DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns 2017 Statistical Expectations Offense and Defense

NRTU

Last Year:

28th Overall Offense
29th Passing Offense
13th Rushing Offense

31st Overall Defense
30th Passing Defense
27th Rushing Defense

This year, my guesses ...

10th Rushing Offense - Will give it a slight bump. Invested some on the OL. Hue did say he realizes he did not run enough last year. And Kizer can run some. It is only a slight bump because our depth is not strong, RT is still below average and when you are behind, you do not run as much.

29th Passing Offense - Will keep this the same. We still have bad receivers. We have a rookie QB. Better OL will help offset this some, as does the physical tools of that rookie QB.

27th Overall Offense - About this.

Disclaimer - if Kessler has to play a significant part of the season, then these drop. 31st passing offense, 16th rushing offense (D not threatened by downfield plays and crowd the box) and 30th overall.


16th Passing Defense - A big jump here. Improved pass rush, seems like more aggression, and more speed. DB still suspect, despite Peppers' athleticism

22nd Rushing Defense - Another slight bump, for the same reasons - apparently improved speed and aggression on D. And teams not needing to run on us so much.

20th Overall Defense - Improved some due to the above

I think our defense will be in the top 5 of the league.

I think our offense will be somewhere in the middle of the league due to a decent but not great running game.

I think we finish with 7 to 9 wins.

IF Kizer speeds up his decision making and gets more accurate as he gets used to the WR then I don't think there is a way we finish under .500

IF Kizer doesn't improve from where he was in preseason then I can see him throwing a lot of interceptions and costing us games. Our win total will then be 5 to 7 games.

Our defense will win us 5 games alone I think.

I think the offense will be somewhere in between 20th and 25th best and the defense 10th to 15th best. I think the team will win 5 or 6 games.

https://twitter.com/spotrac/status/914615089705230336

5-6 games will never happen with this coach. Sad but true!!!

That's what happens when the majority of your defense is rookies or 2nd year players.

That's what everyone seems to forget; we are the youngest team in the league and most of our players have a lot to learn including playing with each other. Every injury and lost time for our guys hurts even more because A. they need to be out there learning and B. we don't have that much depth at certain positions. Some of us realized it would take time and it will. Arguably, our best D player, MG, hasn't even played a down.

https://twitter.com/PFF_Mike/status/915196818471956480

That is truly horrible. The defense is worse than the offense.

It sums up everything about this defense:

We're constantly bringing pressure, but the pressure rarely ever gets home, so the QB's have time to move and our secondary can't cover long enough.... so, we get eaten up.

IF we can start to get home more consistently with the pressure and lane discipline, it will begin to rush more throws which will improve our secondary's performance.


When you build your defense and philosophy around getting pressure, and then don't/can't, this is what you get.

On the up side of things, we have just about the best rush defense we've had since 1999.

The problem with the pressure is Garrett being out. The only other guy we brought in who can pressure the QB is Brantley. Everybody else is the same for the most part. At least those one might consider a pass rusher.

Once Garrett gets back, that is going to chance the face. I think he will make all the others better....at least as much as a rook can.

do we even know if garrett will make an impact?

I agree w/what you two are saying...for the most part.

However, we don't have a FS on the roster. That is why we are playing them so deep. The 10-12 yard quick hitters for the TEs and slot receivers is always wide open.

It took the NFL one week to figure out how to exploit this dumb ass defense.

The FO decided to trade down and not take Hooker and instead they took Peppers. This FO alienated Gipson. This FO passed on a lot of good FS's in the draft and instead traded up for a raw TE. Our FO cut Haden even though he was our best cover guy. I realize that isn't saying much and I have said for a long time that Joe was overrated, but he could have helped a bit.

Our secondary reeks. I don't like Gregg Williams at all. In fact, I wouldn't mind kicking his butt, but the FO has done a horrendous job of addressing the secondary.

The same can be said of the WR and QB units as well.

This is not a coaching problem. It is a talent/experience issue. They need to get better at what they do and understand this is not baseball.

Knowing the Browns luck, probably not.

I think when we get both Garrett an Shelton back the pass rush should open up

Blitzes are designed to cause pressure no matter the personnel. Teams are regularly picking up our blitzes like they know they are coming.

Is Williams playing Peppers so deep to help him in getting the hang of the FS role? Helping him to see the field and see things develop in front of him... and as Peppers starts to grasp things at the NFL level, he'll get moved up closer to the LOS as his instincts mature?

I dunno. Just trying to come up with ideas.

I think you hit on a valid point. Now I know this isn't what you said, but I think my comments go along in addition to what you said. lol

Peppers is a SS. Close to the LOS, attacking style player. They are taking a player with great ability at the SS position and forcing him into a position that he's not suited for. The reason why? They don't have any other options at the FS position. They're not putting Peppers in a position to showcase his talent.

