The Stat Pack: Cleveland Browns

Edition #225

Good morning!

If you’re anything like me you’re probably still buzzing from the victory on Sunday and while we will turn our attention to the Bengal’s visit later in the week, today we’re going to load up on all the key statistics.

I failed to give proper credit to Robert Saleh and Mike LaFleur in yesterday’s newsletter, but we’ll be taking a look at both of those guys later this week. Both made big calls in big moments to give the Jets a chance to win and both deserve credit.

First, like we did last week we’re going to use the quick throws section to touch base with some other rookies who were fan favorites before the draft.

• According to Connor Hughes, the Jets have already made the decision to start Joe Flacco against the Bengals “no matter what” - saying Zach will only play when he is 110% healthy. It's good to get that out of the way early in the week.

• We’re going to start on the offensive line. Ikem Ekwonu gave up 3 pressures and a sack against the Giants. Evan Neal gave up a sack and 3 pressures against the Panthers. Charles Cross gave up just 1 pressure against San Francisco and Cole Strange gave up two pressures against Pittsburgh. Tyler Linderbaum allowed just one pressure to the Dolphins.

• Taking it to the secondary now and Derek Stingley Jr allowed 6 catches on 10 targets for 87 yards, achieving a coverage grade of 29.0. Kyle Hamilton allowed a 14-yard touchdown against the Dolphins, the only catch he allowed (2 targets).

• Linebacker Devin Lloyd had 2 PBU and 1 INT for Jacksonville against the Colts, which earned him a coverage grade of 75.3.

• Finally a couple of wide receiver numbers. Drake London caught 8-11 targets for 86 yards and a TD. Chris Olave caught 5-13 targets for 80 yards and a drop. Jahan Dotson caught 4-4 targets for 59 yards and a TD. Treylon Burks caught 4-6 targets for 47 yards.

Right, that’s enough about other team rookies, how about that 2022 Jets class? Well, it’s pretty positive reading as we go through the list here. We’ll start as we always do with the offense and then move on to defense and special teams.

Offense

Offensive Line

The Cleveland Browns have an outstanding defensive line headed by Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney and while the Jets didn’t blank them, they put up a much better performance than their week one showing against Baltimore. We have to remember that the Jet’s offensive line is only a couple of weeks into their time together in terms of this starting five, so there are going to be some issues and some miscommunications. What you need to do is limit the damage early while you’re gelling as a unit, and that’s exactly what the Jets did yesterday. Garett & Clowney combined for 11 pressures, the Jets as a unit had 12 pressures on Sunday which gives you some context.

George Fant - 0 sack, 5 pressures, 94.7 PB efficiency, 1 penalty, run grade = 55.9
Laken Tomlinson - 0 sacks, 2 pressures, 97.9 PB efficiency, run grade = 44.4
CMG - 0 sacks, 1 pressures, 98.9 PB efficiency, 2 penalties run grade = 73.7
Alijah Vera-Tucker - 0 sacks, 3 pressures, 96.8 PB efficiency, run grade = 64.5
Max Mitchell - 1 sack, 4 pressures, 94.7 PB efficiency, run grade = 56.1

Laken had a terrific bounce-back game lowering his pressures from 8 to 2 and while the tackles won’t look back on this game as the best game of their respective careers, blocking Garrett and Clowney is one tough assignment. The penalty on George Fant was a bogus call, but the two on CMG were down to a little bit of indiscipline. It was a step in the right direction for a unit that should only get better and better.

Receivers

You don’t need statistics to tell you that one receiver dominated the game on Sunday, Garrett Wilson was the star of the show but the great thing about the Jets now is that we have multiple players who can take over on any given week, this isn’t a one-man band.

Garrett Wilson - 14 targets, 8 receptions, 102 yards, 2 TD, 1 drop, 0-0 on contested catches.
Tyler Conklin - 8 targets, 6 receptions, 40 yards, 1 fumble, 1 drop, 2-3 on contested catches.
Micheal Carter - 5 targets, 5 receptions, 27 yards.
Elijah Moore - 5 targets, 3 receptions, 41 yards.
Corey Davis - 4 targets, 2 receptions, 83 yards, 1 TD, 1-1 on contested catches.
Ty Johnson - 2 targets, 1 reception, 4 yards.
Breece Hall - 1 target, 1 reception, 10 yards, 1 TD.
Jeff Smith - 1 target, 1 reception, 17 yards.
Jeremy Ruckert - 1 target, 0 receptions, 1 drop.

