Browns: (More than) 5 players who need to bounce back against the Broncos

The Browns have a lot of guys needing to bounce back against the Broncos.

The Browns are not in a good place right now. They’re the equivalent of a dad who just came home from work after getting chewed out by his boss. You know things will be ok in a few hours or in a day or two but you don’t want to mess with him right now. The Browns are not in a terrible spot, 3-3 against some good competition isn’t something to scoff at.

It could be and has been, far worse. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some urgency to fix these issues. The issues, luckily (or not, depending on how you look at things) seem to fall solely on the coaching staff. That means the talent is there, the coaches just have to pull their heads out of their rears and get to work.

That said, these are the players who need to get their stuff together the most and actually do the work. If the Browns lose to the Broncos, then things are going to get worse.

(More than) five Browns who need to bounce back against the Broncos

The entire secondary

Last year the defensive secondary was at least getting beat contesting most passes. This year it feels like any gain of more than five yards has been because someone blew their assignment. That’s the most infuriating thing. The Browns defense plays 92% of the snaps great and perfect. That 8% of snaps, however, are where all the big plays and touchdowns come from. That has to stop.

Anthony Walker

The middle of the field is a wasteland of missed tackles and blown coverages. While the secondary is awful, Walker was yet another weak attempt to replace Joe Schobert in the middle of the field. Something he and his predecessor B.J. Goodson has failed to do. Walker’s done after this year in Cleveland because it’s in fact not easy to replace a coverage linebacker that shored up the middle of your defense. At this point, Walker should be trying to play as well as he can to stay in the league to start 2022. Something Goodson failed to do.

D’Ernest Johnson/All backup backs

D’Ernest Johnson didn’t get a fair shake but he, Demetric Felton, and Johnny Stanton are the three best backs the team has going into their game against Denver, assuming Nick Chubb is still out. If the Browns don’t have Chubb and abandon their usual game plan, then this could be a long week – even though the game is on Thursday.

Every Tight End

David Njoku disappeared again. Austin Hooper is a big-money mistake. Harrison Bryant is clearly a fourth-rounder for a reason. The Browns are looking at a logjam of mediocre at the position and stuck with Hooper for another few seasons. Something has got to chance with this position but what and how is anyone’s guess.

Kevin Stefanski

Titling it “Four Players and a coach” would’ve made it 1) not in line with past weekly editions and 2) sound like a bad Fox sitcom. It also would’ve made it very predictable. The facts are the facts, Kevin Stefanski introduced a system and a culture of how to play football and completely abandoned it this past Sunday against the Cardinals. Yes, the Browns were down two tackles, a running back, and a full back, but guess what? That’s why you have backups. D’Ernest Johnson, Demetric Felton, and Johnny Stanton played just 24 of 60ish plays on Sunday. Kareem Hunt came in banged up already, and Nick Chubb and Andy Janovich were out for the game.

Yet, despite taking Stanton with him from Minnesota, he only used the fullback twice on offense. Felton played about 20% of the game but didn’t take one handoff all game long, and hasn’t had a single-hand off all season. Johnson had just one rushing attempt all game and the team only had 19 carries all game. Yes, two of the three top backs were out heading into the game but that doesn’t mean you ditch your whole scheme.