And yes. our CB's suck.

http://smartfootball.com/offense/the-science-of-the-post-going-deep-with-mills#sthash.iYiOhG9s.dpbs

Or maybe Peppers is even a worst SS than a FS?

IMHO, there are no reasons to believe that Peppers would be a good SS, its not the case that Peppers was moved out of position, he was not a SS to start with.

Peppers is a bad player, you just have to see him play to see he would be a disaster has a SS.

How do you know this?

Probably the same way that folks say that he isn't a FS because that's not where he was played in college, even though that's the position they moved him from and where he used to excel.

The guy is making the jump from college to NFL AND not only learning a "new" position that he hasn't played for several years, but he's having to do it in a complex NFL defense on a team with a bad secondary to begin with.

Yes, he was a 1st round pick, but folks just gotta have patience - wait for the game to slow down for him.

It looked like the pigskin equivalent of right field in Little League. I expected more contribution this season. Different zip code. I saw him as potentially a Polomalu type.

Another hope dashed on the rocks.

Another cryptic post...

Why in my opinion Peppers would be a bad SS, because he lacks football instincts, has problem reacting to plays, and doesn't know how to tackle.

Peppers is a highlight kind of player that "excelled" in college because of his superior athleticism. Now in the NFL his athleticism is only average and on many occasions he just makes himself look foolish with his play.

What's more troubling to me is that Peppers is regarded has an intelligent player, but he persists in the same mistakes.

Peppers draft was full of question marks, and so far he has only validated the ones who had doubts about him.

I always had doubts about the Njoku and Peppers draft (I don't like receivers that can't catch and safeties without awareness and football instincts) ,and I concede that probably in the case Njoku we have to give him more time, but with Peppers I think he's the worst player on the field.

SS, FS or return duties he is bad. Unfortunately he cannot play MLB, so I think he has no place on the team, there are better FS/SS on practice squads

Allways said that he was an undersized Maualuga at best, not an oversized Polomalu.

Maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but any other player that showed the poor performances he had, lack of fundamentals and disciple would already been cut.

What if he was playing a loose role in college because he lacked the discipline to play a position?

What if he could play in college because all the other player were worst athletes than him, but now he does not have the fundamentals or intelligence to be only average.

You cannot have a safety that is not safe, that throws himself to hit the ball carrier, lowers his eyes and completely misses the play.Not once, not twice but several times.

You cannot have a safety that does not know how to take angles, and many times takes himself out of the play, this while playing safety with some time and space to adjust.

A safety and a returner that lacks football awareness, field position, and game situations...

Week 10 and he still makes the same mistakes...

I like arrogant players, but when they are elite, when they are not even average they are just pathetic.

I'm really not sure why people think it makes any sense at all to spend a first round pick on a kid only to experiment playing him at a position he has never played and ignore playing him at a position he excelled at.

When you draft a guy in round 1, shouldn't it be to get a premium from his talent by using him at what he does well?

Correct if I'm wrong by Peppers never excelled at being a SS, he was used in many positions, OLB/SAM/Nickleback and SS. He excelled because he was a versatile player

On the Depth chart the SS's were Thomas and Hudson, Peppers was listed has the OLB/SAM.

Actually this was one of the main "problems" with JP...

I think the answer to this question is "yes". But we also don't have any one better (according to Gregg Williams). So what do you do?

(I don't know if this is the case with Peppers, but I think there is something to be said for developing a player. Is it possible Peppers is being used more in coverage so that in future years he is a more complete player because he was being developed in coverage?)

Actually he did a lot of things well. But of course we aren't using him for any of those things except KR's.

That kind of goes under what I said earlier. Why in the world would you draft a player in the first round just to play him out of position? I see nothing wrong with drafting players you feel you need to develop, but in the first round, really?

Make it 2 players, Njoku is also a project....

I think this happens all the time. The first thing that comes to mind is defensive ends being converted to outside linebackers/pass rushers. Also, teams draft QBs that need to sit and develop in the first round all the time (Mahomes comes to mind among recent drafts).

If you know you are going to be bad, is it worth drafting a very talented player in the first round and then developing him by playing him at a position he isn't good at? (I don't think this is happening. I think we have no one better.)

I agree that we don't have anyone better. Great decision by Sashi to "win the deal" w/Gipson. We are so much better off w/out him.

And what really kills me is that Gipson was 26 years old when he left. It wasn't like he was one of the older players. We keep creating holes when we already have too many holes. That isn't smart.

Not hard to figure out. You draft BPA and then try to get your best 11 on the field.

Kind of funny. Almost every poster on this board projected Peppers playing a different position than he is now. Now everyone is making excuses why that makes sense.

I don't know if you are referring to me or not.

I thought Peppers would be playing more of a hybrid role (I think I used Deone Bucannon as an example of what I thought he would be). Now I am more trying to figure why he is being played out of position more than making any excuses.

I responded to Deputy. There are a few others but my comment was not intended towards you.

Ok but they still have to be the BPA at that position.