Cleveland Browns: Coaching Demands of Current Roster
By Peter Smith
The Cleveland Browns current roster requires it to be coached differently than just about any of the other 31 teams in the NFL.
As discussed in a previous article, the Cleveland Browns’ roster features a remarkable 73 players of the current 90 with four years of experience in the league or fewer. Of those, only Joel Bitonio has really proven to be a good NFL player. The remaining players possess various amounts of upside but are largely in the same boat in terms of proving themselves in the NFL.
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Players like Robert Griffin III, DeMario Davis and Rahim Moore have been in the league longer but are also question marks as far as what can be expected from them, which is a major reason why they signed with the Browns in the first place.
All combines into a unique circumstance for this coaching staff. Training camp has to be focused so much on technical instruction rather than scheme.
Every team finds themselves on a point within a spectrum of technique vs. scheme.
Teams with more proven talent and stability can be far more focused on scheme, situational football and details on a team scale. They still work to refine and improve individual techniques but the focus is on the larger picture.
The New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals would be teams that are likely to be on this end of the spectrum. Not coincidentally, these are teams that have realistic Super Bowl aspirations this season.
Teams that have had turnover with the coaching staff or feature more youth on their roster tend to have a bigger emphasis on technical instruction to focus on individual player development.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans are examples of teams closer to this end of the spectrum. They may like what they have on their roster but it needs experience and refinement.
The Browns aren’t far from an expansion team, which puts them about as far to the technique end of the spectrum as possible. Not only do they have a roster full of young and unproven players, but they have also overhauled their coaching staff with the exception of Chris Tabor, the team’s seemingly immortal special teams coach.
Players have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, but the coaching staff, especially defensive coordinator Ray Horton, has hinted that the defensive scheme will be simpler and get more complicated as dictated by the player’s ability to absorb information effectively; hopefully over the course of a few seasons.
This would suggest the coaching staff realizes how much of an emphasis they have to make on technical instruction to survive and hopefully succeed at a relatively light load of coverages, blitz packages, formations, etc.
There are plenty of teams, especially on the defensive side of the ball, that don’t run a ton of different looks on defense and are enjoy success. The Seattle Seahawks are a good example with their Cover-3 scheme, limiting the amount of thinking their players have to do so they can react and get the most out of their physical talent.
This is especially important for Horton since the last time he was with the Browns, he is noted for having the 9th ranked defense in net total yards but his scheme was so complicated, it left that year’s rookie class, including Barkevious Mingo, so confused that they were basically lost on the field. Horton was oblivious to this issue as illustrated by his final press conference where he almost bragged how he hadn’t gotten everything in he wanted.
To a certain extent, Horton could get away with that in 2013 because he had so much more in terms of veteran talent. For a team focused so much on young players, that would be an irresponsible course of action. Given what hurt the Browns so much last year on defense under the incompetent guidance of Jim O’Neil, it could compound the issue.
It’s not as clear with Hue Jackson’s offense how simple his offense will be, but to his credit, he hired assistants that are noted as good teachers of the game including Kirby Wilson, the team’s running game coordinator, and Al Saunders, the senior offensive assistant and wide receivers coach.
Given that Jackson had a hand in shaping the roster including hand picking Griffin as its quarterback, it stands to reason that he would follow the same philosophy. The broad strokes of the offense seem pretty clear, but how intricate it gets remains to be seen. Jackson may not even be sure at this point, because it could depend on how his players develop and adapt.
Not every coach views this technique vs. scheme spectrum the same way. A trend that started in high school football, has become popular in college and has found its way into the NFL, some coaches prioritize scheme over individual technique no matter what.
Two notable examples of this are the recently fired Art Briles at Baylor and Gus Malzahn at Auburn, who were both accomplished high school head coaches. They both run offensive schemes designed to create opportunities for their athletes to win in space, enabling them to put up a ton of points, which then makes them more attractive in recruiting.
Over the course of several years, both schools have sent a number of players to the NFL and they tend to have two things in common:
- Remarkable athletic potential
- Little or no clue what they are doing from a technical standpoint
They aren’t concerned with players getting all of the nuances of their position down. Rather, they are focused on them being able to execute their scheme and use their athleticism to make up the difference over more refined opponents.
Both in high school and college, it’s not difficult to see why this happens. There are only so many hours a team has to practice over the course of the season, so they have to prioritize what works for them and this methodology has enabled these programs to be successful.
Mentioning Baylor and Auburn, the Browns drafted Corey Coleman from Baylor as well and Shon Coleman as well as Ricardo Louis from Auburn. All possess notable physical ability and are almost working from square one in terms of their development.
Normally, this ‘scheme above all else’ thought process would be restricted to high school and college, but then Chip Kelly made the jump to the NFL. Like Briles and Malzahn, Kelly emphasizes scheme over technique. The difference is with the NFL, he has more time for players to also become technically proficient both in hours in a given week as well as years in a career.
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Now with the San Francisco 49ers, Kelly is likely to have to use the same approach, opting to trust in his scheme first and then having technical development add to what he wants to do. The process worked with the Philadelphia Eagles on the field, but Chip Kelly the general manager completely undercut Chip Kelly the head coach, gutting his roster while alienating the remaining locker room.
The 49ers are similar to the Browns in terms of where they are as a team with their talent, both proven and unproven. Both in terms of gambling odds and general opinion, they are the favorites to be the worst two teams in the NFL. They are also taking what appear to be diametrically opposed paths to improve.
Jackson’s offense in Cleveland will be far different from the one he ran in Cincinnati in terms of personnel and formations, opting to go smaller and faster at the skill positions. while still maintaining many of the same concepts. Jackson’s offense might look the same as Kelly’s on a basic level but will continue to be far more orthodox with its own unique twist.
There’s no better indicator that Jackson will follow the more traditional approach than the age and experience of the coaching staff he’s hired. They are mostly NFL lifers that Jackson didn’t hire to make wholesale changes to the way they’ve coached their entire career. If that was the plan, he’d have likely gone much younger and dipped into coaches that have recent experiences with this type of thought process, likely at the collegiate level.
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This roster demands a substantial emphasis on teaching the individual techniques they want to employ, concentrating on the basics, focusing on player development and gradually working to more complicated team concepts. In that respect, it will be a training camp that might be remind some onlookers of the expansion teams from almost twenty years ago. A smart approach that will hopefully yield better results.