The Cleveland Browns are set to play the New York Jets on Sunday in a game that might be the biggest blowout of the year. Hopefully.
This might be hyperbole, though let’s not test that theory but if the Cleveland Browns lose to the New York Jets; fire everyone. Kevin Stefanski, Baker Mayfield, Howe the hot dog guy who works construction on the weekdays, Janice the florist, and yes, even the Dawg Pound. Everyone must go. The Jets are about as awful as awful gets, they are the Grinch of the NFL but not the good animated Grinch movie, or the good live-action Jim Carrey film. No, we’re talking weird “sexy-Grinch” from 2020. The one that no one wanted.
The one that no one can forget.
Going through this list of players, there was practically no one worth game planning for. Still, right now, there isn’t. There was serious consideration just listing off Chad Pennington, Curtis Martin, and, John Abrahams because this Jets team is so bad, a gag column would be more sincere.
From someone who loved watching the Vinny Testaverde and Pennington era’s of the team (Martin’s a top-three favorite running back) and seeing what they’ve become is hard. It’s really had. So let’s try and pretend that the Jets are good enough to win on Sunday.
Marcus Maye
What, you think we should put Sam Darnold here? Marcus Maye leads the team in pass deflections with 11. That’s about as good as it’s going to get, people.
Neville Hewitt
We need bodies for this article. We’re not putting Frank Gore on here, so we might as well put someone on who’s having a statistically good season. Neville Hewitt has 122 tackles on the year. Statistically, they’re in the top part of the league against the rush, but that’s mostly a skewed stat. They’re 4th in the league in yards given up, and 3rd in the league in passing yards given up. This isn’t a good or even bad defense. This is the absolute worst. Well, statistically they’re the fourth-worst but still.
Hewitt has a PFF grade of 62.4 and part of it has to with the fact the Jets don’t have much talent around Hewitt and the other part has to do with Hewitt himself. The Jets are so ghastly all over the field that they don’t have a strength, besides one player, and it isn’t Hewitt. Sure, maybe if Hewitt was playing for a different team, then he’d be better. Maybe he’d even be a difference-maker but the facts are; he isn’t.
The Browns should have a field day offensively, because who’s going to stop them? That’s the issue with the Jets, they have no one worth poaching, let alone being worried about. Except…
Quinnen Williams
Second-year nose tackle Quinnen Williams has come along nicely. Truly, he’s someone the Browns actually have to game plan for. The quicker than expected, 6’3, 303 lbs tackle is a beast and has been providing fits all year for the Jets’ opponents. If he was in a 4-3 with some caliber players around him, he’d look a lot better. Then again, the Jets are known for having young defensive tackles play well before moving on to other avenues (Sheldon Richardson, Leonard Williams), so it’s only a matter of times before Williams is on the market.
Williams has an impressive 55 tackles as a nose tackle, with 10 being a tackle-for-a-loss and another 14 QB hits. On top of that, he has seven sacks to his name as well, with three pass deflections and two forced fumbles. Williams has been a wrecking ball for the Jets but he has no help around him and that’s been costing them and him. Williams is going to be a hard guy to stop; especially if Wyatt Teller and Chris Hubbard are out again.
While a lot of people like talking about how Nick Harris played well against the Giants, he really didn’t. He didn’t make many mistakes but he was blown up into the backfield a lot and as a run blocker, he didn’t make nearly the same impact as the guys ahead of him on the depth chart. The run game suffered in part because of him. The Browns are going to need help containing Williams if Harris starts.