Browns’ defensive snap counts, stats, and PFF notes: Week 10

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 10 game against the Atlanta Falcons.

• The intriguing thing about this week’s defensive line snap counts should be obvious: it’s the first time we saw playing time distributed like it was last year. Instead of over-taxing Myles Garrett and Larry Ogunjobi for 90% of the snaps, each were around the 60% to 67% range.
• That allowed much more playing time for Anthony Zettel (33%) and Chris Smith (29%). This is a distribution I’d love to see more of moving forward to keep players fresher.
• Myles Garrett did not log a sack, sending him into the bye week with 9 sacks in 10 games. Per PFF, Garrett did not even log a single pressure. Emmanuel Ogbah led the Browns with 4 pressures.

• With Christian Kirksey out for the year, Jamie Collins stepped up for his finest performance of the season. He finished with a game grade of 74.7 from PFF and a team-high 9 tackles.
• But it wasn’t just him. Joe Schobert returned from injury with an immediate impact. His 90.1 grade from PFF led the defense, as they credited him with the following:

Schobert allowed just one catch on four targets for two total yards, equaling a 39.6 passer rating when targeted. Schobert also added four stops (stops that constitute a “loss” for the offense) in the run game and created one quarterback pressure.

• Let’s not leave out Vallejo, who logged 6 tackles and played 55% of the snaps. He received the 3rd highest defensive grade from PFF with a 77.1. I can’t proclaim that the Browns have found a “gem” quite yet, but they appear to have something of a player in Vallejo.

• Holy hell, what got in to T.J. Carrie? That’s the player we thought we were getting from Oakland! He had the Browns’ second-highest defensive grade of the day. Per PFF, he allowed 5 catches for 43 yards when targeted, which wasn’t bad given the situations in which those catches were made. He also forced a key fumble that led to a touchdown. Even the pass interference called against him was a relatively clean play.
• Denzel Ward returned to the lineup and played every snap. The Browns only went with three cornerbacks, keeping the new additions out of the lineup.

• Damarious Randall returned to action and played nearly every snap.
• Jabrill Peppers out-snapped Derrick Kindred again, and had an awesome stick at the goal line that eventually proved to be the difference in the Falcons turning the ball over on downs at the 1 yard line.