Cleveland Browns: The offense heading into Week 1

With the regular season just days away now, it’s a good chance to discuss what the Cleveland Browns could do on offense this week and this year.

Given what the Cleveland Browns have and where they are in their development on the offensive side of the ball, it’s going to be a growing process in the passing game, but they can still be a difficult team to defend if they are able to execute. It also doesn’t need to be incredibly complicated in order to accomplish it.

Part of this comes down to DeShone Kizer’s arm, which is obviously something the Browns liked about him. The ball explodes out of his hand and he can go deep easily. There have been flashes of what that can do as well as inconsistency with some missed opportunities. Nevertheless, it’s something that the Browns will do to force defenses to cover the whole field and it could be a source of some explosive plays and potentially quick points.

The Browns have to ride Isaiah Crowell and the running game this year. They aren’t a team that can find themselves in a lot of third-and-long situations. For where Kizer is and where the receivers are, it’s just not a winning formula. Having said that, Kizer can help create some running lanes.

The other player this will help is help is Shon Coleman. In preseason, the Browns put a lot of stress on those young offensive tackles by calling a lot of predictable passes to see exactly what they could handle and Coleman was inconsistent. Running the ball more and keeping the offense on schedule will help him with his pass protection by keeping the defense honest. The less they can pin their ears back and rush the passer, the easier it will for Coleman.

The Browns have what amounts to a track team at wide receiver in terms of their speed, but they also have size. Corey Coleman is the smallest wide receiver in the group, which at a little under 5-11 and almost 200 pounds, is a great sign. Ricardo Louis and newly acquired Sammie Coates are both speedsters with some heft that can stretch the field pretty easily.

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Kenny Britt is going to be labeled a possession guy, but he can get over the top as well. Kasen Williams isn’t a burner like some of the others in this group, but his bulk and ball skills allow him to box opponents out and go up and high point the ball. Meanwhile, tight ends Seth DeValve and David Njoku are big bodies with the speed to run the seams.

Regardless of the personnel group, Hue Jackson can go deep. And it’s important to him that opponents always have that in the back of their minds. At any point in time in the game, anywhere on the field, just about any player on the field is a threat to try to go deep and Kizer has the arm to get it there and quickly put points on the board.

The threat is important, but they have to be able to execute. Certainly, the Browns would like to believe they have the ability to grind out 10-15 play drives that result in touchdowns with their running game, but having the potential for explosive plays is going to be important for the Browns to be competitive, win games.

It won’t be the Pittsburgh Steelers, who tend to play more zone and keep plays in front of them, but there will be an opponent that will dare the Browns to beat them and play tight man or even press coverage. The receivers have to be able to win those matchups and Kizer has to be able to make the throws to back them off. If that doesn’t happen, that team can lock down the run and it might look a little like when Cody Kessler played quarterback and the defense was always right on top of the offense. That is respect this passing game will have to earn.

BALTIMORE, MD – OCTOBER 11: Running back Duke Johnson #29 of the Cleveland Browns looks on in the second quarter of a game against the Cleveland Browns at M&T Bank Stadium on October 11, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

So much of the weaponry is designed to go down the field and will, but the backs will be an important part of the passing game. The Browns certainly showed a lot of screens in the preseason and that is designed in no small part to help pass protection, but just swings and other plays to get those guys out in space underneath will be important as well. And if the deep threat keeps defenses back a little bit, that will allow them to gain a lot of yards and help keep the offense on schedule.

Third down is critical for every team. For the Browns, the difference between third-and-4 as opposed to third-and-9 makes a world of difference. Not only do they need to always have the threat of the run at their disposal, but Kizer’s mobility becomes more valuable in shorter yardage situations.

The ability to have the defense spread out trying to cover a bunch of potential deep threats should open up some opportunities for Kizer to pick up cheap first downs with his legs, extending drives and hopefully leading to points.

