Browns’ offensive snap counts, stats, and PFF notes: Week 1

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns' Week 1 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Notes:

• The performance by DeShone Kizer was on par from what we saw in the preseason. He’ll have times when he shows a nice ability to move around the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield, and then other times when he holds the ball a tick too long and then gets lost or takes a sack.
• Here is how PFF says Kizer performed under pressure against the Steelers:

• That’s a lot of pressure, but Kizer needs to be OK with sacrificing some plays to the checkdown or throwaway route. I also think that Kizer should’ve kept the ball and taken off on some of his Shotgun handoffs to Isaiah Crowell; that might have kept the defense a bit more off balance.
• When it comes to attacking CB Joe Haden, PFF says that Kizer targeted him 8 times, which was twice as much as any other defender on Pittsburgh. When targeting Haden, Kizer completed 6 passes for 80 yards.

Notes:

• Many people didn’t care for what they saw from Isaiah Crowell, but I saw the same guy who I’ve seen for years. He needs that initial hole to be effective, and those weren’t there on Sunday. If you’re questioning whether something is “off” with Crowell, look no further than the nice catch-and-run he had in the team’s final offensive drive, when he kept his balance and forced missed tackles left and right.
• Maybe we shouldn’t classify Duke Johnson as a running back any more. According to PFF, Johnson “did not include a single rep at the running back position.” In his 51 snaps, they logged Johnson at wide receiver in 49 snaps and at tight end in the other 2 snaps. The Browns tried targeting Johnson twice on deep passes, and although he got about 5 yards behind the defense both times, the passes were overthrown.
• Matthew Dayes saw some early work, but I’m still mad at him for missing the block on the first punt. I would’ve liked to of seen Danny Vitale some more, as well as some less Shotgun for the running game.

Notes:

• Before long, the Browns are going to have to start targeting Corey Coleman a whole lot more. He built off of a successful preseason, showing good hands and toughness. Per PFF, Kizer had a 150.4 passer rating when targeting Coleman, which was second best to Tyreek Hill (158.3) through the first 13 games logged in Week 1.
• We have no choice but to stick with Kenny Britt as one of our receivers, and that’s all I’ll say about him. Ricardo Louis deserves credit for coming back in after taking a big shot, and catching a contested pass over the middle.
• I’ll try to take a closer look at the pass to Kasen Williams where he couldn’t stay in bounds, but my initial impression was that the ball tailed too much to the outside. Yes, he could’ve stayed in, but I think it would’ve been difficult to. No snaps for Sammie Coates on offense.

Notes:

• The leader in snaps at tight end was Seth DeValve, but as predicted, all of the tight ends had their share of playing time. DeValve showed off good hands, but it’s about time that we see either DeValve or David Njoku come down with one of these high passes from Kizer. Where is that exceptional athletic ability?

Notes:

• The Steelers registered 7 sacks and 8 quarterback hits, many of which we’re pinning on Kizer.
• From the eye test, the player who got off to the biggest rough start on the line was center J.C. Tretter. Per PFF, his overall grade was a poor 36.0, giving up four pressures and a sack in his 41 pass snaps, which counters the productivity he had in Green Bay a year ago.
• PFF graded Kevin Zeitler (80.5) as one of the top guards this week. Joe Thomas was the Browns’ top-graded player on offense (83.7), just barely edging out Corey Coleman. I don’t know what Joel Bitonio graded out as, but he seemed a bit slow, perhaps excused by his long absence to injury.
• UPDATE: After talking with Brian Spoon of PFF, he tells us that Bitonio graded poorly in the run game (42.2), but received a solid pass blocking grade of 82.7.

Thanks to Pro Football Focus for some of the neat stats they provided. You can follow their PFF Twitter account exclusively about the Browns @PFF_Cleveland.