How To Fix The Browns

The NFL offseason will be in full swing before we know it, with coaching changes, free agency, and the NFL draft reshaping the 2023 fantasy football landscape. With that in mind, the Fantasy Life squad is breaking down every NFL team to determine what went wrong in 2022 and identify paths to improvement. Who knows, maybe an NFL GM will read this and realize those fantasy nerds aren’t so crazy after all – we all want the same thing, more points, and more wins!!!

How To Fix The Browns

Jan 8, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Cleveland Browns center Ethan Pocic (55) prepares to snap the ball against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the fourth quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Pittsburgh won 28-14. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Team Summary

The Browns went all-in on a franchise quarterback last off-season, but the move came with a lot of baggage that the team was not resilient enough to overcome. 

Ultimately, the duo of Jacoby Brissett (11 games) and a very rusty-looking Deshaun Watson (6 games) could only produce an offense in 2022-23 that ranked 17th in both points (21.2) and average scoring margin (-1.2). 

The story for the Browns was even worse on the defensive side, where they struggled mightily at times, allowing the fourth most rushing TDs and the eighth most rushing yards against. They also produced just 20 turnovers – the ninth-fewest in the league. 

With the Browns having mortgaged the future in the Watson trade, the team is without a first-round pick for either of the next two drafts and will be hard-pressed to address positional weaknesses. The move has also tied them to a morally-questionable figure who looked like a shell of his former self when on the field last season. 

With the draft cupboard bare, the Browns’ path to improvement in 2023 is most likely going to have to come from within. After making a number of big, splashy moves last off-season, they now need to find creative ways to maximize the talent already in place. It’s time to hunker down in Cleveland and find creative and low-key ways they can improve this off-season. 

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Get Deshaun Watson Back in Form

The Browns traded away six draft picks for Watson and don’t have a first-round selection until 2025. After giving him a five-year, $230 million contract last offseason, they now have four years left on their current commitment to Watson and desperately need him to start producing right away. 

Last season, Watson played in six games and completed just 58 percent of his passes for 1,102 yards, seven touchdowns, and five interceptions. While he only played about a third of the season, Watson set career-lows in yards per attempt, completion percentage, and TD rate. 

Watson also took 20 sacks over those six games and his 10.5% sack rate would have ranked as the second-highest on the season if extrapolated over 17 games. Over the last three weeks, Watson’s sack rate shot up to 15.5% with no one else coming close to that mark. 

Cleveland’s O-Line actually ranked out well last season, coming in with the sixth-highest grade in the year-end rankings on PFF. From that perspective, Watson’s high volume of sacks is concerning. There’s a risk that Watson simply isn’t as mobile as he used to be – he does have two surgically repaired knees – and will need to adjust his playing style going forward. 

Dec 4, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) runs with the ball during the fourth quarter against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

That’s a worst-case scenario for the Browns, as we’ve seen injuries that hamper mobility lead to poor play for many years to follow like with Carson Wentz.

The good news is that Watson’s high sack rate isn’t new. He overcame the same issue in Houston, thanks mainly to an offense that used RPOs (run-pass options) and lots of play action to create plays outside the pocket with his arm and feet. Last season, the Browns attempted just 137 play-action passes, which ranked 16th in the league, and only 30 passes on RPOs, which ranked them just 23rd in that regard. 

While the idea of having Watson do more in 2023 sounds risky after he played so poorly last season, the Browns can’t coddle their most valuable asset. It’s far better to find out early on what Watson is still capable of by replicating some of the things the Texans did when he was burning up the league in 2018-20.

If the Browns can modify and mold around Watson’s strengths, this offense will have a much better chance of ranking out as a top 10 unit, something which it’s failed to do in Kevin Stefanski’s first three years with the team. That should also help create fantasy-relevant players at multiple positions next year.

Pass the Ball More (Especially on First Down)

In three years under Kevin Stefanski, the offense in Cleveland has never ranked higher than 25th in pass-play percentage for a season. They’ve also never ranked higher than 26th in first-down pass attempts and that plan has not led to a ton of success. 

Since 2020, Cleveland has never climbed higher than 10th in point-differential, yardage-differential, points scored, or yardage gained. The Browns were also ranked just 17th and 21st in first-down success rate in 2020 and 2021, respectively. 

The Browns did rank out efficiently as a unit and were 8th in offensive DVOA ranking for the season. However, their lack of creativity in the passing game and on first-down has been a mainstay during the Stefanski reign, and something they would do well to move away from in 2023. 

The stats support this move as well. Of the teams who ranked inside the top 10 in first-down throw percentage in 2023, six of them ranked inside the top 10 in points scored last season. In 2021, that number was even higher at seven. 

It’s a little simplistic but teams that pass the ball more are, on average, better at scoring points and winning games. This last season, six of the top eight teams in total pass-play percentage made the playoffs and only one (the Cardinals) had less than seven wins. 

If the Browns want to win more, they need to stop being so predictable – especially on first down – and find efficient ways to pass the ball more often early in games. 

Load Up at Wide Receiver 

The Browns currently have two bigger, athletic WRs in Amari Cooper and Donavan Peoples-Jones that make for great possession targets on first down. However, neither is what you’d call a true burner. Peoples-Jones had a solid 63.5% contested catch rate, but isn't great at creating separation. Cooper was ninth in catches of 20+ yards but is also easy for opposing defenses to hone in on and is approaching the ripe age of 30.

Getting a legit speedster into this offense would likely help create space for more passing on first down and also give Watson a better chance of explosive passing plays from outside the pocket. 

Zay Flowers would be an excellent second-day target at the draft for the Browns, who have the 42nd overall pick in the draft. Flowers projects as a kind of inside-outside weapon that will likely be able to beat NFL corners consistently downfield, given that he’s projected to have a 40-time in the 4.3 range. 

Flowers is starting to gain some pre-draft heat so if the cost is too high, both D.J. Chark and Parris Campbell would make for solid free-agent targets. Cleveland can create cap space by restructuring Deshaun Watson’s contract and neither Campbell nor Chark would come with a huge premium. 

The Browns don't have a ton to work with in terms of assets, but one thing is for sure: they need to open up this offense in 2023. Adding more speed and talent at the WR position would help that cause immensely.