The Cleveland Browns are at the mid-way point of their season, and that means it’s time to look at which players earned which mid-year award.
These are the mid-year selections for the most common awards seen in the NFL. The amount of time a player has clocked in on the field, next to how many big plays they make and their general play-to-play production will be the key factors here. These are not to be taken as a final evaluation of the award or the player who is chosen to win it. This is merely the mid-year projection of where these awards currently are.
The categories will be the obvious ones. Comeback Player, Most Improved, Best New Addition, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, and the Most Valuable Player of the year. For the Offensive Player of the Year, it’s an MVP category for us. So whoever is sitting in the MVP chair, so to speak, won’t be nominated for that category.
So with that, let’s start.
Comeback Player of the Mid-Year: Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield has had a heck of a start to 2020. He’s off to the best start of his pro career at 5-3, with 15 touchdowns, 1,514 yards while completing passes at a clip of 61.4%. These are far better numbers than his chaotic 2019 season. While some fans erroneously claim that the Browns are winning in spite of Mayfield, that’s simply not the case. Mayfield has been the most consistent offensive player all year and has carried the offense while Nick Chubb has been out. Big names like Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., and Jarvis Landry have largely been non-factors either, for one reason or another.
Runner Up: Kareem Hunt
While Hunt isn’t putting up huge numbers as he did in Kansas City, nor is he running the ball nearly as well as Nick Chubb had been, Hunt’s duality on the field has made him an important piece. He’s got 642 all-purpose yards and seven total touchdowns. If he was rushing the ball better or had better yards receiving, he might make a better case for the award.
Most Improved Player of the Mid-Year: Porter Gustin
To be fair, had Wyatt Teller played more than a handful of games, he’s the obvious winner but since this is the mid-year awards, you gotta go with who’s been healthy and for that, it goes to Porter Gustin. Playing in just six games in 2019, Gustin has come on strong in 2020 and showed his versatility. A former linebacker at USC, Gustin has lined up at both defensive tackle and defensive end and has played well enough to make guys like Olivier Vernon expendable. He’s still a project in development, so who knows what he’ll look like but more than likely he’ll be on this team for a few years to come.
Runner Up: Wyatt Teller
Teller will win this award at the end of the year if two things happen. First, he comes back and plays every game for the rest of the year. Second, he doesn’t regress If he does that, then there’s no way he doesn’t take home the award, as long as Gustin doesn’t start doubling up his production that is.
Best New Comer of the Mid-Year: Ronnie Harrison
Since coming over to start the season, Ronnie Harrison has impressed. It’s taken him time to work his way into the lineup, and as he learned more and more of his playbook obligations, he became more and more valuable for the team. He eventually forced Karl Joseph to the bench and since joining the secondary, he and Andrew Sendejo have made for a moderately successful duo. Sendejo with his sure tackling and Harrison for his ability to pass defend anyone coming across his front. He’s the best safety the team has had in a while, and he’s earning every dollar he’s making.
Runner Up: Jack Conklin
Jack Conklin hasn’t had his name called much this year. As an offensive lineman, that’s usually a sign that you’re doing your job. Conklin came over from the Tennessee Titans and made an instant impact on the offensive line. Conklin has been not just a good addition to the team in its pass blocking, but he’s also done a great job keeping up with Wyatt Teller when he was active. The two of them became the favored side for head coach Kevin Stefanski and Nick Chubb to rush through.
Rookie of the Mid-Year: Harrison Bryant
Since the start of the year, Harrison Bryant has lined up as the second tight end for the revamped Browns offense. It’s only been over the last three or four games however that Bryant has taken on more of a role in the passing offense. While he won’t compete for NFL Rookie of the Year with these stats, his 15 receptions, 151 yards receiving and three touchdowns have made a decisive impact on the team as they continue to deal with major injuries across the board. Bryant’s impact isn’t just on the passing game as a receiver, but Bryant has shown to be a versatile player with his blocking abilities. While not as big and strong as starter Austin Hooper, Bryant has more than made his name as a physical blocker with his ability to get in front of some of the leagues best defensive players and go toe-to-toe with them.
