Browns Issue Isn’t QB. It’s Everything Else On Offense (Pretty Much)

In the end, the Cleveland Browns showed their fans something in the 23-16 loss to Baltimore on Sunday that dropped the team’s record to 2-8 on the season.

That 2-8 coupled with last season’s 3-14 mark means Kevin Stefanski’s (and Andrew Berry too) team is now 5-22 over the last 27 games. No question that is not acceptable for any franchise.

But we digress. What Sunday’s game showed is even though the Browns have two first round picks in next April’s NFL Draft, they should stay away from their stated goal of getting their “franchise quarterback”.

They simply aren’t ready for that.

The Browns simply don’t have nearly enough on the offensive side of the football for any quarterback to succeed. The line is a sieve. The tackle position was already one of the worst in the NFL, and then both starters, Cam Robinson and the oft-injured Jack Conklin, went out, meaning KT Levenston and Teven Jenkins (bet you forgot he was on the team) wound up playing outside.

They are weak at the wide receiver position. Jerry Jeudy is okay, but he’s not a go to guy. Cedric Tillman has size, something in short supply with the Browns, and really who else?

They have two solid tight ends in veteran David Njoju and rookie Harold Fannin, but because the line is so poor, the former is being used primarily as a blocker, despite showing he can be a weapon in the passing game.

Fannin has been fine but needs to cut down on the number of drops.

Another rookie, Quinshon Judkins has been good, but there is no compliment to him really, and on the 4th and 6 play at the end of the game, he wasn’t on the field. Why? Who knows. He’s probably the best offensive player on the team, so why should he be on the field on the most important play of the game?

And now for the current QB situation. First, the offense really mustered up only six points, as the Browns had a defensive touchdown from Devin Bush and were set up on the 5-yard-line after a fumbled punt.

The passing attack was non-existent as the Browns had just 81 yards through the air. Dillon Gabriel was passable in the first half, completing seven of ten for 68 yards, but couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. And 26 of his yards came on one throw to Tillman, so his other six completions netted just 42 yards.

Gabriel left at halftime due to a possible concussion (maybe not RPOs with a smaller QB), so we got to see Shedeur Sanders’ NFL debut which was less than auspicious.

The fifth-round pick completed his first two throws, then went 2 for his next 14 and showed his bad habit of retreating in the pocket and taking huge losses when sacked.

Will he look any better with increased practice time? We may find out this week.

Defensively, what more can you say about Myles Garrett, who had four more sacks and appears headed to his second Defensive Player of the Year Award. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: He’s the best defensive player in the history of the Browns.

And although Berry’s drafts should be criticized and scrutinized, he found a gem in LB Carson Schwesinger, who was all over the field, and gained his second interception. He’s probably the Defensive Rookie of the Year and should be considered for All-Pro honors.

Those two make these games worth watching, and Garrett’s chase for the season record for sacks will continue to make it compelling. He has 15 with seven games to play and the record is 22.5. He is simply incredible.

It’s on to Las Vegas. Can the Browns win? Sure, the Raiders aren’t very good. But the Browns haven’t won on the road since week two of last season. So, we might see a 0-0 tie.

Actually, that might be fun!

One Thing The Browns Can Hang Their Hat On? Finding Weird Ways To Lose

One thing the Cleveland Browns excel at is inventing new ways to lose football games. The most famous one was losing because Dwayne Rudd threw his helmet in celebration of what appeared to be a victory, which drew a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving Kansas City the 15 yards needed to kick a game winning field goal.

They’ve lost on a potential game winning field goal being blocked and returned for a touchdown.

Add Sunday’s game to the list. Yes, the Browns were behind 27-20 before a couple of boneheaded penalties took away any chance for them to come back and tie the woeful New York Jets, but we can’t forget the two special teams touchdowns for the Jets that were partially responsible for the home team’s lead.

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees took over play calling for this game, and we did see more downfield throws from Dillon Gabriel, but with those longer throws came more sacks, as Gabriel took six sacks behind the Browns’ horrible pass protection.

The rookie from Oregon did complete 17 of 32 for 167 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and did get Jerry Jeudy involved as he caught six throws for 78 yards. On the other hand, Jeudy was really the only wide out targeted, as after the dozen targets for Jeudy, Cedric Tillman was next with four.

On the other hand, there were several non-competitive throws and a couple of potentially terrible mistakes at the end of the first half when Gabriel threw behind Tillman and almost threw a pick in the red zone and then took a sack with no timeouts remaining.