The preseason as it relates to the running game wasn’t terribly indicative of the regular season. Not having Joel Bitonio for much of it didn’t help as well as being pretty conservative in general. They did try a few things that will likely be in the offense, but there were a few experiments that should probably stay in the preseason.

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Bitonio should be the main puller. He’s athletic, he can block in space and that’s a big reason they paid him the contract they did. Specifically, pulling to the right so that Kevin Zeitler and Shon Coleman to block down or go man on man. They are big, powerful guys with some nasty that work best in enclosed spaces where the opponent cannot get away from them and they can just drive them off the ball.

Counters and power specifically should be mainstays for this offense. One of the things shown in the preseason is likely to go to the regular season is pulling Seth DeValve. Namely, having DeValve one and one off the tackle, be it in a bunch formation (a common formation in preseason) or something along those lines, then pulling across either to lead up and through to the second level for the back or just a wham block, where he goes straight to the opposite defensive end.

DeValve is not built to play inline, but he can be an effective blocker in space, so this is the best way to utilize him, get some size on the field and stress the defense on both sides of the formation. He can continue to get better in how he blocks in terms of his path, angles and attacking the proper shoulder, but he has largely gotten the job done in that capacity even if it’s not always textbook.

J.C. Tretter can pull. It’s a weapon to have a center who can get out and go the way he does. They did some of this with Cam Erving last year, but Tretter is obviously more consistent and more confident in what he’s doing, so it’s more viable. The Browns have played around with this and it’s looked pretty good. The entire left side of the line is very light on their feet and can pull, get out in space, and still play with power.

Meanwhile, the Browns tried to pull Zeitler. He didn’t do this much in Cincinnati and the preseason illustration the reason. Zeitler wasn’t terribly smooth trying to pull and got called for holding during the preseason on it. It just didn’t look good, even on a flat pull like trap. Every so often, the Browns may go to it to keep opponents off balance, but more likely, he’ll just be responsible for winning in a phone booth, which is why they signed him.

Going left, the Browns may employ some zone blocking. Their way of getting numbers over there will be with the fullback and tight ends, be it by alignment or post snap movement. As a result, the Browns might run some stretches that let those athletes run and try to seal off opponents as opposed to always attempting to just drive them off the ball. It’s an advantage to be able to have the defensive line thinking about the way various ways it could be attacked.

The hope with the passing game is that it grows and gets more confident over the first month of the season, adding more as the season progresses. Jackson may have installed the entire playbook, but it would be a smart move to shrink it down in terms of what he calls to what they can confidently run at this point, then adding in more as they get comfortable.

Screens, comebacks and various deep plays have been good to the Browns. They haven’t always executed, but the opportunities have been there. Play action can really help Kizer by giving him more one-on-one matchups, particularly for Corey Coleman who he’s had the most comfort throwing the ball.

It’s imperative the Browns do not ask Kizer to win games for them. The running game, defense and playmakers have to do the heavy lifting. Whatever Kizer provides is largely a bonus at this point and hopefully his presence helps create some schematic advantages. He has to be a facilitator first and hopefully grow into more. His first thought needs to be ‘do no harm’.

Part of the reason Jackson may have liked Kizer now is because he does provide some schematic advantages that Kessler didn’t last year. For all that Kessler could do, Kizer’s arm does provide a threat, even if he has to prove it’s reliable. For a young, inexperienced, even raw quarterback, it does help that Kizer can give defenses a reason to be at least honest. Kessler didn’t do that last year and it could make the offense more effective in 2017.

Next: 2017 NFL Picks, score predictions for Week 1

The Cleveland Browns offense is going to be a work in progress, particularly in the passing game. Even though the passing game is going to have to learn largely on the fly, they do have some ability to put pressure on defenses and create some opportunities. The key will be execution and then growing and evolving with each passing game, able to get more confident and continuously add wrinkles to avoid having defenses catch up to them and overwhelm them. If they can do that, the Browns will find themselves in a lot of football games and surpass the expectations laid out for them.

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