Cleveland Browns: Is Joe Woods to blame for slow start on defense?
By John Suchan
![Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods works with cornerbacks during an NFL football practice at the team's training facility, Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Berea, Ohio. [Jeff Lange / Akron Beacon Journal]Browns 6](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fhttps-3A-2F-2Fdawgpounddaily-com-2Fwp-content-2Fuploads-2Fimagn-images-2F2017-2F07-2F16269834-850x560-2f780141a491d5721859e5c2910c3b6f77db687b3ae68e18c1f16af31776fd4c.jpg "Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods works with cornerbacks during an NFL football practice at the team's training facility, Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Berea, Ohio. [Jeff Lange / Akron Beacon Journal]Browns 6")
The talent is there
These new players on the defense generally haven’t come up with the statistics or highlights on the field that suggest they are as talented as we might have thought. Is that lack of evidence more to do with the defensive schemes we are watching? Or is it just that these players aren’t talented?
I was so excited to see John Johnson III sign with the Browns this offseason. All indications suggested that this safety, coming over from the LA Rams would be a leader on and off the field.
He’d been given the role of play calling for the defense with the Rams so that experience was what I was looking for these first two games and I simply haven’t seen it.
In the Week 1 game against the Chiefs, Johnson was on the wrong end of a big play late where Kansas City wide receiver Tyreek Hill got behind Johnson and caught a pass for a touchdown. That was the beginning of a series of events in that game that cost the Browns the win.
Newly drafted cornerback Greg Newsome II has been burned on a few long balls as well and has picked up a few interference penalties too.
These players were brought here for their talent so what is going on? Did the Browns front office just miss on these players or does coach Woods just not have the ability to coach a defense that knows how to win?