Cleveland Browns: Utilizing These Tight Ends

The Cleveland Browns are going to have a unique group of tight ends in 2016. How does Hue Jackson plan to utilize them?

The ‘who’ of the tight end is not nearly as interesting as the ‘how’ this year under head coach Hue Jackson. Gary Barnidge is obviously the featured player of the group but it remains to be seen how many of the other five currently on the roster will make the final 53.

Related Story: Duke Johnson, Space may Spur Running Game

The ‘how’ refers to how the team plans to employ the position this year and the answer to that question may prove to be a good indication of how many the team will decide to keep for the regular season.

Aside from having five offensive linemen (short of the occasional gimmick formation), seven players on the line of scrimmage, and a quarterback (or whatever player is going to take the snap), how a team lines up offensively has few limitations on it. This is important, especially with the way the Browns roster is currently constructed.

With the Cincinnati Bengals, Jackson had some extremely orthodox tight ends like Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert. Traditional, inline tight ends that could fulfill the normal tight end responsibilities with some extras added in to create mismatches. Having them attack the middle of the field with A.J. Green an elite threat on the outside was incredibly potent.

The Browns don’t have players like Eifert and Gresham. They have a group of receiving specialists that excel in space. Many of them aren’t equipped to play inline next to a tackle and the ones that struggle to run block there.

Yes, Randall Telfer was explicitly drafted because he was utilized as an inline blocker at USC as well as being a perceived value because of the foot injury that kept him out all of last year. Not only is he unproven but he also wasn’t this regime’s pick. That doesn’t mean he can’t make this team, but it’s worth noting.

The same can be said for Connor Hamlett, who was signed to the team’s practice squad last December. Hamlett, far and away the biggest tight end on the roster at 6’7”, 266 pounds has the size to be an inline tight end but he did catch 104 passes for 1,109 yards and 10 touchdowns during a three-year stretch at Oregon State.

Barnidge is coming off of a Pro Bowl season where he caught 79 passes for 1,043 yards and nine touchdowns. Hue Jackson inherited Barnidge but he’d be a fool not to use him, bringing us back to the ‘how’. Barnidge has the length and size to play inline although he’s been a miserable run blocker to this point in his career. That might change, but at this point, his best use in the running game is actually forcing opponents to account for him and run somewhere else.

Especially in the slot, Barnidge can try to pick off a linebacker or safety as a blocker, but it’s more about him drawing a defender, possibly two outside the box and away from the inside running game. This was an area that showed some  inexperience on the part of John DeFillipo, the offensive coordinator of the Browns in 2015.

Flip was perfectly willing to spread opponents out, force them to cover a ton of ground and isolate matchups in the passing game. He had the offense overachieving in this regard much of the season. But when it came to the running game, Flip kept trying to load up the box with multiple tight ends and a fullback that couldn’t do the job rather than forcing the opponents to defend space and create running lanes.

Barnidge is at his best in space, but there’s no question that Barnidge is going to be utilized inline. The hope is that it will be an in effort to force opponents to shift their strength to his side and open up running lanes to the opposite side of the formation. Combine that with his threat in playaction and the Browns can use Barnidge inline without needing him to be a great blocker.

An example shown here in a trey formation, the Browns have the ability to attack the weak side of the defense and empty space, running behind Joe Thomas and Joel Bitonio while also being able to roll Robert Griffin III to his right, utilizing his mobility and athleticism and creating favorable matchups.

Now, add in the tight ends that Jackson and this group have brought in either through the draft or free agents as well as well as one holdover from last year that fits the same way; fourth round pick Seth DeValve, undrafted free agent J.P. Holtz and E.J. Bibbs, who was held over from last year where he was an undrafted free agent.

None of these guys project to being effective as inline players. They are all too short and although arm length is a myth when it comes to offensive line, overall length does matter. Combine that with the fact that both DeValve and Holtz are too light to play inline and it’s a complete disadvantage to put them there. Bibbs has the weight at 258 but is simply too short at 6’2”.

Bibbs was utilized as a space player and occasionally as an H-Back last year in the limited action he saw last year. The same concept should be applied to DeValve and Holtz, assuming he makes the roster. What makes DeValve interesting is just how dynamic he is and how many ways this coaching staff could utilize him, assuming he proves viable in training camp.

The Browns could use any of them in the backfield in an effort to create mismatches or actually block in the running game. Depending on how the play evolves, the opponent responsible for the coverage can get caught in the wash and opportunities for run after the catch.

Certainly, this appears to be an area where Bibbs excelled last year in preseason and DeValve was extremely promising in film. Against backups and fringe players, Bibbs would consistently make at least one defender miss on any given catch. Likewise, DeValve, often appeared to be a man amongst boys in the Ivy League with the ball in his hands, but showcased the talent to win there in the NFL.

The other facet of DeValve’s game that makes him intriguing is how often he was utilized out wide, which seems to be why he was listed as a wide receiver in the NFL Draft despite playing inline as a tight end and in the backfield so often on tape.

If DeValve can earn playing time, the combination of he and Barnidge could put a ton of pressure on opponents. Remembering the trey formation discussed earlier, the combination of Barnidge inline and DeValve in the slot could result one of them getting manned up against a safety or DeValve facing a slot corner. That should be a winning matchup for the Browns.

It’s not difficult to imagine the different formations the Browns can come up with that could really cause problems for a defense provided they can find a capable and dynamic counterpart for Barnidge. This is especially the case with the amount of motion Jackson likes to incorporate into his offense, all with the goal of making the defense think and potentially misalign at the snap.

Because of the tight ends they have like DeValve, Holtz and Bibbs, Jackson and the Browns may not view tight ends in a traditional sense. Rather, they are just a different type of wide receiver. As such, this could impact the way the team looks at both tight ends and wide receivers as it relates to the final roster.

If Bibbs or DeValve are viable enough to be a big slot, the team may not feel compelled to keep a smaller slot like Taylor Gabriel for example. That versatility and melding of roles could mean the Browns could reduce or potentially eliminate worrying about keeping six receivers and four tight ends as opposed to seven receivers and three tight ends. The team can simply keep the 10-best players (or whatever number they like) that can fulfill those roles.

Looking at the tight ends group, there is one last point that is critically important when it comes to Gary Barnidge. Beyond the fact that no other tight end on this team has proven a thing in the NFL, Barnidge is also the only tight end that has shown able to play inline. Perhaps Telfer or Hamlett can prove useful or a move is coming in the future, but currently, Barnidge is it.

More nfl spin zone: Projecting Defensive Depth Chart Entering Camp

This detail may be the most telling when it comes to projecting the Browns to a spread offense. Currently, they have left themselves little other option that looks viable. Maybe they will use jumbo packages in short yardage with extra linemen (offensive or defensive), but that’s about it as far as inline tight ends would be concerned.