It was a shame to see Ruckert drop his one opportunity, it wasn’t an easy catch but it was one that you’d expect an NFL receiver to make. Ruckert is still making his way back to full game fitness and it’s hard to gain any momentum when you play so sparingly, hopefully, we see more of him over the coming weeks.

Corey was quiet but made up for that with a good route and a big TD when he was left all alone at the end of the game. The running backs were efficient out of the backfield catching all 6 balls thrown their way for 37 yards and a touchdown.

Conklin coughed up the football for a second week in a row, but he doesn’t have a worrying history of fumbles so I think it’s just one of those things that will even out as the season progresses. He only has two fumbles in the last two years.

Running Game

It never felt as though the Jets really got into a rhythm with the running game yesterday, but Breece Hall was moving at a nice click. It was nice to see some attempt at some misdirection and creativity, and while it didn’t work it does keep the defense honest.

Micheal Carter - 7 carries, 23 yds, 3.3 avg, 17 yards after contact, 3 missed tackles forced
Breece Hall - 7 carries, 50 yds, 7.1 avg, 39 yards after contact, 2 missed tackles forced
Braxton Berrios - 2 carries, 22 yds, 11 avg, 13 yards after contact, 1 missed tackle forced
Garrett Wilson - 1 carry, -2 yards, -2 avg, 0 yards after contact, 1 missed tackle forced
Elijah Moore - 1 carry, -6 yards, -6 avg, 0 yards after contact, 0 missed tackles forced

I imagine that the Jets will want to get the combination of Carter and Hall more than 14 carries between them, but the game dictated certain things and that’s the flow of football.

The Jets rushed twice between Laken and Connor McGovern and that went for 27 yards, which is good for 13.5 yards per average, by far the most productive gap. Interesting the Jets didn’t run behind Alijah Vera-Tucker much at all.

I think we’ll see the running game improve as the offensive line gels and if we keep hitting some deeper passes, teams won’t be able to cheat up against the run.

Defense

Pass Rush

The Jets only generated 12 pressures yesterday, converting just one of those into a sack. On the face of it, that’s not great but I give a lot of credit to Kevin Stefanski, the Cleveland Browns head coach and play-caller, he used a lot of misdirection, screens, and quick throws to use the aggressiveness of the Jets against them. The Jets were also stacked to stuff the run, next week against the Bengals I would expect to see better success and we may even see Bryce Huff, who was inactive again yesterday.

PRP: A formula that combines sacks, hits, and hurries relative to how many times they rush the passer

Quinnen Williams - 1 pressure, 5.3 PRP, 5.3% win percentage, 58.7 PFF pass-rush grade.
Micheal Clemons - 2 pressures, 14.3 PRP, 28.6% win percentage, 65.3 PFF pass-rush grade.
Jacob Martin - 2 pressures, 7.7 PRP, 7.7% win percentage, 34.5 PFF pass-rush grade
Carl Lawson - 2 pressures, 7.1 PRP, 28.6% win percentage, 80.6 PFF pass-rush grade
Jermaine Johnson - 1 pressure, 5.0 PRP, 10.0% win percentage, 60.1 PFF pass-rush grade.
JFM - 1 pressure, 3.3 PRP, 20.0% win percentage, 84.2 PFF pass-rush grade
Nathan Shepherd - 1 pressure, 5.0 PRP, 10.0% win percentage, 63.4 PFF pass-rush grade.
Sheldon Rankins - 1 pressure, 2.5 PRP, 5.0% win percentage, 60.8 PFF pass-rush grade.
Solomon Thomas - 0 pressure, 0.0 PRP, 0.0% win percentage, 55.2 PFF pass-rush grade

Two things stick out to me here, the fact that Clemons has 2 pressures on just 7 pass-rush snaps and the win percentages of Clemons, JFM, and Lawson in particular. Lawson beat his man on 28.6% of all pass-rush snaps but due to the game-planning and quick hit throws the Browns dialed up, it didn’t translate into the pressures/sacks you’d expect with that kind of win percentage. In fact that 28.6% win rate was the 5th highest this week in the league through Sunday’s games.

Run Defense

The Browns are going to be a top-3 rushing offense at the end of the season, I’m pretty confident in saying that. They are a relentless attack that just keeps beating on the door, for large parts of the game I thought the Jets did well to limit them or at least control them, but in the 4th quarter it really opened up. The missed tackles flowed and you could see the tiredness creep into the arms and legs of the Jets defenders.

Below I’ve counted the run defense grades for any player who was in for 10 or more run defense snaps.

