Cleveland Browns Week 6 grades: Reserves help team make the honor roll

Cleveland Browns offensive grade: A

Next man up.

That was the mindset of the Browns offense this week.

Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Jack Conklin, and Donovan Peoples-Jones all missed the game with various injuries.

In their absence, Case Keenum, D’Ernest Johnson, Blake Hance, and a returning Jarvis Landry stepped up and came away with a win.

The star of the night was Johnson, who in his first career NFL start, rushed for 146 yards and his first career touchdown. He also caught two passes for 22 yards. He was fantastic and made the most of his opportunity.

He even got a shout-out from LeBron James, which he was blown away by.

Case Keenum made his first start for the Browns and did exactly what any good backup quarterback does; keep the offense afloat and just run the plays that are called. He finished 21-of-33 for 199 yards and a touchdown, to fullback Johnny Stanton of all players.

Despite being injured and his timetable to return in question, Mayfield was on the sideline hyping up his team and going over things with Keenum.

Jedrick Wills Jr. returned from an ankle injury, but Jack Conklin did not. A guy named Blake, Blake Hance, stepped up and really had a solid outing and helped open up space for Johnson to run. The Browns have a little over a week to rest and heal up.

Landry, who had been on the IR with a knee injury, returned and was a big spark early on for the Browns offense. He finished the game with five catches for 37 yards. He was one of seven different receivers who had two or more receptions.

The offense piled up 376 total yards, with 182 coming from the ground game. Again, this was without Chubb and Hunt. The depth at the running back position for the Browns is a thing of beauty and will only help matters moving forward as the Browns excel when the running game is able to be utilized.

Cleveland still has some things to clean up offensively, most importantly the illegal formation calls. What’s up with that?

The offense had a plethora of questions heading into the game and a lot of guys stepped up and found a way to go 1-0 for the week. Odell Beckham Jr. yet again struggled and proved furthermore that it just isn’t working in Cleveland. With that said, and this isn’t an excuse, he returned from ACL surgery and then a couple of weeks later, injured his shoulder. It’s completely up in the air what happens next with Beckham and the Browns.

Cleveland made the honor roll in Week 7 and will have a tough test on Halloween day against the Steelers.

On to Pittsburgh.