Joel Bitonio tops all offensive Cleveland Browns players for PFF’s grades vs. Chargers

Joel Bitonio tops all of the offensive players for the Cleveland Browns in PFF’s grades for Week 5.

The Cleveland Browns have once again fallen victim to head coach Kevin Stefanski’s hubris. The Browns pooched a potential win with field mismanagement and play-calling, giving the Los Angeles Chargers a win after a pretty decent back-and-forth outing.

You would think that Stefanski’s inability to get the plays right would be affecting the Browns. That’s just not the case. The Browns’ offense is one of the most effective in the league and if Stefanski would stop giving Kareem Hunt reps that belong to Nick Chubb and would stop leaning so hard on analytics, this offense may have led the Browns to a 5-0 start.

Sadly, in all three of the losses, and one of the wins, Stefanski coached his team out of a win (or almost). Yet, the players on offense are exceeding expectations across the board. Especially looking at their PFF grades.

Now for some context, you’re hoping for at least a grade in the mid-60s. If you get that, you’re doing enough right. So anything over that is good, to great, to exceptional. Anything under is bad. Obviously, there are different degrees of bad, just like there are different degrees of good. So how did the Browns grade out for just the Chargers game? Well let’s take a look at PFF’s grades

1. Joel Bitonio – 93.1 OFF
2. David Njoku – 86.3 OFF
3. Wyat Teller – 84.1 OFF
4. Amari Cooper – 77.6 OFF
5. Ethan Pocic – 77.0 OFF
6. Donovan Peoples-Jones – 74.8 OFF
7. Michael Dunn – 71.3 OFF
8. Jedrick Wills – 71.1 OFF
9. Jacoby Brissett – 70.5 OFF
10. Hjalte Froholdt – 66.3 OFF
11. Kareem Hunt – 64.2 OFF
12. Pharaoh Brown – 58.7 OFF
13. Jack Conklin – 58.6 OFF
14. David Bell – 56.0 OFF
15. Anthony Schwartz – 53.5 OFF
16. Harrison Bryant – 39.9 OFF

Three things to note about the Cleveland Browns after the Chargers game

1. Ethan Pocic may be good enough

I had issues with the Ethan Pocic signing and while I may not be sold on him as a full-time starter, he’s looked good, and his grades have improved just about every week he’s been starting. That said, tougher opponents await on the horizon to see if he’s truly what he appears to be.

2. Kareem Hunt is declining

Kareem Hunt’s play has been declining since his rookie year, at least if you believe PFF. He had an 82.1 as a rookie, an 81.6 his next year, 76.7 in year three, 74.4 in both years four and five, and now in year six he’s only posting a 67.3. Moreover, his play this year has declined as well. Going from a 67.5 in Week 1 to a 64.2 in Week 2. PFF doesn’t rely on stats, just performance when given a chance. So this should be very concerning, as the excuse of “well he splits reps” really doesn’t matter. If anything, his numbers should be significantly better because he isn’t used as much. They’re not.

3. Jack Conklin hasn’t returned to form yet

Jack Conklin missed mostly a full year due to surgery and you can tell by his up-and-down play. In Week 3, his first game back in nearly a year, he posted a 69.0, followed by a great 77.0 in Week 4. Week 5 was a different beast, seeing him drop to 58.6. Conklin may be the best all-around lineman the team has, assuming he’s going to return to form. So seeing the uneven play, for now, can be attributed to his recovery and need to readjust. Especially against a blitz-happy team like the Chargers.