Are the Cleveland Browns over-relying on Amari Cooper and David Njoku?

The Cleveland Browns are getting their money’s worth for Amari Cooper and David Njoku but it comes with a caveat.

The Cleveland Browns are seeing some nice dividends from the team’s two most expensive passing targets this year in Amari Cooper and David Njoku. When targeted, both men have done some excellent work. Cooper has had two 100-yard performances and a touchdown in back-to-back games for the first time since Josh Gordon. Njoku just topped his career-best single-game outing with nine receptions.

And this with the backup quarterback in Jacoby Brissett. This is quite honestly the best-case scenario, the best players are making Brissett better. Yet, there is always a trade-off in everything in life. The Browns are leaning pretty hard on Cooper and Njoku, and they’ve excelled against some pretty terrible defenses.

That won’t be the case all year, as starting with the Buffalo Bills in Week 5, the Browns will have to deal with a Murder’s Row of defenses for most of the rest of the season. Now injuries may help the Browns out, as the Chargers are without Joey Bosa at the moment, and his status is up in the air, so going into the LA Chargers game could look like a very good scenario, but that’s best case situation.

The better defenses are going to find ways to take Cooper and Njoku out of the occasion at some point, especially when you roll up against the Bills or Buccaneers. Are the Browns a good enough team to win if that situation were to happen? It’s nearly hard to stop Nick Chubb, but the rushing game outside of him isn’t going to put fear into other teams. Chubb should be a front runner for MVP, for what it’s worth but the rest of the running game seems very pedestrian.

So, what happens if a very good defense shuts down the Browns’ best passing options, what then?

The Cleveland Browns need to know what they have beyond Amari Cooper and David Njoku.

The Browns have some potential beyond Cooper and Njoku, but right now that’s all they really are; potential. Harrison Bryant hasn’t shown to be someone who can take over games, and the rest of the Browns’ receivers seem to disappear in bigger moments. Granted, that could be partly due to the play-calling going towards the big-money guys, but it could also be due to a lack of trust in them.

Stefanski has shown time and time again with Kareem Hunt, that he’ll ride with the backup, as he trusts him. Yet, why isn’t he calling up the numbers of Donovan Peoples-Jones or David Bell? Bell specifically seems to be a guy you’d think would get more action but in three games he has two receptions for 12 yards.

Peoples-Jones has been targeted 15 times, has seven receptions, and just 70 yards on the season; 60 of which came in Week 1. Bryant isn’t much better, with just 63 yards through three games on eight targets.

Should Cooper and Njoku get taken out of a game through defensive planning, or even worse, get hurt, what will the Browns’ offense look like? The team has got to get more players involved in the passing game in order to mitigate any potential issues that may arrive later in the year.

It’s great to feed Cooper and Njoku, but if they’re the only ones eating in the passing game, then you end up putting yourself in a situation where you could be leaning on guys who aren’t ready should their number be called.