Cleveland Browns snap counts reveal offensive, defensive changes
What do the revealed snap counts tell us about the Cleveland Browns changes on both offense and defense?
Analysis of the Cleveland Browns snap counts show that what they are doing this year is different from last year, especially on defense, and it is also different from what they list on their own depth chart.
Curiously, as of October 1, their own website lists a base defense of 4 linemen, 3 linebackers and four defensive backs. This is what they played last year under Gregg Williams. However, it is definitely not what Steve Wilks has got them doing. The Browns website lists Adarius Taylor as the first string strongside (Sam) linebacker. Taylor, however, has taken only four snaps all season long!
Meanwhile, Jermaine Whitehead has started all four games as the extra free safety in the 4-2-5 formation, and in fact, he is second on the team in total defensive snaps behind Joe Schobert. He has missed zero snaps the past three games. However, the Browns show him as the second-string strong safety. Sorry Jermaine, you are just not getting much respect, but you are doing a great job.
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On offense, as of October 1, the Browns website indicates their base formation is a running back (Nick Chubb), two tight ends (Demetrius Harris and Pharaoh Brown) and two wide receivers (Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, Jr.). However, in their first three games, the numbers show they were more likely to play three wide receivers.
From 208 offensive plays in the first three games, tight ends took a total of 244 snaps or an average of 1.17 tight end appearances per snap. Wide receivers, on the other hand, were on the field 508 total times, or 2.83 appearances per snap.
That means the Browns were in a three-receiver, single tight end, single running back formation the vast majority of the time while playing two tight ends only about 17 percent of the time. Clearly the base formation was RB, TE, WR1 WR2 WR3 for games 1-3.
In the victory over Baltimore, however, the Browns relied more on the two tight end formations that worked successfully last ear. Over 69 offensive plays, Demetrius Harris (46), Pharaoh Brown (33), and Ricky Seals-Jones (21) took game snaps, plus Jim McCray was the on the field twice for tackle-eligible plays, so technically those snaps also count as tight end snaps. That is 102 snaps, or in other words, 48 percent of the time they had two tight ends on the field.
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Wide receivers, on the other hand, took 174 snaps or an average of 2.52 on the field. In other words, versus Baltimore, the Browns were about 50-50 in terms of their split between one and two-tight end formations.
Did anyone expect that, after losing a star tight end in David Njoku, the Browns would actually use tight ends more frequently instead of less? Pharaoh Brown has started taking snaps from the hybrid fullback or H-back tight end position, like Orson Charles did for the Browns last year.
Even though it doesn’t appear in the box score, Brown did a lot of damage to defenders while he was on the field. Nick Chubb seemed to like that, running wild on the arch rival Ravens. Definitely Chubb needs to take Pharaoh to dinner and feed him whatever he wants!
Ricky Seals-Jones, who was recently picked up after being cut by the apparently talent-laden Arizona Cardinals, was sensational with three grabs for 82 yards, and Brown added another grab for 18 yards. That makes 100 yards for tight ends in that game.
The Browns list Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, Jr., as the two starting wide receivers. However, Landry usually lines up in the slot between the split end and the offensive line, with Rashard Higgins (when he has been healthy) and Damion Ratley acting as the second split end in the three-wide receiver formation.
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When Antonio Callaway returns from his enforced vacation, the Browns might choose to try more multiple-wide-receiver sets if they want to. On the other hand, Seals-Jones and Brown were so good they may force offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Freddie Kitchens to find ways to play them.