When Cleveland Browns veteran quarterback Brian Hoyer was rolling at the beginning of the season, young wide receiver Andrew Hawkins was a revelation, starting the season with at least 70 receiving yards in his first three games. Hawkins consistently played well over the first half of the season, but the buzz faded as Hoyer struggled mightily. In the final five games of the regular season, Hawkins failed to haul in over 40 receiving yards, as the offense clearly lost its rhythm thanks to Hoyer’s erratic accuracy and ghastly decision-making. While Hawkins’s numbers clearly didn’t look good at the end of the season, that shouldn’t detract from his play this season, as he established himself as a reliable receiver in the Browns offense.
With Josh Gordon set to be dumped of and Jordan Cameron an injury-prone TE on an expiring contract, Hawkins is the Browns most reliable pass-catcher and will probably be the team’s best pass-catcher at some point in the offseason. The Browns will definitely have to make upgrades at the wide receiver position with Gordon and Cameron the way out, because they can’t hang Johnny Manziel and future competition out to dry in 2015. No matter what happens at the wide receiver position, Hawkins is clearly in this team’s plans, and he was quietly one of the better receivers in the league this season.
It’s always important for a slot receiver to show an ability to make something happen after the catch while also demonstrating reliable hands. Not only did Hawkins do a great job of wiggling his way open, but he also dropped just four passes for one of the league’s better drop rates, per Pro Football Focus. With 11 missed tackles forced and an average of 6.4 yards after the catch per reception, he did a great job of racking up yardage on his own, and I think his ability to make defenders miss can get underrated; this guy is definitely one of the quickest (not fastest, but quickest) receivers in the league.
Slot receivers also need to help open things up for the receivers around them, and I thought Hawkins did an excellent job of taking pressure off of Miles Austin, Taylor Gabriel, and Travis Benjamin by consistently being a thorn in the sides of opponents. Per PFF, Hawkins caught 62.5% of everything thrown at him, so both his catch rate and WR Rating (QB Rating for receivers) were higher than Hoyer’s completion percentage and QB Rating. He actually had less yards per target and a lower catch rate than Austin or Gabriel, but those guys received significantly less targets; it’s harder to average a higher yards per target and have a higher catch rate with more targets.
There are two reasons for this: firstly, regression, and, secondly, receivers who are targeted far more than the players around them tend to receive worse throws. Why? Well, when the quarterback is under duress, he’s more likely to throw some garbage pass to his best and most reliable receiver in the hopes that he can make something happen; I like to call this the “Andre Johnson Effect”, because this is exactly what happened to him in Houston several times during his career. Since Hawkins was targeted 112 times compared to 72 and 74 targets for Austin and Gabriel, respectively, I think he was clearly a victim of this effect, especially since his numbers declined sharply once Hoyer slumped (and once Manziel was inserted as the starter).
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Pro Football Focus has an efficiency stat called “yards per route run” which helps receivers who are unfairly victimized by the “Andre Johnson Effect” by presenting efficiency as yards per route run rather than yards per target. In this stat, Hawkins was 18th out of 50 qualifiers with 2.03 yards per route run, and he was also the Browns leader in this stat. I mean, he led the team in receptions (63) and yards (825) by decisive margins, so that alone shows you just how valuable he was for this offense this season.
Poaching Andrew Hawkins away from the rival Cincinnati Bengals in restricted free agency has proved to be one of the shrewdest moves of the 2014 offseason, and the Browns organization definitely evaluated him correctly before making the decision to pry him away. Without Hawkins, it’s fair to wonder how the Browns offense would have fared out, because I don’t think they would have been able to efficiency move the ball without him. Having a quick and reliable receiver with strong hands, the ability to navigate the slot, and the ability to generate solid yards after the catch was a huge boon to both Hoyer and the offense as a whole.
There aren’t many guarantees for the Browns offense heading into what should be an interesting offseason, because they’ll probably lose the quarterback who started most of their games, as well as their two most talented pass-catchers in Gordon and Cameron. It’s unclear if any of those three will be back, and it is just as unclear if Manziel can be this team’s QB of the future; even Ray Farmer sounded less-than-convinced during a press conference. The Browns have some intriguing players in Gabriel and Benjamin, but they can rest assured knowing that Hawkins is one receiver they can count on going forward.
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