Smith last month.

The Browns acquired Smith and two draft picks from the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a pair of fifth-round picks. Smith’s future with the Vikings was up in the air for months, and in the end, the reigning NFC North champions decided to part ways with him.

Smith has been a regular at the Browns’ OTAs. He has spent much time working with Jim Schwartz, who the Browns hired in January to fill their defensive coordinator vacancy.

Schwartz sees that Smith’s versatility as a pass rusher can add another dimension to Cleveland’s front seven in the upcoming 2023 season.

“I think that we do have some flexibility there, particularly a guy like Za’Darius Smith, who’s a very effective inside rusher,” Schwartz said during a press conference at the Browns’ OTAs. “… He’s a good addition. We’re still going to do what we do, but he is a good addition to add in.

“Like I said, he’s got some flexibility. He can play right, he can play left. He’s had a lot of success in this league. He brings great veteran leadership to us. There’s plenty and plenty of positives right there. I just go back to that multidimensional ability. You can move guys around. I mean, I won’t keep any secrets. You’ll probably see five guys in pass rush a lot of times. We’ll probably have five of them out there. We’ll drop a guy occasionally, but we’ll play some down-five stuff, and that all goes back to the corners that we have.”

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Smith is coming off of a bounce-back 2022 season with the NFC North side. He recorded 10.0 sacks and 24 quarterback hits over 16 regular season games played in the campaign. He earned a Pro Bowl nod for the third time in his run in the NFL, as he proved that he still has plenty left in the tank at this stage in his career.

The Browns are set to kick off their mandatory minicamp schedule on June 6.