Micheal Carter II - 74.0
Micheal Clemons - 72.6
C.J Mosley - 70.1
Kwon Alexander - 68.2
Sauce Gardner 66.9
Sheldon Rankins - 66.5
Solomon Thomas - 64.4
Nathan Shepherd - 63.3
Quinnen Williams - 57.3
JFM - 54.7
Jermaine Johnson - 49.1
Carl Lawson - 44.7
Quincy Williams - 41.5
LaMarcus Joyner - 31.0
D.J Reed - 29.9
Jordan Whitehead 29.1

A lot of the grading is weighted on the outcome, which is why you’ll see someone like D.J Reed at the bottom, a missed tackle led to a Nick Chubb TD, but as Robert Saleh said, it was one of the best-missed tackles he’s experienced. That missed tackle gave the Jets the ball back whereas had he taken him down in-bounds, chances are the Browns run the clock out and the Jets lose the game. I actually thought D.J Reed had a good game in terms of defending the run but it’s a little concerning to see both safeties at the bottom of this list, that’s something that will need to improve.

Like I said at the top of this section, the Browns are going to end up as one of the best run attacks in the league, and they’ll make a lot of teams look bad over the course of the season. The Jets tired but there were some real positives early in the game.

Coverage

Yesterday I mentioned on the Jets UK Podcast that you have to expect some mistakes when you have four new starters in your secondary, and we saw that on Sunday with Sauce Gardner and Jordan Whitehead losing Amari Cooper who waltzed in for an easy touchdown. Sauce looked as though he thought he had the flat in zone and Whitehead was supposed to slide over and pick up Cooper, Whitehead seemed to think otherwise…so while PFF gave the touchdown to Sauce I think that’s a shared responsibility between both players, and coaches. It’s one of those things, it happens in football, players won’t be perfect 100% of the time.

Sauce - 5 targets, 4 receptions, 33 yards, 5 YAC, 1 TD allowed, 50.9 coverage grade
Quincy Williams - 5 targets, 5 receptions, 49 yards, 36 YAC, 29.7 coverage grade
C.J Mosley - 5 targets, 4 receptions, 39 yards, 36 YAC, 43.3 coverage grade
D.J Reed - 4 targets, 3 receptions, 24 yards, 0 YAC, 70.9 coverage grade
Brandin Echols - 2 targets, 0 receptions, 1 PBU, 91.6 coverage grade
Jordan Whitehead - 2 targets, 2 receptions, 37 yards, 16 YAC, 53.9 Coverage grade
Kwon Alexander - 2 targets, 2 receptions, 23 yards, 17 YAC, 39.1 coverage grade
Tony Adams - 1 target, 1 reception, 20 yards, 5 YAC, 48.7 coverage grade
LaMarcus Joyner - 1 target, 1 reception, 4 yards, 0 YAC, 51.8 coverage grade
Micheal Carter II - 0 targets, 69.4 coverage grade
Ashtyn Davis - 0 targets, 1 INT, 60 coverage grade

The coverage ability from the linebackers is still a concern in my mind and Quincy the unit as a whole allowing 11 receptions on 12 targets is less than ideal, but a target will often be attributed to the closest player and considering the Browns ran a few screens, I’m not surprised to see the receptions.

Sauce was playing a lot of off coverage and I’d like to see the Jets push him into press to utilize his length and physicality off the line, saying that he allowed 33 yards, so that’s 41 total yards allowed in two games for Sauce so far, not bad for a rookie. A lot of people thought Cooper’s success always came against Sauce, but that’s wide of the mark considering the amount of zone coverage the Jets were playing.

Ashtyn Davis had one coverage snap to his name and was given a free-roaming center field role which he used to good effect, intercepting Brisett to end the game.

Special Teams

Punting

That was one hell of a bounce-back game for Braden Mann, across the board he was excellent, from his perfect 4th down throw to Jeff Smith to his onside kick. Here I just want to focus on his punting and it was significantly improved on week one in three specific areas. His average was up from 42.2 to 47.3, his net was up from 39.3 to 44.0 and his hangtime was up from 4.04 to 4.51. You can’t ask for much more considering 2 of his 4 kicks were also downed inside the 20. Call that a very good day at the office for Braden Mann.

Not only did Braden Mann have a bounce-back week but Greg Zuerlein did too. He hit his only field goal attempt from 57 yards and made all four extra-point attempts. Considering Justin Hardee recovered an onside kick and help the return game of Cleveland in check…it was a good day at the office for Brant Boyer and the special team unit.