The one good special teams’ play was getting the field goal unit on the field quickly and getting off a 45-yard kick by Andre Szmyt to tie the game at the half.

But watching the game, again our thoughts went to roster construction. Why isn’t there a decent veteran QB on the roster? The organization really has provided the coaching staff with no real alternative at the position.

Yes, we know eventually Shedeur Sanders will see the field, but why deal both Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett so there is no experienced NFL quarterback?

Let’s look at running back. Much like QB, the Browns drafted two players at this position, but the second one, Dylan Sampson, clearly isn’t big enough right now to play in the league. A stiff breeze can bring him down.

Jerome Ford is still here, but the real question is why? He doesn’t figure into the future and was supposedly on the trade block last week. So, why not look at Rocket Sanders, who was signed prior to the opening game and actually scored a touchdown in that game?

As for trying to improve the offensive line? According to reports, the Browns haven’t brought in a lineman for a tryout over the last four weeks. Nor have they signed one off another team’s practice squad.

The defense held the Jets to just 169 yards of total offense, but were gashed for two huge plays from Breece Hall, who caught a 42-yard touchdown pass on a screen, and also had a big 30-yard run, both in the fourth quarter.

You can’t blame that on a tired unit, the Jets only possessed the ball for 26 minutes during the game as Jim Schwartz’ defense forced five punts and an interception by Ronnie Hickman.

The special teams put the Browns into a huge hole. Giving up one kick return for a touchdown is bad enough, but two in one game? Three for the season, and there are still eight games left?

It has been said it’s tough for a special teams coach because the bottom of the roster, where most of their players come from, gets turned over a lot. That’s not the case with the Browns; their roster has been pretty stable.

The Ravens visit next week, and it reminds us they were in the same spot as the Browns three weeks ago at 1-5. But winning is first and foremost in that organization and they have turned it around and won three straight.

Here in Cleveland, everything revolves around finding a quarterback. That’s the wrong goal and until it changes, we get what we see every Sunday.

Berry Should Share At Least Equal Blame For Browns’ Mess

A few weeks ago, we said it was time for the Cleveland Browns to consider a coaching change. We were pushed over the edge watching an inept offense week after week.

The 17 point threshold is apparently difficult to get past, at least in Cleveland.

However, that doesn’t mean GM Andrew Berry should be off the hook (Paul DePodesta too, but that’s a different conversation). Yes, we know the 2025 draft class looks very good, and yes, we know Berry didn’t have a first round pick for the three prior seasons.

We write that last sentence knowing he was at least part of the decision to trade those picks in the Deshaun Watson trade, so he can’t be excused for not having the choices.

Shouldn’t Berry be part of the group who decides what kind of team the Cleveland Browns will be? A couple of years ago, we would have said they wanted to be a physical squad, running the ball with Nick Chubb and using a play-action passing game.

Defensively, they want to play man-to-man coverage and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback.

So, let’s look at the offense, since that is the huge problem right now.

The offensive line is a major problem, and Berry chose to draft two running backs and two quarterbacks and no linemen last draft. In 2024, he drafted Zak Zinter on the third round, and Zinter has not been active for any game this year.

He did draft two in ’23, Dawand Jones in the 4th round and Luke Wypler in the 6th, and drafted only one, Dawson Deaton in the 7th round in ’22. The year prior it was James Hudson on the 4th.

Jones is often injured and Wypler looks like he has a future. That’s all the GM has to show for the last five drafts.

His misses at the wide receiver position are also well documented. He coveted Jerry Jeudy for several years and then gave him a big contract during his first season with the Browns, by far the best of career.

Here are his draft picks: Anthony Schwartz (3rd round-2021), David Bell (3rd-’22), Michael Woods (5th-’22), Cedric Tillman (3rd-’23), Jamari Thrash (5th-’24). The last two of this group show promise, but there are no standouts to this point.

He signed Isaiah Bond as a free agent, and it seemed like the organization was patting itself on the back for that move, but Bond has shown little so far, and seems to have been handed a starting gig after Tillman was injured.

He also never drafted an heir apparent to Chubb as the running back was getting into his late twenties. A good general manager has to keep his roster prepared.

Berry has famously drafted only one Pro Bowler as well, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, in the drafts he has presided over. He has found good value on the undrafted free agent market, S Ronnie Hickman and LB Mohamoud Diabate stand out, but that doesn’t outweigh not getting impact players in the draft.

