Cleveland Browns: Donovan Peoples-Jones is starting to hit his stride

Rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones is emerging for the Cleveland Browns

Baker Mayfield has been outstanding recently for the Cleveland Browns. Mayfield’s truly been on fire, and that was again on display versus the New York Giants on Sunday, as DPD’s Joel W. Cade touched on.

In that outing on Sunday, Mayfield was 27-of-32 for 297 yards and two touchdowns.

Nonetheless, the Giants were without Daniel Jones, who was injured, and Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was ruled out due to testing positive for the novel coronavirus pandemic. New York cornerback James Bradbury, who has had a great year, was not in action due to him being on the reserve/COVID-19 list, too.

Albeit Mayfield is clearly figuring it out. Anyway, while the likes of Jarvis Landry, Austin Hooper (when he’s been active), and Rashard Higgins have recently been connecting with Mayfield, it’s also been nice to see Donovan Peoples-Jones get into the act.

Peoples-Jones has been hitting his stride for the Browns

Peoples-Jones, who was a 2020 sixth-round draft selection by Cleveland, took a while to get going. He was inactive for the first three games; although, that wasn’t completely shocking.

That said, while what happened to Odell Beckham Jr. was such a blow in Week 7 at the Cincinnati Bengals, and Cleveland is still so willing to run with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, as they should be, Peoples-Jones is starting to come on.

In that Week 7 win in Cincinnati, he hauled in his first three receptions, leading to 56 yards. And most notably, he and Mayfield connected in the closing moments, in what was a game-winning touchdown.

From there, due to brutal weather and lack of opportunities, Peoples-Jones was mostly dormant for Cleveland’s next four games. It seems as if the Michigan product is beginning to hit his stride, however.

Peoples-Jones did bounce back after a dropped touchdown at the Tennessee Titans early on in Week 13 by having a 75-yard TD, plenty of which was via catch-and-run. He had a 17-yard reception in that one, too.

On Monday Night Football versus the Baltimore Ravens, following that, he had a few key grabs, also. His touchdown would come off a tipped pass, which was fluky, sure, but he did end up registering 74 yards in totality on three grabs, which was meaningful in that one, which was a wildly entertaining, albeit unfortunately close loss.

And lastly, he kept things rolling in the Cleveland Browns’ W over the Giants. Peoples-Jones had 55 yards on three catches, and Mayfield’s trust in the rookie seems to be there. In that realm, Scott Petrak of Browns Zone alluded to how that trust level seemingly grew early on, too, with how Peoples-Jones was a player that was invited/went to visit and catch passes from Mayfield in Austin, Texas in the offseason.

Moreover, while the sample size has obviously not been huge at only 17 targets, Peoples-Jones having 13 catches in those, and 293 yards is pretty impressive. He’s shown capabilities of connecting with Mayfield for intermediate and chunk plays. And even taking out the 75-yarder at Tennessee, he’s averaged 18.2 yards per catch thus far in Year 1.

So we’ll have to see if Peoples-Jones keeps getting chunk plays, but it seems as though he very well will, should the opportunities arise.

It appears early in his career, sure, and the target-share hasn’t been high, albeit it looks as if Cleveland has a deep threat in Peoples-Jones looking onward. Perhaps that could play out in the postseason, even, should (knock on wood), the Browns eventually solidify their spot in that tourney.

Peoples-Jones, though he hasn’t exactly killed it in the punt return game, and was essentially replaced in the kick return game by D’Ernest Johnson, as Petrak noted, could potentially have a far bigger role than as a return man moving forward.

In the offensive/receiving sense, the emergence of the Michigan product, who was again a sixth-rounder, for whatever reason, has been a promising development as of late.