Dysfunctional Cleveland Browns had deep dawg house versus Bengals

Former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens had a deep dawg house and when players fell, they could not climb back out.

This may be more beating of a dead horse, but snap counts showed greatly disturbing decisions made by former coach Freddie Kitchens. The Kitchens dawg house was both deep and wide this season, with many players falling into it and never getting out of it again.

Why was KhaDarel Hodge made the third wide receiver for this team at the end of the year? Versus Cincinnati, the Browns had 54 total offensive plays. Some of the time they played two tight ends, other times three wide receivers.

Hodge was in the game 17 snaps out of 54 total offensive snaps. No offense to Hodge who is a special teams ace, but he had only four catches this season and six in his NFL career. Is that really the best the Browns had?

Hollywood Higgins was a healthy scratch. No one knows why, but perhaps it had to do with an unfortunate blowup versus Kitchens earlier in the season.

The number four wide receiver was Damion Ratley  who had a spectacular 46-yard touchdown catch to open the scoring. However, they still limited Ratley to only 11 snaps for the game.

What exactly does a guy have to do to earn snaps on this team? Thanks, Mr. Ratley, now go grab some pine!

Equally insane was the distribution of snaps at tight end. David Njoku, the former starter, has been healthy for weeks but languishing at fifth string had four snaps, operating in the place of Pharaoh Brown who was inactive due to an illness.

There was no starting tight end because the Browns elected to use Justin McCray as an extra offensive lineman to open the game (in case you are wondering, yes it’s very weird to use an extra lineman on first down; that formation is more often used in short-yardage situations. But remember, it is our fabulous Browns we are talking about, and anything is possible).

First string Demetrius Harris had 32 snaps, rookie Stephen Carlson 23, and Ricky Seals-Jones had 11. Opinions could differ on this matter, but in this analyst’s opinion, the snaps are exactly in reverse order. Njoku is far and away the best receiving tight end on the roster, with 639 yards last year.

Seals-Jones is the next best tight end, and Carlson has earned a good look in training camp last year. Harris is the most experienced, but for what it is worth, Pro Football Focus grades Harris fifth out of the Browns five tight ends overall; fifth in receiving and fourth in both run blocking and pass blocking.

The offensive line was a bit of a mystery as well. Was Wyatt Teller injured, or why did Justin McCray go in for him after only nine plays? Over the course of the game, Baker Mayfield was sacked six times and hit a total of nine times so McCray’s valiant efforts did not seem to make much difference.

The Browns are not so good that they can afford to throw away the talents of starting-caliber players like Njoku, Rashard Higgins, and even Teller. No doubt critics can identify holes in each player’s game, and it is always possible that someone had a secret injury.

Nevertheless, based on what we know, it appears that Freddie Kitchens had a large dawghouse, and when players fell into it, they could not climb back out.

It’s great that the Browns have such high standards for player temperament and behavior, but how many of them can actually survive to play football for them?