Browns stock report: Wide receivers rise while entire defense falls

After 11 weeks, the Cleveland Browns continue to struggle but as our latest stock report shows, some players have been improving

It was another loss for the Cleveland Browns this week against the Buffalo Bills but a few members of the roster played well enough to keep their stock rising.

Unfortunately, others were terrible in their production and had their stock plummeting by Monday morning. When these stocks stop falling is anyone’s guess in a season of blunders and missteps by the team.

Cleveland Browns stock report

Stock up: Wide receivers

Amari Cooper reappeared quite often against the Bills. He was missing in action against the Miami Dolphins a week prior but made a strong showing in this latest matchup. He caught six passes in the first half alone. He finished with eight catches for 113 yards and scored two touchdowns. It was his fourth game this season going over 100 yards in yards gained.

Donovan Peoples-Jones had a nice homecoming of sorts as he returned to Detroit on Sunday, a place he called home in high school, and had an especially good second half with his offensive production. He made several acrobatic toe-tapping catches along the sideline that also included a nifty touchdown late in the game. DPJ has now recorded seven straight games of catching more than 50 yards in receptions and having at least four receptions in each as well.

Stock down: Coaching Staff

The entire Cleveland coaching staff should be on high alert after this latest loss that has put them out of any type of postseason chatter and a dismal 3-7 record. Many who support head coach Kevin Stefanski say that his job is safe because Deshaun Watson is set to return to the team on December 4th, but his team is spinning out of control. He’s the leader of the pack, and that pack is running the other way.

Besides Stefanski having his seat warm, the rest of the coaching staff should be checking that they don’t have a pink slip in their locker saying they’ve been fired. Defensive coordinator Joe Woods has lost his defense as players like Myles Garrett and Grant Delpit are frustrated with the lack of coaching and have thrown Woods under the bus recently.

Special teams coach Mike Priefer is under fire as well, as his unit can’t seem to prevent weekly blocked field goals. It happened again on Sunday, when the Browns were still in the game against the Bills and kicker Cade York had a field goal attempt blocked early in the third quarter.

Stock up: Kareem Hunt

It wasn’t a statistically great game for Kareem Hunt, but it was better than what we’ve seen over the last couple of months and gave a glimpse of how Hunt can help this team moving forward.

He finished with 32 yards on the ground but only on five carries. His biggest run went for 11 yards. He also took a couple of screen passes and ran for 22 more yards. Hunt’s teammate Nick Chubb really struggled to run the ball all afternoon, so it was good to see Hunt make some progress and keep the run game afloat.

He’s now collected 346 rushing yards and 149 yards in pass-receiving yardage. Both numbers are lower than expected at this point in the season, however, his value to the team over these last seven games could be bigger, especially with Deshaun Watson stepping in at quarterback in a couple of weeks.

Stock down: Nick Chubb

While Hunt’s game was pretty good, it was in contrast to the Browns’ No. 1 back Nick Chubb’s game-long battle. He finished carrying the ball for only 19 yards on 14 carries. It was the worst game of his career.

The only game worse for Chubb in terms of yards gained on the ground was in a battle last November against the Baltimore Ravens when he ran for only 18 yards on nine carries. Chubb’s season has gone south over the last several weeks. In the last five games, he’s only gained 330 yards. Between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills games, he only went for 72 yards on 25 carries.

Chubb has been the heart and soul of the Browns offense, but his production has faded a lot in this latest disappointing season for the team. Can he turn things around this season? He still ranks in the upper tier of NFL running backs, but this losing Browns season has to be wearing heavy on a player like Chubb who cares only about the team’s success.

Stock up: Jerome Ford

Rookie running back Jerome Ford has also been the Browns’ kickoff return specialist and has come back these last two games to put in some good production after having been injured earlier in the season. In this latest game against the Bills, Ford brought back two kicks that totaled 49 yards. His best return went for 28 yards.

Last week when Cleveland played Miami, the rookie from the University of Cincinnati ran three kicks back for 95 yards. His biggest run went for 48 yards on the opening kickoff of the game which helped put his team in great field position. That led to the Browns scoring a touchdown a few plays later.

We don’t know what Cleveland will do with their run game a year from now, but the bets are pretty high that Kareem Hunt will be gone in free agency, so the emergence of Ford in the run game could work out well for the team.

Stock down: The entire defense

The Browns defense is in meltdown mode at this point of the season. Most of that has to do with players not trusting one another, pointing fingers at each other, and putting the blame on the coaching staff rather than taking accountability for their own collective poor play.

After the latest loss, where their unit was shredded again, several players including Myles Garrett and Grant Delpit talked about their talents being wasted and of players that still don’t understand play calls that have been called.

It really is discouraging to hear players not wanting to take responsibility for their own awful performances. Neither Garrett nor Delpit has played every down giving 100-percent effort as this has been documented a lot this season.

For Delpit, specifically, the post-game comments this past week, really are a farce considering he was at fault for the blown late-game coverage against the New York Jets back in Week 2 on the 66-yard touchdown pass that helped give the Jets a chance at the miracle win. After that game, he blamed the mistake on a communication error.

Cleveland’s defense is now ranked next to last in the NFL in giving up points per game at 26.9. They gave up six straight scoring drives to Buffalo in the middle of Sunday’s game.

By that point, the game was out of reach. Cleveland gave up 357 yards of total offense and once again they got run over for 171 yards. It’s the sixth game in the last seven where the Browns have been blasted by the opponent’s run game.

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