Are the Cleveland Browns offensive Big 3 the NFL’s worst?

The Cleveland Browns are working to rebuild their passing game in 2016, but are their Big 3 on offensive among the league’s worst?

The Cleveland Browns were a bit behind the curve in 2015 when it came to passing the football.

The team once again used three different starting quarterbacks – a common occurrence with this team – as they finished 21st in the league in passing yards (236.4 per game), 26th in passing touchdowns (20) and 23rd in completion percentage (60.9).

Those numbers help to explain, in part, why the Browns finished 30th in the league in scoring at just 17.4 points per game.

Compounding the problem was the quarterback play – outside of when Josh McCown was healthy – was not at an NFL level. The same could be said of the receiving group. Outside of tight end Gary Barnidge and wide receiver Travis Benjamin – who combined for 40 percent of the team’s receptions, 48 percent of the passing yards and 70 percent of the receiving touchdowns – the rest of the pass catchers struggled with injuries, inexperience and talent. Or, in the case of Dwayne Bowe, a simple lack of desire.

Things were so bad that Pro Football Focus ranked the receiving group at No. 30 in the NFL for the season.

“I think the Cleveland fans are going to be excited to see (Corey Coleman) when he gets up to speed in every phase of the game.” – Al Saunders

The Browns have been working hard during the off-season to solve that particular problem.

While Benjamin is gone to San Diego via free agency, Barnidge is back, or at least he will be once he recovers from surgery to fix a sports hernia. The Browns also waived Bowe and Brian Hartline, replacing them with a quartet of draft selections in Corey Coleman, Ricardo Louis, Jordan Payton and Rashard Higgins.

Cleveland has also gone back to the veteran “bridge quarterback” bin, picking up Robert Griffin III to compete with McCown for the starting job this fall.

So has it been enough to reverse the fortunes of the aerial attack? Maybe, although ESPN’s Bill Barnwell is not yet among the converted.

Using the idea of looking at each team’s offensive “triplets,” Barnwell selected the three most useful and important skill-position players for 2016 for each NFL team. His only mandate was that a quarterback had to be listed, but the other two positions were open to wide receivers, tight ends and running backs.

In the case of the Browns, Barnwell did not walk away impressed with the trio of Griffin, Coleman and Barnidge:

"This won’t be the only time the Browns finish last in a list this year, and finishing at the bottom of this one won’t qualify them for future draft picks. The nicest thing you can say about Cleveland’s woeful collection of skill-position talent is that it’s relatively young and with upside."

"RG III is just 26, having been born the same year (1990) as the still-blurry picture of Brock Osweiler, so it’s fair to say his long-term fate as a professional quarterback remains unresolved. Coleman, the first of five receivers the Browns drafted this year, seems to be the one decision Cleveland made during draft week that everyone agrees upon. And while Barnidge is already 30, he quietly produced a stretch of Rob Gronkowski-esque play last season despite some of the league’s worst quarterback play."

"What’s most amazing, perhaps, is that the Browns have significantly upgraded their skill-position talent from a year ago and are still last."

Barnwell makes some fair points, although he is a bit off in saying the Browns had some of the league’s worst quarterback play in 2015, as that was only true when anyone other than McCown was playing the position.

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We’re also not sure about classifying the offensive playmakers as a “woeful collection” is entirely accurate, either.

While it may be a stretch to believe that Barnidge can repeat his success from a year ago, running back Duke Johnson is a threat in the passing game, Coleman looks to be the type of wide receiver that opposing defenses will fear, and there just might be more gold than expected in the draft class.

One person who would certainly disagree with Barnwell is senior offensive assistant/wide receivers coach Al Saunders, who has spent the past few weeks doing his best to mold a young position group into something special.

“If they continue to make the improvements that they’ve made since they’ve been here, we’re looking forward to a group of very energetic and very capable players,” Saunders said at the close of mandatory minicamp last week. “What they’ve learned so far in this OTA session and these minicamps is what we expect of them in terms of their energy and their effort in the classroom and on the field. They’ve made some great strides.

“Now, we got to Phase 2, which is the training camp. We play real football at that time. We’ll see how they progress through that. I’m excited about this group. They’re great kids.”

Next: Where will Joe Thomas land on NFL's Top 100 list?

The Browns are still building the type of explosive offense that head coach Hue Jackson would like to see on the field, but they may not be as bad as Barnwell predicts.

And even if they are, at least there is nowhere to go but up.