In short, what can Berry hang his hat on? He has strengthened the defense for sure, it’s one of the league’s best, but you can’t just have one strong unit in the NFL and win. Not to mention the team’s best player, Myles Garrett, was not selected by the current GM.

Does one solid draft mean Andrew Berry’s done a solid job. We say no. He is equally responsible for the failure of the Cleveland Browns.

Browns Did A Lot Of Things Right, But Still Lose

We all know how frustrating it can be to be a fan of the Cleveland Browns. Sunday’s game was just another example.

On a day when you much went right for the team, the Browns still lost to Cincinnati 17-16 and are now 0-1 to start the season with a date in Baltimore against the Ravens next weekend.

This game was lost because rookie Andre Szmyt, in his first NFL game, missed an extra point and a 36-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter. Most of the time in the NFL, kicks of 40 yards or less are automatic, they have to be converted.

We would bet the Browns will be looking for a new kicker this week.

They lost because they lost the turnover battle again, giving up the ball twice and not getting any of their own. Joe Flacco threw two interceptions, the first wasn’t a great throw and was batted up in the air by Jerry Jeudy. The second was right in the hands of Cedric Tillman and came with the Browns having a chance to have a go ahead drive in the last two minutes.

Otherwise, a lot went right for Kevin Stefanski’s team and GM Andrew Berry’s draft class. His first two selections, Mason Graham and Carson Schwesinger both started on a defense that looked a lot like the ’23 edition which led the NFL in total defense.

Graham had three assists playing in 81% of the snaps, while Schwesinger played on every defensive snap and was in on a team high eight tackles.

TE Harold Fannin Jr. was a big factor, lining up at many spots and catching seven passes for 63 yards, with a long of 22. You can tell Stefanski and Flacco have a lot of confidence in the young receiver.

RB Dylan Sampson had a dozen carries for 29 yards and also caught 8 passes for 64 yards. And for all the talk about Jerome Ford starting the year as the featured back, it was Sampson who got the bulk of the action. The latter had just six carries for eight yards.

Frankly, the Browns did everything they needed to do to win that football game. They controlled the ball, as time of possession favored Cleveland, 35:49 to 24:11 and consider the Bengals had a seven-minute drive to start the game. The Browns had 71 offensive plays to just 49 for Cincy.

It was a blueprint on how the Browns will need to play in 2025 if they want to win, except for the two turnovers.

Myles Garrett had two sacks and Isaiah McGuire had one. And we were also impressed with KR DeAndre Carter who also showed what a veteran returner does. He didn’t run backwards; he didn’t fair catch anything inside the ten.

That’s how it is supposed to be done.

We are concerned about LT Dawand Jones, who had four penalties in the game, although one was a holding call for something that seems to happen to Garrett on most plays. He needs to play a cleaner game.

The lack of a running game is a big concern too. Second round pick Quinshon Judkins signed over the weekend and could be ready to go next Sunday. He was drafted to be the primary workhorse running the ball, and Stefanski is going to need more than 49 yards on the ground for his offense to work.

The Cleveland Browns don’t have a lot of margin for error this season. That’s why the loss on Sunday stung. They could and should have won that game.

Now we see if this style of play is sustainable. Can they do it on the weekly basis? Guess we will find out in Baltimore.

Browns’ Latest Defeat Highlights The Lack Of A Running Game

The Cleveland Browns are not a good football team. That’s the only way you can put it when you have breakdowns in every phase of the game in a 27-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, dropping them to 2-7 on the season.

The optimism following last week’s win over Baltimore was short lived after another error filled contest heading into the bye week and the trading deadline. We would expect at least one move by GM Andrew Berry before 4 PM on Tuesday.

The special teams had two major gaffes, both of which set up Chargers’ touchdowns. They allowed a 53-yard punt return to provide good field position for Los Angeles’ first TD, and they allowed a blocked field goal to put the Bolts’ in position for their last score.

The defense allowed three big plays, all on third down when they could have forced either a punt or a field goal. Josh Palmer caught a 28-yard TD pass from Justin Herbert and later in the first half, Quentin Johnston got behind the defense for a 66-yard scoring play, both on what appeared to be blown coverages.

They allowed a 16-yard run by J.K. Dobbins who pretty much went into the end zone untouched. The Chargers ran 50 offensive plays, and the defense was very good for about 95% of them. That ain’t good enough.

