Welcome to Week 10 of the NFL! This weekly column includes a lot of loose ends leading up to Sunday’s game.
Pokorny’s 10 Things to Watch in Week 10 - Browns and the NFL
1. Climbing Out of Rock Bottom: When the Browns failed to execute the trade for A.J. McCarron, it felt like rock bottom for this regime. The team was already 0-8, but not the continuous rumors of in-house friction had some merit. On top of that, not only did the Browns botch the trade, the trade itself seemed like it would’ve been a poor decision.
But in the days that followed, the organization did end up getting some glimmers of hope. Corey Coleman comes back next week from his broken hand. Josh Gordon was re-instated, and will get to play the final five games. The entire defense is back and healthy, including Myles Garrett, Jason McCourty, Briean Boddy-Calhoun, and Jabrill Peppers. Even the injury to Joe Thomas is being salvaged, as he was given a $3 million raise and is coaching up his fellow linemen.
Make no mistake about it too: this week’s game against the Detroit Lions is very winnable. Cleveland has been waiting for their offense to have a game in which they finish multiple drives. One of these weeks, they’ll finish a few, even if it’s just dumb luck. We’ve been through a lot of seasons where Cleveland finishes 4-12 and 5-11 — they are years where the team starts OK before losing their last nine games. However, if we’re going to have a bad season record-wise, I’d rather the team finish strong than fade late. I think they can get 3-4 games down the stretch here.
2. Josh Gordon Stuff: Per Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer, Browns WR Josh Gordon ran a 4.35 40-time while training for his NFL comeback in Gainesville:
Per @MaryKayCabot newly reinstated #Browns WR Josh Gordon ran a 4.35 40 yard dash recently. while training in Gainesville for his comeback.
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) November 10, 2017
Gordon talked exclusively with Nathan Zegura on Cleveland Browns Daily Friday afternoon. You can listen to the audio here; find Friday’s episode, and go to about 2⁄3 of the way through the episode. I can’t really summarize the audio into words, but give it a listen and I think you’ll like what you hear.
3. Crowell’s Stats: Right before training camp, we gauged the expectations that fans had for RB Isaiah Crowell in 2017. After nearly reaching 1,000 yards last year, I asked fans whether they thought Crowell could reach 1,200 yards behind an upgraded offensive line. An overwhelming 82% of fans voted that Crowell would rush for 1,200+ yards.
Through 8 games, Crowell has 102 carries for 351 yards (3.4 YPC), putting him on pace for 204 carries for 702 yards. In order to reach 1,200 yards rushing, he’d have to run for 850 yards over the final 8 games, an average of 106 yards rushing per game. There is no chance he reaches that. Kareem Hunt, the NFL's leading rusher, has 800 yards (5.2 YPC) in 9 games.
I’ll continue to be a broken record in defending Crowell: most of the blame should not fall on him. I love the Sky Cam angle that NBC is making greater use of. If you watched Adrian Peterson against the Seahawks on Thursday, you saw just how impossible it was to run the ball at times. Things are getting better for Cleveland’s run blocking, but the lack of a passing threat prevents them from sticking with it once they fall behind.
4. More In-House Mess over Myles Garrett’s Concussion: In case you missed it, one of the team-hired radio personalities for the Browns, Matt Wilhelm, criticized DE Myles Garrett before the Vikings game for self reporting his concussion. Today, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams sounded off on Wilhelm, saying the comments “pissed him off” and that Wilhelm was “lucky he wasn’t in the building when he said it.” Give this a listen:
Here’s part 1 of Gregg Williams’ unhappiness with Matt Wilhelm’s criticism of Myles Garrett self reporting a concussion #Browns pic.twitter.com/wUYfMbpvxX
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) November 10, 2017
Gregg Williams won’t hesitate to pull/report a player if he suspects they might have a concussion #Browns pic.twitter.com/ejeIt4KWPk
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) November 10, 2017
5. Browns on the Mid-Season All Pro Teams: The mid-season All Pro teams are in at Pro Football Focus, and two members of the Cleveland Browns made it on offense: LT Joe Thomas (86.4) and LG Joel Bitonio (84.0).
Regarding Thomas, PFF said “despite injury, Thomas is still the only tackle in football to have logged 300 or more pass block snaps, and not allow a single QB sack.” Thomas only allowed 11 total pressures in his 7 games. Sadly, the injury will prevent him from having the number of games needed to crack the All-Pro list by seasons end.
PFF says that most of the best guards this season have been at right guard, which somewhat cheapens the fact that Bitonio gets the honor at left guard. Still, they have his 97.4 pass blocking efficiency is 15th in the NFL and say he’s “been the best left guard in the league by some margin,” allowing 11 total pressures in 8 games.
CB Jason McCourty received an honorable mention at cornerback.
6. Garrett Makes the All-Pro Rookie List: Despite only playing in three games, DE Myles Garrett still managed to crack PFF’s All-Pro list for rookies.
