Anthony Schwartz is the classic "speedy wide receiver" the fans are always wishing the Browns would draft, but he will have to step it up to make the roster this season.
Each year, there's a clamor for the Cleveland Browns to draft more speedy wide receivers. It's almost a cliché, and it's enough to make Browns mascot Chomps barf his doggie biscuits. If speed were so important, Anthony Schwartz, who clocked 4.26 seconds on his Pro Day, would be All-Pro. The problem with this logic is those wide receivers actually have to catch the ball. Speed is nice, but there are glaciers in Alaska that move faster than Cooper Kupp and yet he does all right.
So far, Schwartz has not done that, with a career catch percentage of 42.4%. In baseball, no player has crossed the .400 mark since Ted Williams did it in 1941. Well, Schwartz has done it twice in football. Unfortunately, the eyeball test agrees with the numbers. Mr. Schwartz can run fast, but has not shown the ability to catch footballs.
Generally, Andrew Berry draft picks make the Browns roster. However, this is Schwartz's third year. They could cut him and save $878,000 from his $1.33 million cap hit this season by moving on.
This summer's camp may be the last opportunity for the Browns and Schwartz to work together to undo the mistakes in his development and find a role in the team that he can excel at, or else he will likely be waived. However, not everything has been his fault, as the Browns have mishandled his case from the start.
How the Browns screwed up with Anthony Schwartz early on
The Browns read the Pro Day report and saw the glittering 4.26 second 40-yard dash time. Okay, that's really nice! Now did, you read the part where Schwartz was only on 50% football scholarship, and 50% track and field?
That means he simply didn't develop as much in college as his peers. With apologies to noted American sports philosopher Allen Iverson, practice does matter. Schwartz honed his speed better than his peers but didn't have the time to devote to the game of football.
Schwartz played three years of major college ball, but only had 117 catches for 1,433 career yards. That's about one and a half seasons' worth. When drafted, he was only 20 years old and was one of the younger players in the draft. Translation: green, green, green. He should have stayed in college one more year. There's no way he could have been ready for the NFL in 2021.
But about that time, Kevin Stefanski watched A Star is Born, and figured Schwartz was the next Lady Gaga. He and the coaching staff decided to give him major reps immediately, letting him see the field for 53% of the offensive snaps in the first game versus Kansas City.
He got off to a great start with three catches in his first game but then got shut out in four straight games. They should have seen that coming. He was the greenest rookie in the league and they set him up for failure by trying to play him like a starter immediately. Instead, he should have learned a few routes really well and had maybe ten snaps per game.
2023 is really more like his second season in the NFL. 2022 was more like a rookie season. No matter who has been at fault in the past, the coaches need to see some improvement in the present.
What can Anthony Schwartz do well?
Anthony Schwartz wound up on IR with a concussion in 2022. According to Draft Sharks, that is the only time he has really been injured, despite playing extensively on special teams. In college, he missed four games in three years. How horrible is that? Nevertheless, many Dawgs insist that he is injury prone and frail. You could perhaps make a case on the basis of his small size (186 pounds), but the durability numbers don't really bear that out.
The thing that Schwartz has been really successful at is the jet sweep. I his career, he has 10 rushes for 96 yards and a touchdown. That's 9.6 yards per carry. Do opposing defenses have an answer for that? Common sense would suggest that defenses can stop it if they put their mind to iit, but maybe not. Maybe the flanker reverse can be a thing.
The fact that he makes tackles on special teams, plus his extreme speed and lack of receptions suggest that perhaps he should have worked out as a cornerback. If speed is not that important for a wide receiver, it is very important for a cornerback.
The New England Patriots convert players to different positions all the time. Why not the Browns? You can say that the odds are against Schwartz making it as a cornerback or even a running back, but the odds are very against him making it as a wide receiver unless he demonstrates a quantum improvement in his ability to catch the ball.