With a string of injuries and some struggles to run the ball, the Cleveland Browns briefly had Audric Estime in the building. He turned nine carries into 19 rushing yards and a key touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens before being waived after one game.
Estime made his way back to the New Orleans Saints and gave the Browns a painful look at what they could've had. He had a revenge game of sorts in Week 9, leading Kellen Moore's backfield with 72 rushing yards and a touchdown on 15 rushes (4.8 average).
Given how poorly the Browns have run the ball this season, and given that Quinshon Judkins' snap count has declined over the past couple of games, one can only wonder whether the Browns made a mistake by letting Estime go.
Audric Estime gave the Browns reason to second-guess an overlooked roster decision
Of course, it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback. Perhaps not even the most optimistic fan expected a big performance from Estime last week.
That said, based on yards per carry, Judkins ranks well behind Jaleel McLaughlin, Dylan Sampson, and Raheim Sanders this season. He's not solely to blame for the team's woes on the ground, but he hasn't done himself or the offense any favors, either.
The Browns noticeably gave Sampson a bigger share of the offensive workload against the Saints. Maybe that was game-plan specific, or maybe they're not as sold on Judkins as they were at the start of the season.
Like Judkins, Estime is a powerful downhill runner who makes a living between the tackles, though he's nowhere close to the Ohio State product in terms of lateral quickness, elusiveness, or breakaway speed. Estime might be better in pass protection, though.
With nine games in the record books, the Browns have run for just 97.3 rushing yards per game, ranking 25th in the league. That might get the job done for teams with solid passing games and quarterback situations, but that's clearly not the case in Berea.
The offensive line has done its work for the most part, so maybe this is just a byproduct of having Deshaun Watson running almost all of his plays out of the shotgun.
Whatever the case, this team must figure out what's wrong and fix it. Hopefully, this isn't a personnel-related problem, because Estime looked like he belonged on a 53-man roster against the Browns last week.
Add us as a preferred source on Google