I think in the case of the DT's. It was completely misjudged. That is on Berry but also Stefanski and Woods.
Berry believes in collaboration. I think it is part of the culture they have tried to foster.
I disagree about JOK. I have seen him make plenty of open field tackles. At times he will shoot a gap and miss. But he does not miss in the flat one on one.
I agree the safety play has been poor. Although I have seen improvement from Delpit tackling.
The problem I see is inconsistent plans on how to defense different teams. Players get beat. There is a lot of talent in the league.
Great offenses are going to score. But you can not go an entire game like the Dolphins and get gashed up the middle. We gave up 198 yards to nobodies.
Damn put more guys in the box. If you know the weakness is at tackle. Have a plan to compensate.
The players we have on defense are not as bad as the results have been. Hell in 2020 we had a terrible secondary and played better.
Changes needed in defense include both coaches and players.
Bone, I'm stealing your quote from the browns news thread to quote the first sentence.
I think in the case of the DT's. It was completely misjudged. That is on Berry but also Stefanski and Woods.
I've been wanting to post about it for a few weeks now, but just haven't had the time to really reply to much.
Your quote is the summary of my thoughts of the DT room.
My opinion on what happened was through their end of the season reviews and off season planning. Two of their views were similar in planning the positions, the WR room and the DT room. I really think their plan was not to spend much in those areas (that is obvious now, lol).
On the offensive side, they felt they had a few pieces they could work with: DPJ growing as a receiver, Chief at TE, the backs running/catching out of the backfield. They targeted Cooper as a great piece and traded peanuts for him. I'm sure they understood the issues if there were injuries, but they wanted to save this year after the trading of Watson and try to roll that money over to next year.
On the defensive side, i think it was the same thing. Their evaluation was they have excellent ends, an alright LB core, with some good backfield. Woods probably vouched for Elliott making strides and was ready for the starting role. They also brought in a cheap veteran piece with Bryan. Togiai would be fine rotating with a drafted piece in Winfrey (just like the WR room in drafting Bell and not being a main part of the offense..only as slot). They could save some money and get by with the players brought in through draft and FA.
The hindsight of this, the issue is they brought an excellent receiver (Cooper) on offense which helped the receiver room. On defense, Bryan shouldn't have been that main piece since he was a project piece. They should have focused on a solid DT to pair with Bryan/Elliott.
If this was their thought process, then I understand their thought process when planning it out. But...in the end, it is a failure. I just hope Berry/Stef learn from it and make adjustments in future planning.
