Cleveland Browns: What should the offensive game plan be?

The Cleveland Browns are in a tough spot with Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, and Kareem Hunt being out due to injuries this week. What should the game plan be?

The Cleveland Browns are in one of the worst spots in all of the NFL this week. While some teams have been dealing with the injury bug this season, the Browns have had an infestation on their hands.

Cleveland currently has 11 players listed as either questionable or out for their Thursday night matchup against the Denver Broncos. While the Broncos are a team that the Browns could easily handle with a fully healthy team, the game seems almost unwinnable with the injury situation at hand.

Some of the names that are on the injury list this week include Baker Mayfield (Out), Nick Chubb (Out), Kareem Hunt (IR), Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (IR), Odell Beckham Jr. (Questionable), Jadeveon Clowney (Questionable), Jack Conklin (Questionable), and A.J. Green (Out).

With the Broncos not having the most intimidating offense and most of the key players for the Browns being healthy enough to suit up on Thursday, there is not too much of a concern for the defense.

However, arguably the three most important players on the offensive side of the ball will be missing for the Browns on Thursday.

Case Keenum will be suiting up in the place of Baker Mayfield, and Cleveland will likely run a rotation of D’Ernest Johnson and Demetric Felton at running back.

With Cleveland being the most run dominant offense in the past two seasons, they will have to completely rescheme their entire offense for the foreseeable future.

If the Browns were blessed with a healthy starting quarterback, they would be able to just focus more on the passing game. However, because the football gods are currently having their way with Cleveland right now, that is not possible.

Instead, the Browns will have to heavily rely on their receivers to gain yards after the catch as Keenum is likely not going to look too deep down the field as Keenum has only attempted 13 passes in the past two seasons combined. Also, with the longest pass he has thrown with the Browns only being 24 yards, it’s likely the game plan will have to be short passes and check-downs and hope that the receivers or backs can do something once the ball is in their hands.

Cleveland may be able to find some offensive relief in D’Ernest Johnson this week. Although he has not put up big numbers during his three years with the Browns, he has been very efficient when he does get touches. His yards per carry were 5.3 in his rookie year, 5.0 in his second year, but has dropped to 3.7 this season.

Also, rookie Demetric Felton will get his big chance to prove himself this week. Despite being listed as a running back, Felton has yet to run the ball once. Instead, he has only gained yards through receptions up to this point in the year. This will likely change this week out of pure necessity, however, he has incredible speed that has already been put on display this season. If the blocking is just right on one play, it should not be a shock if Felton rushes for a long touchdown.

While there is not much the Browns can do offensively this week in terms of game planning, they should look to move the ball through short manageable passes for Keenum, and lean on the young talent at running back.

It would not be surprising to see Kevin Stefanski dig deep into his bag of tricks and pull out a handful of trick plays this week. As this will end up being a very low-scoring game even a touchdown on a trick play could end up winning the game for Cleveland.

Stefanski will be put to the test this week and as the reigning Coach of the Year, winning a primetime game with the whole country watching considering the injuries the Browns are going through would do a lot for his case to repeat.