The Cleveland Browns dropped their fifth straight against the Miami Dolphins in Week 17. The last home game of the season for the Browns ended bittersweetly, with Myles Garrett showing out but with the offense completely falling flat against a shorthanded Dolphins squad.
Let's dive into just how bad the offense was, position by position, from Week 17.
Quarterback: F
Dorian Thompson-Robinson struggled again on Sunday after his horrible outing against the Bengals last week. Against the Dolphins, Thompson-Robinson completed only 24 of 47 passes for 170 yards and two turnovers. While he hasn't been put in the fairest of situations, he has officially fallen flat on his face this season.
If the fumble and the interception weren't bad enough, Thompson-Robinson also was called for intentional grounding three separate times. He immensely struggled to get the ball downfield, only completing two of seven passes that were ten or more yards downfield.
#Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has now thrown 6 interceptions and 0 touchdowns this season.
— Noah Weiskopf (@BrownsWithNoah) December 29, 2024
Running back: D
It's really hard to evaluate the Browns running back room at this point in the season due to the impact of injuries. Yesterday was no different as Jerome Ford exited the game with an ankle injury.
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In terms of actual production outside of two big 19-yard runs from both Ford and Pierre Strong, the running back room combined for a very pedestrian total of 115 yards rushing and receiving. This shouldn't surprise anyone as this group has struggled all season.
Wide receiver: C
The one and only reason this group gets a passing grade is because of Jerry Jeudy. He did drop three passes but ended the day with 12 catches for 94 yards, his 4th highest yards total all season.
The rest of the WR corps were completely non-existent as they had 2 catches for four yards off of seven targets. It was even more disappointing that rookie Jamari Thrash had 19 pass snaps and didn't catch a single pass. For weeks now, the Browns have been in an evaluation period, so for him to not log a catch for the third straight week is concerning.
Tight end: C+
The tight ends did the best they could with what they were given as Jordan Akins caught 6 of the 8 balls thrown his way for 49 yards. This helped pick up two first downs as he had the second-highest receiving yard total for Cleveland.
Blake Whiteheart caught an eight-yard pass on his only target of the day but did well in pass blocking as he graded out at a 78.5 per PFF. The tight ends put together an above-average performance but it wasn't enough to warrant a good grade.
Offensive line: D
While it's extremely hard to pass block in an offense that passes twice as much as they run, you can't say anything positive about a group whose quarterback got sacked 8 times.
Jack Conklin had his worst game of the year, giving up three pressures and a sack to edge rusher Emmanuel Ogbah. Wyatt Teller also struggled giving up three pressures as well.
Run blocking was just as bad as well as only two players received passing grades. Center Ethan Pocic had a run block grade of 68.5 and Joel Bitonio had a 65.2. These grades are out of 100, so it's pretty bad when those were the best two grades out of the group.