Cleveland Browns overly fixated on Ja’Marcus Bradley, Austin Hooper vs Jets
The Cleveland Browns offense really is broken and needs fixing
The Cleveland Browns accumulated some weird and alarming statistics numbers versus the New York Jets. In the absence of their normal wide receiver corps, the Browns developed an unhealthy fixation on tight end Austin Hooper (15 targets) and Ja’Marcus Bradley (11 targets, including 10 in the second half).
Your humble correspondent is usually not very critical of the team, especially since he is not privy to knowledge of injuries and so forth. Moreover, the team had little time to prepare, given that the Covid situation arose very quickly. They have plenty of very valid excuses.
Nevertheless, the Browns acted like they didn’t really want to play the New York Jets, they just wanted to be given an easy win that required no creativity, just an easy miracle from a rookie savior. This was reflected in the play selection. That’s partly the design of the game plan by the offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, the play calling of coach Kevin Stefanski and the decision making of Baker Mayfield.
Looking for Hooper kind of makes sense since he is a professional tight end. But Bradley is an undrafted rookie who had never been targeted for an NFL pass prior to the Jets game, though he had had a few snaps with the Browns against the Tennessee Titans.
According to Fantasypros.com, Stefon Diggs is the most targeted receiver in the NFL this season, averaging 10.5 targets per game. To further put that in perspective, Jarvis Landry averages 6.8 targets per game and leads the Browns.
Of course, the Browns were under duress, due to not having any of their normal wide wide receiver crew on hand. But why did they place so much faith in rookie Bradley?
And where was David Njoku? Easily the most gifted receiving tight end on the Browns, he occupied his usual spot on the bench, present for only 38 percent of the offensive plays. Harrison Bryant, actually led the tight ends in snaps, appearing in 83 percent of the offensive snaps versus 73 percent for Hooper.
Given that all the wide receiving options were poor, would it not make sense to spread the ball around among tight ends who are good receivers? We can only assume that Njoku was injured and the Browns were not revealing the extent of his injury. He was targeted four times and had four catches, compared to 15 targets for Hooper and just seven successful catches. This doesn’t make any sense unless Njoku was injured.
By using Bradley for 95 percent of the offensive plays and Marvin Hall for 91 percent of the offensive plays, they allowed the Jets to quickly figure out what their repertoire actually consisted of. Derrick Willies at least could have been used as a decoy, but instead, he saw the field for exactly three plays. In other words, the Browns simplified things as much as possible for the Jets to let them know their limitations.
Bradley was effective early in the second half, but after a while, the Jets figured out the route tree that he knew and were able to cover him. Thus the Browns nullified the effectiveness of their wide receivers because they lacked creativity and they basically forced the ball to the least experienced player on the field, hoping for an easy miracle.
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Looking at the stats, the players with the three most targets were Hooper, Bradley, and Bryant. They were also the players with the lowest success rate.
Thus, the Browns made sure their less talented pass-catching tight ends were on the field more often than Njoku, and threw non-stop to Bradley. Hall was targeted only twice and Willies was ignored completely. To win the game, they were going to have to throw the ball to players who were catching the ball: Hunt, Chubb, and Njoku. That didn’t happen, at least not often enough.
Based on the target frequency, you would think that Bradley was Paul Warfield and Hooper was Ozzie Newsome.
Yes, it was short notice and the coaches were probably angry. Who wouldn’t be? But together with the quarterback, they made decisions on personnel groupings that were counterproductive and resulted in targeting the less effective receivers. This is what happens when a team is looking ahead.
They want to be in the playoffs. They didn’t want to play the New York Jets. They didn’t have the patience to throw short passes to Chubb, Hunt, and Njoku that were gaining reliable but short yardage. They wanted easy long gainers to Bradley, and so that is what they tried on Sunday and came up far short.
Not playing Njoku is inexplicable. Maybe it is simply a personality conflict, as he has expressed an interest in going elsewhere. Right now the Browns need him to go to the end zone. Limiting him to 38 percent of the snaps when they needed a receiving tight end is ridiculous.
Fate dealt the Browns a tough break with Covid-19. But the Browns compounded the problem with a very poor throw-the-ball-up-and-pray mentality that felt very much like 2019. That approach is not going to work against the Steelers. It’s not going to matter whether the Browns play the first or second string. If they don’t want to play the Steelers, if they just want to make the playoffs without playing hard football, it will not happen for them.
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Coach, it’s not Covid-19. The offense is broken. Fix it.