Cleveland Browns: Carlos Hyde trade pays immediate dividends, casts shade

Trading Carlos Hyde for a fifth round pick helped the Cleveland Browns in the future, but it also helped them in the present, which doesn’t reflect well on the current coaching staff.

The Cleveland Browns traded their third most talented running back, Carlos Hyde, who also happened to be their feature back, for a fifth round pick from the Jacksonville Jaguars, who fell to 3-4 after a loss to the Tennessee Titans.

The running game was more efficient on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which wasn’t a great look for the coaches who insisted on sticking with Hyde as the feature back for the six previous games. The team got better, acquired an asset and shed light on the obvious problem with utilizing talent by the coaching staff.

John Dorsey’s trades have been a mixed bag. They got little for Danny Shelton, only moving up from their fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots third-round pick, likely to at the very end of the round. Through the first six games, Shelton is third among all Patriots defensive linemen for snaps through seven games.

The timing of the Corey Coleman trade was terrible. They allegedly had been trying to move Coleman for the better part of five months, but did it during camp after he had been taking first team reps for over a week’s worth of practices. Coleman is currently an available free agent, so getting a seventh-round pick for effectively nothing is good in theory, but the timing and lack of planning was terrible.

Meanwhile, the trade that sent DeShone Kizer to the Green Bay Packers for Damarious Randall has been been huge for the Browns. Randall’s credibility at the free safety position has been a major benefit to the defense, allowing the scheme to be more aggressive in coverage and making more than enough plays of his own.

In trading both Josh Gordon and now Carlos Hyde, the Browns got draft assets for players that simply weren’t in their plans for the future. The Browns had enough of Gordon’s issues and Dorsey refused to put up with any further ones, so he sent him to the Patriots for a fifth round pick. Short term, which is all that Gordon ever is, this is a great move for the Patriots, but the Browns need longer term assets.

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Hyde was signed for what was a one-year deal. It paid him money up front and like almost all of Dorsey’s free agent signings, allowed the team to bail out after a year. Instead, the Browns got use out of Hyde — perhaps too much — then flipped him for a fifth round pick from the Jaguars. This amounts to duct tape for the Jaguars who are waiting for their backs to get healthy. That may help them, but the pick is of more use for the Browns.

Additionally, mounting frustration from both fans over the lack of utilization of Duke Johnson and rookie Nick Chubb has become a weekly ritual. Both were significantly more productive on a per touch bases than Hyde, but Hyde still got the lion’s share of the touches.

Here were the results through six games.

Carlos Hyde – 114 carries, 382 yards rushing at 3.4 yards per carry, one explosive play (play over 20 yards), 5 touchdowns. He also had six receptions on nine targets for another 29 yards. His overall average per touch was 3.4 yards.
Nick Chubb – 16 carries, 173 yards rushing at 10.8 yards per carry, two explosive plays, two touchdowns.
Duke Johnson – 11 carries, 91 yards rushing at 8.3 yards per carry, two explosive plays. He also had 11 receptions for 149 yards. His overall average per touch was 10.9 yards.

Whether it was intentional or just taking advantage of a great opportunity moving Hyde, the coaching staff had to use Duke and Chubb, unless they planned to use Dontrell Hilliard as their feature back. The results weren’t terribly surprising given what has happened so far.

Nick Chubb was more productive, carrying the ball 18 times for 80 yards and a touchdown. His average per carry was 4.4, which is a higher mark than any game for Hyde. Hyde’s best was 4.3 against the New York Jets.

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The Buccaneers defense is pretty terrible, which might account for the added production, but there’s an important difference that Chubb brings to the table over Hyde. Explosion. Hyde’s longest run of the season was 22 yards, his only player over 20 yard this season.. Just against the Bucs, Chubb ripped off a 21-yard run, which is his third this season. Chubb’s three explosive plays come out of 34 total carries this season compared to Hyde’s one out of 114.

Chubb can break tackles, fight for tough yardage and has a nose for the endzone. But he also always feels like he’s close to breaking a big run, which is exactly the feeling against the Bucs. Hyde can occasionally make some great moves, avoid tacklers or run a guy over, but even when he makes a great run, it’s great if he breaks 10 yards. Chubb has shown he is a home run threat and if he finds a seam, he can break a big one.

In that sense, Chubb feels like the compromise between being smart which Hyde brought to the table and being explosive, which Isaiah Crowell brought to the table when he was with the Browns. Crowell could break big runs, but would make so many bad reads on runs and take a ton of losses. Chubb can be a ball control back, but he has that added element that makes defenses nervous, why they took him with the 35th pick in the draft.

Johnson’s production or lack thereof continues to be frustrating. In this game, he caught four passes on four targets for 23 yards and one carry that went for a loss of four yards. It’s worth noting that there were about three other plays where Duke had the ball in his hands and had productive plays that were called back due to penalties, which has become an epidemic for the Browns.

Chubb should only get better as he gets more comfortable, though more consistent blocking would help everyone. If they can get that consistent production from him and get Duke going as he should be, it’s only going to make Baker Mayfield’s job easier.

That would help the pass protection and keep the Browns on schedule, so they aren’t asking the rookie to carry the offense, which is happening all too often. Keeping the defense honest would make a world of difference for an offense that is struggling.

It’s not a good look for the coaching staff that the offense got better after trading away the starting tailback. That’s an indictment of their ability to identify the talent on their own team and utilize it effectively.

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And the reaction post game only reinforces that point. Upon hiring Todd Haley, Hue Jackson proclaimed how this would help free him up to manage the rest of the football team more effectively. After another loss and another disappointing performance by an offense that has struggled all season, Hue has determined that he really needs to be more involved in the offense again. A predictable move by a coach that appears to be fighting for his proverbial life.

Dorsey made an excellent move more focused on the future which also benefited the here and now. That fact does not reflect well on a coaching staff that doesn’t need any help looking incapable. The good news, if there is good news, is the Cleveland Browns have a promising back in Nick Chubb and an extra fifth round pick to help them continue to build their team. Hopefully a coaching staff worth the talent this team is putting together will be among the additions the Browns make in the offseason.

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