DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Surprise Player

Offense: I'm going to go w/Nick Harris here. In part, because we let Tretter walk. He was a huge part of our offensive success, so the Browns must feel Harris is ready. Additionally, while Harris does not have the measurables for the standard man-blocking scheme, remember that we utilize of the ZBS principles. That system doesn't rely on size and brute strength. Instead, it's all about movement, lateral agility, getting to the second level, intelligence, etc. Here is a brief overview from Larry Zierlein.




Defense:. AJ Green. Though he was an UDFA, Green is opening some eyes for his coverage ability. Consider this, while Green's Run Defense PFF Grade is low at 50.4, his Coverage grade is in the elite area at 90.3. His Overall PFF grade is very high at 86.2. I can see him getting a lot of usage when we deploy our Quarters Coverage package.

Those are my two "Surprise Players."

Agree with Njoku. It's now or never for him with the Browns. If he can put it all together, it would be huge for us.

It would be a nice surprise if Jakeem Grant could give us the return game we've needed for so long. It's possible.

On the subject of Nick Harris, on Building the Browns, it went in to how Harris worked hard on campus all off season and has added 16 lbs of muscle to his frame, so he might not be as easy a push over as before.

Good job Nick. Sounds like a guy who wants to take the job and keep it.

Although I don't think it will happen, I would love for Anthony Schwartz or Dmetric Felton to surprise us by living up to expectations.

DPJ. 6th round pick looked great in some games his rookie year, seemed to step backwards last year but he and the team suffered through injuries. . . think he will emerge as a real #2 & deep threat.

As far as I'm concerned, David Njoku, Nick Harris, Grant Delpit and AJ Green are not surprise players, they've already contributed.
But Demetric Felton?

Here's the thing, Demetric Felton was about the top! Bottom, Middle, Left, and Right sides of the UCLA offense, He was like 70% of all the offense they had, SO!
He Comes To the Browns, and... the Browns give him the ball about 4 times all year. On offense, he gets a chance to have the ball in his hands about 4 times all year.
NOW! ONE Of those times, the Browns,,, just dumped it off to him, and-- he gets surrounded by about 3 defenders, and, next thing you know, He SHOOTS out away from those defenders and goes post haste to the end zone. The Browns didn't even appear to be ready to score a touchdown, like they were on the journey of taking 10 more plays to get there.

Now, IF the Browns could find it in their heart, to Give Demetric Felton the #**n Ball, I see no reason why I wouldn't expect him to be a significant contributor on the Browns offense for the season.

Njoku, Delpit and AJ Green are about as surprising as Deshaun Watson, Myles Garrett, JOK or Clowney, might as well be unlit birthday candles on a cake, Surprise I wonder if somebody is about to light a match. They already contribute, or are well in line to be in position to.

ok

Jordan Elliott.

At least I would be surprised if he contributes

Possibly a little shocked even.

I think Bell could be a surprise player if Watson isn't suspended. Watson does a great job of reading coverages and seeing tendencies. He's not elite like Brees was, but he's good at it. With Cooper drawing a lot of attention, I could see us running Combo routes w/Cooper and our slot guy [maybe Bell] and Watson making the right decisions. Unlike others, I love the Shannahan/Kubiak scheme and I think Stefanski is excellent at creating building blocks that are such an integral aspect of the Shannahan/Kubiak offense.

Agreed. KS really surprised and impressed me during his first year. He had our players executing like they'd been in the system for years instead of weeks/months. He (and his staff) seems to be a good teacher, and the ShanBiak* system is a proven winner.


* "KubiShan?

Richard LeCounte. MJ Stewart's contributions to the secondary will be missed. Don't know if LeCounte can play the same role as Stewart but if he cannot, if he's reliable in some role it may allow another DB to move into Stewart's role in the secondary.

Isaiah Weston, WR. All of the traits are there. Can he level up to NFL competition? If that happens, no one sees it coming.

I remember when Nick Harris was drafted. That dude was supposedly custom-built for this offense. He's had 2 (?) years now to get up to speed in practice and limited reps on Sundays.

I normally hate letting guys (like Tretter) go for unproven young'ins... but in this case I'm pretty confident that he's shown coaches what he needs to show in order to make this move. Some would say he's being given the starting job... though I think that would be unfair given his time on the roster and his coming in as a backup.

On D... Ivs seen a few flashes from Jacob Phillips that suggested he might become an excellent LB for us. In all honesty Walker was underwhelming, I'd love to see JOK and Phillips become a dynamic pairing for a few years.

You always take a risk by letting a Tretter go, but at his age and contract status, it's the right move. I think it always better letting a guy go maybe a year early over a year late.

Tretter was durable while here, but last year he was also showing signs of wearing out.

Chase Winovich - D.
Nick Harris - O.

Definitely doesn't look like he's been skipping leg day. Could just be the angle, but definitely looks like Harris has put in the work to change his body.

I'm going to go Johnny Stanton on O. Think he could sneak onto the 53 as TE3/FB and get a fair amount of work in the flats. It would probably be of the crash down on a block and leak out variety and leaking after playaction. Wonder if he could also see some of the gadget plays, as a former QB, now that Jarvis doesn't seem to be coming back.

On D, I'm thinking whoever ends up playing deep safety will probably be the biggest surprise. My first instinct was to go with LeCounte, but I think I'll throw out Nate Meadors instead. It'll be interesting to see how the secondary shakes out. JJIII in the robber role, Delpit moving around and blitzing, who's the 3rd safety playing deep? Also could end up one of the top two goes deep (or both) and we don't go 3 safeties as much after adding Emerson. Should be able to put a lot of speed on the field on defense if we can stay healthy. Hopefully, there will be lots of flustered QBs giving our secondary bad throws to take away.

Offense: Jedrick Wills establishes himself

Defense: AJ Green

Side bet: JOK named to the Pro Bowl

That scenario would be welcome. 👍

Or Harris "earned" the job which is why they decided to let Tretter go. Pocic was signed as depth/insurance (as a 1yr, ~1M contract would indicate--not really starter money,) and Deaton is a late round developmental pick. Callahan must have seen traits he thought were worth developing in the rookie. You're not expecting 7th rounders to start right away. But Deaton may hopefully be the primary backup next year with starter potential down the road (If he doesn't beat out Pocic for the backup job this year.)

Tretter was making ~11M/season. Harris, Pocic, and Deaton will make less than 3M combined. When you have stars at certain positions getting paid high end starter money, you have to draft and develop players at other positions to make the cap work.

There could also have been a bit of the "New England" better a year too soon than a year too late thinking. Tretter's legs had been a mess they had had to manage with negligible practice time for a couple seasons. They think Harris is ready. We'll see.

If the Browns wind up with/find a good slot Wr. and not at the expense of having nothing on the outsides, meaning, if someone stepped up and became a really good slot wr. that would be a good surprise.

I'm a bit nervous about only having Cooper to attack every level. If he misses time...yuck.

Yeah, DPJ is good intermediate to deep...
Schwartz is a hail mary/trick play only guy...
I like Bell, Grant and a splash of Felton out of the slot, but...

dang our WR corps is pretty roll specific.

Here's hoping for a camp surprise between what...Woods, Weston and Bradley??