The communication errors in the secondary overshadowed a three sack performance by Myles Garrett. And Dalvin Tomlinson had 1.5 sacks, as the Browns sacked the LA quarterback six times in the first half.

And they still allowed 20 points in that half.

Offensively? Well, let’s just say getting sacked six times and throwing three interceptions lead to putting a lot of points on the board. The only bright spot was Cedric Tillman, who hauled in six passes for 75 yards and scored the Browns’ only touchdown.

However, perhaps the biggest problem for the offense is the total lack of a running game. Cleveland ran for just 79 yards on 24 attempts, and five those were runs by Jameis Winston after being flushed out of the pocket.

That means the Browns’ running backs gained just 52 yards on 19 carries, which is under three yards a pop.

This means that a huge staple of the offense over the last five years, the play action pass is rendered useless. Defenses don’t have to bite on the fake if you can’t run the ball effectively.

This, of course, is another negative brought about by changing an offensive scheme that has worked in the recent past.

The latest defeat, Browns’ fans being Browns’ fans, have brought the people who want to blow up the roster and accumulate draft picks.

Should the team move some veterans on one-year deals for draft picks? Yes, of course. That makes sense.

Should they move players like Myles Garrett and David Njoku? No.

We understand the Browns will be severely handicapped in terms of the salary cap because of the commitment to Deshaun Watson. But we also understand that a good draft class, adding some good young players, can turn a franchise around quickly.

Look at Atlanta, Washington, and even Arizona. Building around guys like Garrett, Njoku, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Grant Delpit, etc., and Cleveland could be right back in the playoff hunt a year from now.

Besides, the results of the 1-31 two-year stretch were one playoff win in four seasons. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

Can’t Argue Browns Draft Picks At Least Make Sense

For more years than we care to remember, the NFL Draft has been sort of the Super Bowl for Browns’ fans. With the trade for Deshaun Watson last year, the front office decided to pretty much do the same thing the organization has done with the championship game, that is, sit it out.

We also feel that some Browns’ fans watch the selection process and feel that every player picked by the team’s divisional rivals are destined to be inducted in Canton someday, while Cleveland’s picks will never pan out.

That’s what three winning seasons in the 21st century will do to a fan base.

We aren’t going to sit here and pretend we know how the players the Browns just selected will turn out. That can’t be done for several years. What we can comment on is whether or not the picks make sense.

And quite frankly, we don’t have any beef about the players making any sense.

Yes, you can argue about the lack of linebackers, a position group the Cleveland front office seems to not value, and we can see the point of the discussion. They did sign Utah LB Mohamoud Diabate after the draft to a guaranteed deal.

Their first selection at pick #74, WR Cedric Tillman battled injuries last year, but in 2021 he caught 64 passes for 1081 yards and 12 touchdowns for Tennessee. More likely than not (and draft experts agree), he would have been drafted much higher had he been healthy in ’22.

Stopping the run was a problem for the team last year and they did address the situation in free agency by inking Dalvin Tomlinson, but they added a defensive tackle that should help in 6’4″, 358 pound Siaki Ika out of Baylor.

We don’t think you can ever have too much depth at certain positions on the football field. Teams should always be looking at players who can get after the opposing quarterback and also guys who protect the passer. And like pitching in baseball, you can never have enough cornerbacks.

GM Andrew Berry addressed those spots as well, drafting a pass rusher in Isaiah McGuire from Missouri, and two Ohio State offensive linemen in T Dawand Jones and C Luke Wypler. Jones is intriguing just by his size, listed at 6’8″ and 350 pounds, but likely more than that.

If offensive line coach Bill Callahan works his magic with Jones, Cleveland likely has found its ultimate replacement for Jack Conklin.

And they also added another corner, Greg Newsome’s former teammate at Northwestern, Cam Mitchell.

We would guess the pick debated the most is the selection of UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the fifth round. No problem here, we kind of agree with former Green Bay GM Ron Wolf in believing a team should take a quarterback every year.

Josh Dobbs is Watson’s back up in the short term and we would guess Thompson-Robinson will compete with Kellen Mond to be the long-term guy.

And best-case scenario is one of those QBs has a great exhibition season and a desperate team offers you a draft pick for him. It could even be better if Watson misses a game or two (that’s not the good part) and the substitute plays great in the regular season game.

You just never know.

You also won’t know about this draft for a few years. One thing we do know is that Berry is going to have to make some tough decisions this upcoming season on players he selected. For the first time, he will have to cut a few of them it would seem.