Cleveland Browns: Wide receiver must be a priority in the 2021 NFL Draft

The Cleveland Browns must draft at least one wide receiver, for both 2021 and the future.

The 2021 NFL Draft is just days away, and while the Cleveland Browns have some defensive needs to fill, they must also prioritize adding at least one wide receiver, and ideally two. The team cannot afford to wait until Day 3 to fill this need either; they must sink at least one top-100 pick into a pass-catcher.

Otherwise, they will be publicly admitting that they are satisfied with how the WR room performed in the 2020 playoffs, which would be a catastrophic failure by this organization.

Cleveland put up 17 points in the loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Technically, the offense put up more than that, but the referees were apparently blind to helmet-to-helmet contact. Regardless, the Chiefs scored 22 points. There were of course circumstances that led to that output, but when you can hold Kansas City to 22 points, you’d better win that game.

The Browns did not. The offense was given plenty of opportunities, but couldn’t get the job done. Aside from the forced interception early in the second half, Baker Mayfield was fantastic. And he had to be; Cleveland receivers created barely any separation whatsoever, and when they did, it was usually within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Jarvis Landry led the team with 10 targets that day; he caught seven of them for 20 yards and a touchdown.

Kansas City played tight and press-man coverage with a single high safety for most of the afternoon. They don’t even have a great secondary, yet they sold out to stop the run and dared Mayfield, knowing full well how great he’d been playing, to beat them through the air. And Mayfield did just about everything he could, but his skill players let him down.

David Njoku and Rashard Higgins were the only ones who could do anything downfield, save for one play by Donovan Peoples-Jones. Mayfield’s average depth of target was just 5.4 yards for this game.

This is flat-out unacceptable. Mayfield has been the best statistical deep passer in the NFL since being drafted, and yet he’s being forced to throw flats and drags the majority of the time. The current wide receiver room is terribly suited to his skill set, and it needs to change.

Mayfield thrives throwing the ball deep, yet the team has no one who can reliably beat man coverage or create downfield separation. The receivers essentially operate in the same area as the tight ends, which creates a ton of unnecessary overlap that bogs down the offense. As Orange and Brown Report Analyst Jake Burns put it, the current Browns offense is “essentially operating in the red zone each snap“.

This is not a one-game issue either. Mayfield was awful for the first six games of the season, and then something changed in Week 7. He improved steadily until he took his game to a new level in Week 13, after which he was one of the best passers in the league.

Every skill player on the team was targeted further downfield after Week 6 except for David Njoku (whose ADOT was skewed by a few targets in Week 1; he totaled seven targets in this span) and Jarvis Landry. This caused Mayfield’s ADOT to decrease as well.

There may well be a place for Jarvis Landry in this offense; clearly, there is, as he’s still on the team despite an inflated salary. But he cannot be leading the team in targets again, and he cannot be relied upon as Mayfields’ top option. And if neither of those things are happening, then why is he being paid so much? That’s a topic for another day.

The fact is that the Browns receivers do not complement Mayfield’s skillset well. They are repetitive with the tight ends, and the run game is hurt because there are more defenders in the box and close to the line of scrimmage than there would be if opposing secondaries were scared of the receivers.

Is there an in-house fix?

There is a potential fix for all of these issues on the roster: Odell Beckham Jr.

The polarizing receiver was on an all-time trajectory through three seasons with the New York Giants before injuries began to pile up. He hasn’t been the same since 2016, and while he got open at a very high rate during his six games in 2020, Mayfield was playing the worst football of his NFL career during that time.

Beckham is talented enough to fix everything. But based on his 22 games with the Browns, and his injury history, it would be incredibly unwise to bank on him doing that. And Cleveland cannot afford to take a risk like that. This is why they must address their need in the draft.

Additionally, the long-term future of the wide receiver room is uncertain, to say the least. The Browns have the most expensive WR room in the NFL, and no one can argue that they’ve gotten anywhere close to the level of production needed to make that investment worth it.

Both Beckham and Landry can be moved on from now with minimal dead money, and both Rashard Higgins and KhaDarel Hodge are on one-year contracts. There is a very real possibility that Cleveland will be replacing four receivers in 2022, and that is incredibly difficult to do in one offseason.

General manager Andrew Berry is well aware of this. A core principle of this front office is addressing problems before they even exist. The wide receiver depth chart may look deep right now (deep and effective are two different things), but that is temporary. Adding at a minimum one receiver to contribute this season and take on a larger role in 2022 is a must, and ideally, the team adds two.

Cleveland may not have a shot at DeVonta Smith, Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, or Rashod Bateman, but there are still plenty of players in this class who can provide the much-needed dynamic of speed to the Browns offense. Anthony Schwartz, Dyami Brown, Elijah Moore, Tylan Wallace, Rondale Moore, Terrace Marshall Jr., and Jaelon Darden are just a few names who can win vertically, laterally, and after the catch.

The Browns have plenty of ammunition in this draft, totaling nine selections, with four coming in the first 91 picks and six in the top 132. They don’t have to choose between continuing to upgrade the defense and adding some desperately-needed speed on offense. They can easily do both, and they will. They must.

Cleveland won’t leave their receiver room as it is now. They can’t afford to if they want to beat the NFL’s better teams. They have their quarterback; now they must get him some help.