Cleveland Browns: Duke Johnson Jr. deserves more touches next season

Duke Johnson Jr. has seen a sharp decline in touches this season. If the Browns want to continue its recently found success, then they need to get Duke the football more.

Freddie Kitchens has revived the Cleveland Browns offense. On the backs of rookies Baker Mayfield and Nick Chubb, along with arguably the best interior offensive line, the Browns were a few blown calls by the refs away from the playoffs.

However, Kitchens’ play calling has not been perfect. He needs to utilize his secret weapon, Duke Johnson Jr, a lot more than he has. This season, Johnson has averaged a career high of five yards per carry. Yet, the amount of carries he has received this season is less than half of what he got last season.

Since Kitchens took over play calling, he has only received 14 carries for 73 yards. In comparison, Chubb has 131 carries for 654 yards. That means that over the seven games that Kitchens has been calling plays, Duke is averaging two carries, while Chubb is averaging almost 19 carries per game.

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Chubb is a better running back than Johnson. Chubb is a pure runner, while Duke is a receiving back who is a lot more versatile than Chubb. However, if Chubb is the future of the team at running back, the team needs to cut back his carries a tad to save his legs.

Injuries were a big problem for Chubb coming out of college. He suffered a gruesome knee injury in 2015. In that injury, he tore multiple ligaments and cartilage in his knee. He may have had surgery and fully healed, but the Browns need to worry about him getting injured again. Life is bigger than football, so for Chubb’s sake, the Browns need to cut back his carries so he isn’t averaging almost 20 carries a game.

Duke shouldn’t just get more carries. He could also use some more receptions. Duke is having a career low of 3.1 receptions per game, despite being one of Baker’s best receivers. Since Kitchens has taken over, Baker has targeted Duke 29 times. Duke has caught 26 of those targets for 223 yards and three touchdowns.

Those are some pretty good numbers for a quarterback to have targeting one guy. Duke is catching 79.3 percent of his targets this season, and that is third on the team. The two guys above him are Darren Fells and Dontrell Hilliard, who each have 10 and nine catches respectively.

Since Kitchens has taken over, Duke has caught a whopping 89.7 percent of his targets. With this accuracy, plus Duke getting about nine yards per catch, the Browns need to utilize him a lot more than they have. Duke is arguably the Browns most dangerous weapon, but he is having a career low in touches this season, and so far it is 74 touches less than last season.

Kitchens should take a page out of the Saints book for how to use his two running backs. There are vast similarities between Johnson and Alvin Kamara. Kamara is currently the better player, there’s no question about it. However, their play styles are very similar, and if Duke can get a similar role to the one Kamara has in his offense, his numbers could explode.

Kamara is averaging 13 rushing attempts per game and five and a half catches per game. His partner in crime, Mark Ingram Jr., is averaging 12 rushing attempts per game and almost two catches per game. This keeps both of them healthy and allows each of them to make the big plays they are supposed to.

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I am not advocating for Duke to get the majority of carries like Kamara does, but if Duke were to take a few carries per game away from Chubb, that would be better for both of their careers. Kitchens has been a great offensive coordinator so far in his tenure with the Browns. Hopefully he is on the staff next season, and next season he is able to get Johnson more involved.

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