If I'm making a depth chart, yeah--Higgins is more likely to see the field, today, than Schwartz.
If I'm betting on who's more likely to be cut going into the season, there's no way I'm betting on Schwartz to be cut over Higgins.
I think both DPJ and Hodge are best suited as backup X receivers. I don't think Higgins can play that role.
It'll be interesting. I assume we carry six receivers, but we could go five plus Felton. If we go five, that's going to be a tight battle assuming OBJ/Landry/DPJ/Schwartz have the first four slots.
Oh gosh no Schwartz isn't going to get cut as a 3rd round pick, that certainly isn't going to happen. It's just hard to know how far behind the curve he is having missed essentially all of training camp up to this point.
That said, I definitely don't think the Browns are facing a "Schwartz or Higgins, one must go" scenario either.
Last year they opened the season keeping 6 WRs and I think they'll match that again this season.
It's unfortunate that Carlson got injured, but I think the roster adjustment is going to be to not keep a 4th TE and instead keep Felton as multi-purpose weapon (RB4, Backup Slot WR, PR) on top of 6 traditional WRs with Natson being the odd man out.
Assuming Beckham can go 100% full bore in Week 1
2 WR sets
X: Beckham -> Peoples-Jones -> Hodge
Z: Landry -> Higgins -> Schwartz (this may change as Schwartz gets more acclimated)
3 WR sets
X: Beckham -> DPJ -> Hodge
Z: Higgins -> Schwartz
SLOT: Landry -> Felton
The million dollar question for me right now is who plays Z when the Browns are in 11 personnel and Landry slides into the slot.
DPJ has by all accounts had a tremendous camp, but if I'm reading the reports right, he's pretty much exclusively worked as the primary/starting X with Beckham not doing team drills.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe last year Higgins also primarily worked as the starting X last year after Beckham went down.
I personally think the Z should be Higgins, but I could see it being DPJ too. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.