2018 Season | The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

That's true...I don't care how funny people think his belly bump is, Wiley needs to go...along with Amos Jones. I contend Josh Cribbs could coordinate and get these guys more in line than Jones has.

 

Wondering a bit if Njoku "gets it". There was the clip of him towards the end of the game, feet up, helmet off, and chewing a mouth guard just kind of looking around. The optics weren't great.

Here's a couple of the starters at TE from that draft, all of whom are playing with pretty poor quarterbacks:

O.J. Howard (my guy): 904 yards, 16.7 YPC, 11 TD, 68.4% catch rate; 19th overall pick

Evan Engram: 867 yards, 10.7 YPC, 8 TD, 57.4% catch rate; 23rd overall pick

George Kittle: 1,207 yards, 14.4 YPC, 5 TD, 67.7% catch rate; 146th overall pick

David Njoku: 736 yards, 11.0 YPC, 6 TD, 57.3% catch rate, 29th overall pick

I guess the "he's raw and needs time" narrative, which is true to an extent. But he's not a blank slate (ATH) to be made into an all-around type of player. He's a big receiver with decent speed who the Browns are using as an in-line blocker on passing downs. I agree he should be handling run-blocking duties, and he's just behind guys like Kelce and Gronkowski in that metric, per PFF.com. But he has no business pass blocking and no amount of reps are going to change that.

Again, per PFF.com he's the 28th rated pass-blocking tight end, but he's 7th most-used tight end in pass-blocking (45 snaps), and the only TE who's intended to be a receiver (tied with Rudolph) in the top 10.

Misused!

 

I endorse this wholeheartedly!

 

Good?

On the broadcast, he had a *lot* of good things to say about the Browns and specifically Baker Mayfield...

 

Do you take Arians over McCarthy if he becomes available (as is rumored)? More importantly, would Mr Buddy Boy take him?

 

Of all the *realistic* possibles mentioned, I still like Matt Campbell the most.

 

Especially if he comes with David Montgomery and Hakeem Butler.

 

The Ugly:

Speaking Monday, Browns interim coach Gregg Williams said Greg Robinson could take over as the team's left tackle going forward.

Disastrous UDFA starter Desmond Harrison was sidelined with an "illness" Sunday. "Played well, didn't he?" Williams said of former Rams mega bust Robinson. Williams said it will be a "competition" going forward. Robinson has never been good, but he just needs to be better than Harrison, which is not a high bar to clear.
Related: Desmond Harrison

Source: Mary Kay Cabot on Twitter

 

Arians specializes in getting quarterbacks killed.

 

He just wants to compete against the Steelers.

 

If that's all he wants, the Ravens job might be open soon... He loves Baker Mayfield, that's why the Browns job is attractive.

 

I'm going to ask a question. Not to start another ruckus but because I'm sincerely interested in your guy's thoughts (applies to Browns fans only - all others need not reply).

At this point in time . . . What is the weakest positional group and why?

 

Three-way tie?

1. Linebackers. The why? Jamie Collins, in a nutshell. Low-effort veteran sucking up $12.5 million a year. Also, the injury to Joe Schobert, and subsequent injury in the same game to James Burgess. Schobert, turns out, is a Top 10 middle linebacker and Burgess was nice depth. Now, we've got a liability at SAM, a JAG at WILL, and an injury to the MIKE.

1a. Receivers. The why? Inexperience, injuries, and inconsistency. Jarvis Landry seems to be having difficulty adapting to what's being asked of him. The next man up, Antonio Callaway, is a rookie who missed an entire year of NCAA football before being drafted in the fourth round. Rashard Higgins can be WR1, but has been missed while banged up. Outside of those three, there's just pieces. I also would add Njoku, still developing, as a weakness to the receivers group (I will remove them if we continue to see Duke Johnson as one of the most-targeted receivers moving forward).

1b. Offensive line. The why? One word (acronym?): ROI. Browns have $34.6 million invested in their offensive line, fourth highest in the NFL:

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Of those teams...

• Saints: #1 in rushing, #1 in pass protection
• Dallas: #6 in rushing, #27 in pass protection
• Philadelphia: #18 in rushing, #26 in pass protection
• Cleveland: #9 in rushing, #32 in pass protection
• New York: #17 in rushing, #13 in pass protection

Pass protection being defined here as sacks allowed. On top of that, Chubb (only recently made a starter) leads the NFL in yards-after-contact with 3.49, which makes sense since I also saw somewhere that he's last in the NFL in contact behind the line. So while it could be argued some of the sack numbers are also on the QB, the opposite is true of the running game where Chubb (and Hyde previously) were overcoming massive offensive line struggles in run-blocking. Prior to last week, Harrison led the NFL for tackles at sacks and pressures allowed... and Chris Hubbard (our RT) was tied for second.

 

It's a good question Lym. I thought linebacker was a strength, but we have been exposed the last couple weeks. Our tackling has gotten to the point where I question the effort...But it's probably a toss up between WR and O-line.

I'm gonna say the offensive line issues are my biggest concern, because we are trying to develope a promising young QB, and we need him to be healthy.. The LT and RT have not been great. I worry that, right now, our inadequacy on the offensive line could be stunting the growth of our QB. Good OT's are just hard to find.

AS far as the WR's go. We were leading the league in dropped passes when we signed Breshad Perriman....That kind of sums it up. I have no doubt we'll address this position in the offseason, but this group has performed predictably inconsistant. Landry is a baller, but not a true #1....

 

The flip-side of this would be: running backs, defensive line, and quarterback.

1. Running backs. Chubb, if he stays healthy, looks like the feature back for the next 6-10 seasons. Since being named the starter, he's averaged 76.7 YPG, 19.3 carries, and 0.7 touchdowns. Over a full 16 games, that looks like 309 carries, 1,227 yards, and 11 touchdowns, which in 2017 would have him ranked #2, #4, and #3 in those categories, respectively. Add in Duke Johnson who's a multi-talent back that can be a huge asset in the passing game and who's signed through 2021 for a pretty reasonable rate.

1a. Defensive line. Garrett and Ogunjobi. Garrett has nine sacks through as many games, on pace for 16.0 on the season. The Browns' single-season record is 14, set 34 years ago. He's a disruptive force. On the interior, his counterpart Ogunjobi is just scratching the surface of his potential - and has 4.0 sacks and 11 QB hits through nine games this season (on pace for 7.5 sacks) making him the first Browns' DT with that many since Michael Dean Perry.

1b. Quarterbacks. Why?

 

@SAS ,

Can you post the same chart sorted in descending order for the LB group? Of the 5 teams shown (sorted by OL), the Browns are the highest for LB's but I don't know where the other 27 teams fall.

 

Here's the Top 12 (Browns come in at #11 overall):

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Also, here's the link to the site I'm using: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/breakdown/

 

Thanks !

 

I would like another two weeks to evaluate, if I'm being honest. The offensive line and receiver group could have been doomed by scheme. They looked a helluva lot better this past Sunday, however the Chiefs defense is terrible.

Right now,y first thought goes to LB hands down, specifically due to lack of depth.

 

I have harvested the middle of TD's response because it created a thought. While I agree that the current O-line needs some off season attention, the current state of this positional group may have some unintended benefit regarding Mayfield's growth and development.

IF Baker can maintain some semblance of an NFL offence while under the duress he's been under, imagine how he will perform with a clean pocket. Right now he is developing the habit of processing what he is seeing in fractions of a second. Like TD said, the trick right now keeping him healthy.