Cleveland Browns vs. Jaguars: Grading the Browns offense from Week 2

It's obvious at this point that the best part about the Cleveland Browns offense during Week 1 was that it was most likely rock bottom for the entire 2024 season; hopefully.

I'm not ready to say they have done a complete 180, because that would imply they went from a bottom three to a top three offense, but they did make vast improvements that assisted in what ended up being a dominating performance by the defense.

To grade them this week, I will talk about and grade the offensive line, run game, pass game, and coaching.

1. The Offensive Line

Cue the sad violin for everyone who criticized the Browns' offensive line in Week 1, and justified Watson's poor play as a result. The reality is that they weren't much better on Sunday. Like Week 1, both Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills Jr. were inactive before the game kicked off, and penalties in the game began to stall promising drives all the same.

The first half was a substantial turnaround from last week, and things began to look promising for the rest of the season. However, the reality was the player Cleveland didn't account for in the third quarter and the offense looked nearly as dreadful to close out the game.

The difference this week is that the Jacksonville Jaguars didn't have nearly as stout of a defensive front as the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1. It was less of the Browns' O-line protecting better in all phases and more of them playing a lesser opponent.

Deshaun Watson still ran for his life, took far too many hits, and was forced to rush his throws. The running backs were being hit behind or at the line of scrimmage and forced to make positive yards out of nothing. To make matters worse, backup right tackle Dawand Jones exited the game in the second quarter which left the Browns with an emergency tackle taking snaps.

The Browns offensive line, which began the year as a top-five unit, has been plagued with injuries, and ranked near the bottom for Week 1. Watson was only sacked twice on Sunday, which is a massive improvement from the six sacks against the Cowboys in the opener.

I fully expect massive improvements from the O-line once the Browns have Jedrick Wills Jr., and Jack Conklin back in the lineup. Their depth has been tested, and they have not tested well. It is quite possible that Cleveland is suffering from the inability to replace such a well-respected o-line coach in Bill Callahan, and ultimately will not play at the same level they were at under him.

Offensive Line Grade: D-

2. The Rushing Attack

The Browns run game was a substantial imrpovement this week, with Kevin Stefanski opting to utilize D'Onta Foreman as the primary back, and Jerrome Ford as the change of pace. I like this combination much better than how they tried to use Pierre Strong and Ford a week ago. Against the Jaguars, the Browns were able to capitalize on explosive run plays one of which from Ford that went for 36 yards on fourth down.

I think a lot of the credit for the run game improving this week goes to Stefanski himself, just based on utilizing the right personnel for the system he runs. Foreman is much more of a downhill, run straight into the trenches type of RB, and Ford will most likely retain the change of pace role once Nick Chubb returns to the lineup. Against Dallas, both Strong and Ford were unable to get anything going on the ground, but honestly, both RB's are similar.

As well as they improved the run game, there is much more for the Browns to work on for Week 3. They accumulated 125 yards total, and 4.3 yards per carry, which is only roughly 30 more than against Dallas. If you take out the 36-yard gain by Ford and the 20 yards of scrambling from Watson, the Browns rushed for 69 yards and three YPC. The long run by Ford was one of the better play calls by the Browns during the game, after sneaking with Winston on two previous fourth-and-inches; Stefanski called the perfect play for a Jaguars defense that was expecting a QB sneak.

The Rushing attack: D

3. The Passing Attack

One of the more difficult phases of the offense to grade this week due to a tale of two halves; the Browns improved their passing attack by large margins. At the very least, they found some rhythm going into halftime where Watson was 11-of-15 for 108 yards, primarily within the first quarter when he scored the Browns' only touchdown.

The second half, however, was not quite as well executed with Watson completing 11-of-19 for only 78 yards. Watson looked flustered and often under too much pressure to make any plays as the game progressed. Jerry Jeudy continues to be a bright spot in the Browns' passing attack. The sure-handed receiver led their receiving corps with five catches for 73 yards and looks more comfortable each week, with a clear chemistry established with Watson.

Pro Football Focus has become a cornerstone for how we grade players in the NFL. PFF grades each player's effort on every play and combines the grading criteria to develop an overall score. For example, for a player to receive a score of 100 for a game, the highest score possible, they would have to score 100 on every play. The scoring separates players into elite, Pro-Bowler, starter, backup, and replaceable categories.

No Browns' offensive player scored in either the elite or Pro-Bowler categories to save everyone the time and effort. Jeudy led the way with an 80.8, the upper portion of the starter category, and only Dawand Jones, David Bell, Jameis Winston, and Watson joined Judy in the starter category which ranges from 85-70.

The Passing Game Grade: C-

4. Offensive Coaching

Through two weeks of football, one thing has become clear; the Browns' have done a poor job in replacing key offensive coaches. The O-Line, which was previously touted as en elite unit, remains uncharacteristically bad.

Cleveland approved former O-Line Coach Bill Callahan's request to leave the team and coach with his son in the off-season. No one is questioning whether or not that was the right decision, however, in previous years injuries have not caused such dramatic falloff from the O-Line. Stump Mitchell and Alex Van Pelt were organizational decisions to part ways, which seemed off-putting when the team achieved such success throughout the season when other teams would have crumbled. The passing game, the run game, and the offense as a whole looked significantly better when Van Pelt was leading the unit, compared to Ken Dorsey who is currently the offensive coordinator.

In Week 2, there were both good and bad play calls that influenced the offense as a whole. During the first half, Stafanski called a pretty good game that focused on getting Watson into rhythm and using short to intermediate throws to move the chains.

Rotating between Ford, and Foreman also gave the offense a much-needed spark that kept the Jaguars front seven back. The best play call, by far was the fourth-and-inches call for Winston to handoff to Ford. Everyone, including myself, was expecting a QB sneak and it caught the Jaguars defense completely off guard for a 36-yard gain.

The worst call came with under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Jacksonville had zero timeouts remaining; Stefanski called a pass in which Watson scrambled and attempted to make a throw that almost cost the team dearly.

The biggest issue so far has been the fact that Watson hasn't returned to the player he was in Houston. However, much of that is on the head coach and playcaller. Stefanski has done a poor job and continues to do a poor job of adapting his playcalls to Watson's strengths.

Watson's best throws on Sunday were when he operated from the shotgun, or from under center outside of Play Action. Stefanski uses the run to set up big pass plays on fakes, and PA. When Watson operates in an empty backfield, out of the gun, or under center without PA or fakes, he has time to scramble and make plays happen. The way Stefanski's system operate, its taking far too long for the plays to develop.

Lastly, the penalties are absolutely killing the Browns' offense. Seven penalties for over 100 total yards on Sunday points to discipline amongst the unit. The fact that four of the seven penalties were illegal shifts is also frustrating. Either the timing is off, or, like the issues stated above with Watson, the play is taking too long to develop.

Offensive Coaching: C

Final Thoughts

Clevelands' offense took steps in the right direction on Sunday; however, they are very far from where they need to be to remain competitive in 2024. As it stands the defense is carrying this team on its back, while the offense tries not to lose the game.

At a certain point, the defense will start to get worn throughout the season, and the offense will need to step up. Getting Conklin and Wills Jr. back is no longer a desire, but a necessity. The O-Line has proven to be faulty, and unreliable in their absence. According to PFF Pierre Strong, James Proche, Cedrick Tillman, Amari Cooper, Ethan Pocic, Germain Ifedi, Zac Winter, and James Hudson III all scored below 59, which is categorized as replaceable.

Of the eight players listed, half are o-linemen, and three were in the starting lineup. There's more going on in Cleveland than just poor execution.

Overall Offensive Grade: D+

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