Cleveland Browns: Defensive takeaways from the Week 4 loss

Opposing tight ends continue to dominate Browns defense

No Tyler Eifert, no problem. The Cincinnati Bengals were without their second best end zone threat in tight end Tyler Eifert but it didn’t matter. Backup tight end Tyler Kroft had a career day humiliating the defense with six receptions for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

The Browns have now given up over 40 receiving yards to tight ends in three of the first four games in 2017. Not to mention, this is the second time this season opposing tight ends have had multi-touchdown games.

No, they haven’t played Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski or Jimmy Graham. Jesse James, Benjamin Watson and now Kroft are the folks doing the damage. This presents a definite concern in Cleveland and a quick fix is unlikely.

Whether it’s a linebacker or a defensive back, the Browns defense simply can’t contain the bigger tight ends. At this point, the players shouldn’t receive the credit for the lack of execution. It needs to be on defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

Williams’ schemes have not worked well and the Browns are unable to successfully translate his philosophy into stops. One reason this can be is the fact, as mentioned before, Cleveland has yet to put its best defense on the field.

Perhaps Williams foresees a dramatic shift in execution when he gets a healthy defense that includes Myles Garrett leading the way. Although, so far at least, it doesn’t appear the Browns defense is one player away from becoming good.