The Cleveland Browns core players have some questions surrounding them.
The Cleveland Browns have a lot of questions to answer stemming from a wild and crazy offseason that saw the team turn over its offensive line, its linebacking corp, and its secondary unit. Not to mention a new head coach, a new offensive system, a new defensive system, a new general manager, and a set of new expectations.
All while dealing with the teams two best wide receivers needing surgery, its star defensive player just being let off of suspension, a running back who ran afoul with the law again, a quarterback who’s constantly being dragged by pundits who expect him to be a hall of famer in just his second year, and a global pandemic that leveled the team’s offseason plans.
This has been a year for a change indeed.
So to narrow it down to five questions was hard. Incredibly hard. There are so many storylines going on at the moment with this team that you could do a list of 30 questions that surround this team. Will Greedy Williams improve enough to continue to warrant a starting job? Will Denzel Ward return to his Pro Bowl form? Who among the safeties will get to start? What will the offensive line look like? Will the Browns make any big moves with new GM Andrew Berry talking about always improving the team, no matter what time of the year it is?
That’s just a handful of them. The five below are deemed most pressing, however, which is why they’re on this list.
Can Baker Mayfield return to form?
It’s expected that Baker Mayfield will return to form in 2020. Most experts agree that forcing Mayfield to throw a lot wasn’t the right call. Yet, he actually did quite well when he threw 30 times or more in a game, going 5-6 as a starter and putting up 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The problem is twice he threw three interceptions when asked to throw more than 37 times in a game.
Mayfield’s struggles came when the gameplan was changed around and he couldn’t find a rhythm. That’s when he truly struggled. When he threw under 30 times a game, he completed only 42% of his passes, threw only three touchdowns, and a whopping seven interceptions across a three-game span.
The story of Mayfield’s 2019 season is one of a lack of consistency on both Mayfield and Kitchens, but the numbers clearly show that Mayfield can hawk the ball downfield and be productive. He does well with high-volume passing. The loss to Arizona in week 15 saw him complete 70% of his passes on 43 attempts. If the defense hadn’t collapsed in the fourth quarter, then this team would’ve at least been close in defeat; if not had won the game.
Mayfield needs to find that rhythm early in a game. He’s very much that type of player, and if head coach Kevin Stefanski will let him find it, this team will be very successful with Mayfield throwing the ball.
Will Jarvis Landry be able to regain his old form?
Jarvis Landry is one of the five best wide receivers in the league, full stop. Hopefully, that’s still true after his hip surgery. Unlike so many other injuries, hip injuries that require surgery are often harder to come back from due to the nature of the joint. Like with backs, if your hips are injured, your flexibility and mobility go out the window. Hip injuries can often end a career. Just ask Tua Tagovailoa, who many believe should just sit out the 2020 season to continue healing from the same type of injury that ended Bo Jackson’s career.
Hips are not to be messed around with. While ankle and knee issues can slow a player some, they’re not often thought to be career-ending, so someone like Odell Beckham isn’t going to have the same spotlight on his injuries as Landry does. Granted Beckham will still be under a microscope all season long but for other issues.
Landry has proven to be extremely valuable and has often done amazing work with less than amazing play at quarterback. He had a more daunting injury than Beckham (who had a hernia for some of the season) and still put up great numbers in the same system that Beckham struggled in. Clearly Landry’s value to the team can’t be measured.
Yet if he comes out of this hip surgery a different player, what can be expected of him? That’s going to be the thing. Landry and Baker Mayfield have amazing chemistry with each other, and we’ve seen that across two seasons and two Pro Bowl appearances for Landry. Will all that change in 2020?
Can Myles Garrett play a full, consistent season?
While Browns fans are hyped for Myles Garrett, Garrett isn’t exactly a problem-less player. On-field issues before the helmet-incident were already starting to pile up. Calls of him being a dirty player by those he played against started to gain traction throughout the season that eventually culminated in him braining Mason Rudolph.
Garrett has also had injury issues. Issues with his knee and ankles, as well as a history of concussions are scattered across his last year in college and his first year in the pros. While he hasn’t missed a game since his rookie season due to injuries, that’s really only one entire season of games worth of evidence to point to. For all we know, week 11 of the 2019 season could’ve seen him get hurt. We’ll never know.