Of 4-3 defensive ends with at least 50 pass-rushes from the right side, Garrett has the best pass-rushing productivity on that side at 15.4. Garrett has only played in three games so far, but in those three games he has looked exactly like the kind of player you expect in a first overall pick. His four sacks all from the right side are tied for fifth-most for 4-3 defensive ends despite everyone with equal or more sacks to him having more than twice as many pass-rushes.
Despite Garrett’s contribution, PFF identified edge rusher as one of the Browns’ top two needs for the 2018 offseason, along with quarterback (obviously). Their reasoning is that “when Garrett is out, the pass-rush is nonexistent and a complement can work wonders for Garrett’s career once he’s healthy.”
7. Special Teams Rankings: I found it unusual that the Browns didn’t try out any kickers (at least to the public’s knowledge) during their bye week. I guess they are attempting to maintain the confidence of rookie Zane Gonzalez, but we’ve seen a few teams pick up guys off the street this year with immense success.
Despite the struggles at kicker, PFF ranked special teams units at the half-way mark and had the Browns as the 19th-best unit:
Punter Britton Colquitt has been good so far for Cleveland, posting the seventh-best net punting average (43.2) through eight games. Coverage guys Mike Jordan and Sammie Coates have been good additions, combining for six tackles (and no missed tackles), while Emmanuel Ogbah was able to block an extra point against Minnesota in London.
My first instinct upon hearing the ranking was man, there must be some really bad special teams units in the NFL if we’re 19th. This week, Chris Tabor was asked about the kicking situation. He said decisions like trying out kickers are beyond his control, and then talked about working through Gonzalez’ misses:
On Gonzalez missing FGs to the left during games and if that makes it easier to pinpoint corrections needed: “Sometimes, but in practice if he misses, sometimes they go right. You guys just see the games. I get the full gamut, but he struck the ball really well yesterday. I’m looking forward for him. These last eight games, we are approaching it like it is a new season for him. I think that is the only way to do it, and it is really. I tell him it is a one-game season. Just play well in this game and then we will concentrate on the next one as opposed to he went through a little rut and then he put a couple of games together and then didn’t play as well over in England as what we wanted. I think it is just game by game, and he is learning that process.”
8. Gregg Williams on the Red Zone Defense: Earlier this season, I talked about the Browns’ struggles in red zone defense. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams talked about the problems in his Friday presser:
On what he discovered regarding the red zone defense when self-scouting during the bye week: “I don’t want to say bad words. No, I’m just kidding you. I have been places where we haven’t been as dominant on the run. We are pretty dominant. One of the things when you see the passing game, part of it down there is because people say, ‘Uh oh, don’t want to mess with this.’ We have forced more passes down there because we are so dominant against the run. Now, we have to do a better job in some of the spacial plays – that shows ability – and we have to do a better job in some of the schematic responsibility, and that is time on task.
There haven’t been many repeat mistakes as I would say, but we have to do a better job in some of the athletic events or the athletic spacial plays. We have to do a better job in those areas. We will play zone. We will play man. We will play pressure. There are not any other types of schemes that you can invent to play down there than we do. Some of our things in our check systems down there, they are built to be able to handle things. With a young team and with a couple of brand new guys driving the car, I think we have gotten better and better and better as the year has gone on about it, but we have to do a better job of one, not letting them get down there and two, when they are down there in the tight little red zone, make them kick field goals. That has to be a thing.”
The Browns rank 32nd in red zone defense, allowing a touchdown 73.91% of the time. To compare, the Bengals have the best red zone defense, only allowing a touchdown 32.14% of the time.
9. NFL Week 10 Picks: Last week, I went 8-5, making my record 81-52 on the year (4-4 in Browns games). Here are my Week 10 picks, along with a few notes.
- I’ve bought in to the Saints, especially after a disappointing effort by the Bills the previous week.
- The Bears’ defense seems up to the task of stopping a Rodgers-less Packers team that is nothing without their star quarterback. The Steelers should coast against a Colts team that now knows for sure they’ll be without Andrew Luck the rest of the way.
- Ryan Fitzpatrick may spark the Bucs a little, but I’ll roll with the Jets on the road.
- I remain all-in on the Jaguars’ defense. Interesting that both LA games will air on TV on CBS at the same time, and fans can see both games. They’ll split the series, as Houston stands no chance with Savage.
- A few weeks ago, I gave a half-hearted argument that the Bengals were the best team in the AFC North...but I’ve dropped that quickly. The Titans should roll over them.
- In other games, I like the Redskins and the Patriots to take care of business against backup quarterbacks. The Giants will continue falling apart as the 49ers pick up their first win.
10. Predicting the Browns’ Week 10 Inactives: I predict the following players will be inactive for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions:
Projected Inactives: QB Kevin Hogan, WR Kasen Williams, TE Matt Lengel, OL Zach Banner, DL Caleb Brantley, LB Josh Keyes, and CB Darius Hillary.
This is a tough week to project. The only one I feel confident about is Hogan. Keyes and Hillary were mid-week additions to the roster, but I do have new safety Derron Smith being active. Lengel was active in his one game, but I can’t see four tight ends being up again. Kenny Britt is tempting to inactivate, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Larry Ogunjobi is questionable and could be an inactive in lieu of Brantley.