Runner Up: Jedrick Wills
If you had to describe Jedrick Wills rookie season in one word, it would be “sloppy”. Not bad or good, not even disappointing. Just sloppy. He’s getting the job done most of the time but he does still have issues sealing off the edge with faster ends, and he isn’t known for his technique or discipline on the line yet either. The timing stuff, hopefully, will be corrected but for life-long linemen to still have form issues at this stage in his career is unacceptable. Still an upgrade over last year’s starter Greg Robinson, but you expect more out of a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft.
Defensive Player of the Mid-Year: Myles Garrett
This is a no brainer. The Browns have one of the top ten best defensive players in the league right now, and next to no one behind him to push him for the award. He’s tied with Aaron Donald for the league lead with nine sacks heading into Sunday’s games, with 25 tackles, four forced fumbles, five tackles-for-a-loss, and 13 QB hits. The stats are nice but Garrett hasn’t been the team MVP and not by a long shot. Garrett takes too many plays off, having sat out several key defensive series in the fourth quarter where the opposition was driving, as well as disappearing for long stretches of the game. Maybe it’s being overworked, or not having a good enough offseason conditioning program, but Garrett plays anywhere from 50 to 80 snaps a game, and really only makes an impact in five or six of them. That’s around 7-9% of the game he’s actually making an impact in. That’s not MVP numbers.
Runner Up: Denzel Ward
If Denzel Ward was healthy, it’s very likely that Garrett would have a real challenge for the Defensive Player of the Year award. While Ward was suspect a few times this year, with the addition of Ronnie Harrison to the group, Ward has come on real strong over the last few weeks and is currently leading the team in pass deflections with 11.
Offensive Player of the Year: Kareem Hunt
Kareem Hunt has not been the replacement for Nick Chubb many thought he would be, nor has he been as versatile as he’s been known to be. That said, he’s still on pace for well over 1,3000 total yards and 14 total touchdowns. If he hits those numbers is anyone’s guess going forward. That doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s done a lot for this team even if he has struggled against better defenses. He’s currently fifth in the league in rushing yards heading into Week 9. He’s got to be more dynamic, especially out of the backfield on passing plays. He’s got to break down and use his shiftiness to evade tacklers like he did last year if he hopes to hold onto this award after Week 17.
Runner Up: Jarvis Landry
Jarvis Landry is having a down year for Landry. Landry is also having a great year considering his hip is still all kinds of messed up and he’s in intense pain every play. The best thing to do is sit him for a week or two and let him rehab his hip, and maybe he’ll be back to where he was in 2018. Maybe not, maybe this is the new Landry or at the very least, the Landry we’re going to have for 2020 no matter what. Regardless, Landry has performed admirably but not spectacularly. He’s still done enough to warrant the runner-up spot.
Most Valuable Player of the Mid-Year: Baker Mayfield
It had to be Baker Mayfield. With Nick Chubb and Wyatt Teller out for most of the year, and Myles Garrett only impacting the defense every so often in a given game, you have to give it to Mayfield. Seven of eight games saw Mayfield throw for a touchdown, and five of eight saw him throw for at least two. The Browns are 5-0 when Mayfield throws for two touchdowns or more in a game. He’s had five games of a 70+ quarterback rating and four games of 100+. There’s a narrative around Mayfield that just isn’t true. He’s been playing very well in 2020 and yes, two games have marred his season more than they should, but even in the most recent loss to Oakland, Mayfield looked great. He was completing passes, making it hard to throw passes, and moving the offense. It was his receivers that couldn’t finish the plays. Not Mayfield. Mayfield is the obvious pick to be the team’s MVP as of the close of Week 8.
Runners Up: Nick Chubb, Wyatt Teller, Myles Garrett
If Nick Chubb were healthy, this might be a far closer contest, but right now that’s not the case. Wyatt Teller also had a case to make, as he was helping everyone get yards not just Chubb. Myles Garrett also deserves a nod and is admittedly the runner up for the award.