All we know is that he’s had issues with his legs before.
Garett had a great 2018. Yet, in both 2017 and 2019, Garrett’s productivity was streaky. In 2017 he racked up four sacks in his first three professional games. An incredible stat. Two of those games he barely played any snaps either. Yet, his last three sacks came across the last eight weeks, all with, at times, triple the number of snaps played in a game. One would imagine more opportunities would provide more production. He didn’t make the defense better, in fact in a lot of those games the team got blown out.
Then in 2019, before the suspension, Garrett again bunched up sacks in his first three games. This time getting six sacks in three games to start the season. Then he only had four more sacks the rest of the seven games he played. He was more effective in that stretch overall than he was in 2017, but considering the team is willing to make him the highest-paid defensive player in the league, shouldn’t consistency and longevity be important?
Think about this, Jadeveon Clowney can’t get $20 million a year all because he’s not getting sacks. He’s getting pressure and has proven to be a good run stuffer, something Garrett is not, but he can’t get paid. Yet, Garrett will get paid (expectedly) $22 million (or more) a year for bunching up sacks over the course of a few games, and then disappearing the rest of the season?
Garrett needs to do more than 30 tackles and 10 sacks. He can’t do that if he’s constantly off the field, however.
Is Mack Wilson a star in the making?
The Browns need a stud linebacker and right now the team has none. It’s very possible one could emerge. Maybe Mack Wilson and Sione Takitaki are the next Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher. That’s anyone’s guess. Right now the focus is on Wilson, the former Alabama alum who had a relatively successful rookie season next to Pro Bowler Joe Schobert. The two played the most snaps of any linebacker on the team and were both effective in their roles behind a shoddy defensive line.
Yet, is Wilson a star?
Rule of thumb, you want one playmaker at every level on defense. Think about those successful Baltimore Ravens teams. First, it was Mike McCreary, Ray Lewis, and Chris McCallister. Then it was Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis, and Ed Reed. Then it was Haloti Ngata, Suggs, and Reed. Always three stars, always in three spots on the field. That’s a winning formula.
Hopefully, Myles Garrett can stay on the field and Denzel Ward returns to form going forward, which would mean two top-10 players at their respective levels. The Browns would just need one more; hopefully that can be Wilson.
Wilson is young, hungry, and ready to go. Will he be as good of a total player as Schobert was for the Browns is the question. Schobert showed high levels of energy and efficiency at both tackling and playing against the pass. He was hard to prep for. Granted a defense has to be a total team unit, and if it’s not then even one great player won’t make a difference.
That’s the issue Wilson will deal with, as the defensive line still isn’t great but at least this season they have depth. It’s not six Pro Bowler’s deep but should an injury happen, the line shouldn’t fall into disarray like it did last year. Hopefully, the line is better, which allows Wilson, Takitaki, and whoever else earns a starting job to do their jobs more effectively.
If the line is better, then maybe Wilson can show what he’s all about.
Will Kareem Hunt even find the field in 2020?
While this title may seem a bit more harsh than intended, this isn’t intended to be a dig at his personal issues. More so a point of emphasis at how deep the offensive is. Sure, Kareem Hunt will actually be on the field, in 2020, but in what role? Will he be just a third-down back? Maybe he’ll only be in on blocking plays. He might be used as a decoy.
Hunt, unfortunately, finds himself behind arguably the third or fourth-best running back in the league. He’s also on a team with three Pro Bowl offensive targets that will need catches to keep them happy, all while playing with a quarterback who’s hungry to prove his critics wrong. On top of making sure Nick Chubb gets his carries, Hunt’s production and opportunities will not be nearly as bountiful in 2020 as they were in 2019.
Part of the success that Hunt saw in 2019 came as a receiver out of the backend. The team didn’t have a tight end worth their salt in 2019, which means Hunt became the check down target of sorts for Mayfield. That won’t be the case in 2020, as Mayfield will have Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant in 2020. So the need to look to the backfield for a quick pass won’t be as prevalent.
So Hunt won’t have the same receiving opportunities. As far as running the ball goes, the team will do just that and in excess. Yet, Chubb will get most of the handoffs. So what can Hunt really expect to do in his new role on the team?