Browns: 3 areas the Browns may struggle with in 2021
By Chad Porto
Special Teams
The Browns have fine special teams. That’s about it, however. The Browns used to have a great crop of special team players in kicker Phil Dawson, a slew of great punters, and of course Josh Cribbs, a player so good on special teams that he should seriously be considered a Hall of Famer.
The Browns don’t have that in 2021 and didn’t really have that in 2020. Cleveland has largely had a kicking carousel over the last few years, and the return men have been adequate at best. Part of the issue is the change to the kickoff and punt rules over the years, but another part of the issue is the reliance on late-round draft picks to fill the position.
There was a time when NFL teams would actually dedicate resources to finding good return men, but now that no longer appears to be the case. No one is asking that you take a long snapper in the fourth round, but drafting someone just because they’re a good return person, and not because they might be, has largely gone out the window.
The Browns’ last punt return for a touchdown came in 2015 thanks to Travis Benjamen, while their last kick return for a touchdown came in 2009 when Josh Cribbs did it three times. Six and 12 years respectively. Yeah, the Browns could do with some better crop of return men.
The problem isn’t just the return men or the kickers but the punting units as well. Jamie Gillan was 29th in the NFL in 2020 with punts that fell inside the opposing team’s 20-yard line. Now, most of the other punting stats are more akin to golf; you don’t want to have higher numbers in this category, so the lack of yards or punts or averages is actually a good thing for the Browns.
What you do want, however, is for the defense to be set up in the best position possible and Gillan couldn’t do that. Granted, he’s a very inexperienced player so maybe he can develop into that type of a punter, but facts are facts and in 2020 he didn’t do his job to the level expected of him.