Browns Defense Under Joe Woods is Good, has Path to be Great
From Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward to Josiah Bronson and Tim Harris, 32 different players have taken snaps on defense for the Cleveland Browns so far this season. Impermanence hasn't prevented that side of the ball from improving over the course of the year culminating in passing their biggest remaining test of the season against the Green Bay Packers.
When head coach Kevin Stefanski hired Joe Woods to be his defensive coordinator in 2020, the team spent all of its energy improving the offense save for one major move; drafting safety Grant Delpit in the second round of the NFL Draft. Delpit was penciled to start at free safety but suffered an Achilles' injury in August, ending his season before it even started.
Sure, the Browns signed a batch of temps to fill in on defense last year, hoping to find a few worth keeping. Malcolm Smith, Joe Jackson and M.J. Stewart are a few that remain from that process. Knowing the challenges ahead and despite often being outmanned, that defense was able to survive throughout the 2020 season, including a victory in the playoffs.
Woods was rewarded for his patience as general manager Andrew Berry went out and transformed the secondary, adding John Johnson III and Troy Hill in free agency, then drafting Greg Newsome in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. The team also signed Jadeveon Clowney and Takkarist McKinley to the defensive line.
None of those five players were on the field for the Browns taking on the Packers in Lambeau field, but the defense persisted. Denzel Ward, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Myles Garrett were out there, but the rest of the defense was largely made up of young players trying to prove their viability in the league, be it with the Browns or elsewhere.
One of the few starters left standing, JOK now looks like a grizzled veteran, despite only playing 12 games. And though he was unable to play this game due to COVID-19, it's a similar feeling with Newsome.
A testament to the talent Berry has acquired as well as the consistency with which this Woods and the defensive staff teaches, players are being coached up to full speed quickly, which has proven a necessity this season.
The relative youth and inexperience of this defense made it prudent for Woods to keep the scheme simple. Focusing on three coverages (match quarters, Cover-3 and Cover-1), the Browns have grown both in confidence and effectiveness regardless of the personnel they have on the field.
That doesn't eliminate the ability to innovate as illustrated early in the game against the Packers. Woods utilized a two-man front on the defensive line with just their ends putting their hands on the ground lined up wide. Instead of a declared interior, the Browns went with a UFO or amoeba approach as three or four players were floating up near the line of scrimmage. On the snap, some would attack forward and others would drop back into coverage.
Necessity being the mother of invention, the Browns were down defensive tackles Malik Jackson and Jordan Elliott due to COVID-19 and needed to find a way to generate pressure on Aaron Rodgers as well as limit the workload for their remaining defensive tackle options. They employed linebackers like Sione Takitaki, an edge rusher in college, to attack up the middle, which led to some confusion for the offensive line.
It hasn't been an entirely smooth transition this year on defense. The team was expected to have a dominant defense out of the gate and it simply didn't happen that way. John Johnson III still hasn't become the player the Browns hope he will be, still can become, but the defense endured in spite of delayed gratification.
There have been four failures this season, including games against the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots. The Browns gave up a combined 162 points in those four games contrasted against 167 combined in their other 11. Three of those poor performances were against passers that could win with their arm while extending plays with their legs, raising questions about the viability of this defense in those matchups.
The performance against the Packers provided an affirmative answer to that particular question. A depleted Browns defense held the Packers to 24 points while continuing to improve their third down efficiency, the other notable bugaboo for the defense this season.
Looking ahead to 2022, the Browns defense will get better simply by getting healthy. Myles Garrett is hampered by a groin injury. John Johnson missed a game with a hamstring injury. Troy Hill is out with a knee ailment in addition to COVID-19.
They also need to keep adding to this unit, especially on the defensive line. It starts with re-signing Jadeveon Clowney, but doesn't stop there and should be a priority in the NFL Draft at least on the edge. If Clowney's durability wasn't its own reason to keep adding talent, the Browns won't have Takkarist McKinley back next year after tearing his Achilles'.
Having Garrett along with Clowney gives the Browns the freedom to focus on adding talent they can develop while also putting them in position to succeed, enabling them to make an early impact. Having two players on rookie deals for four years behind Garrett and Clowney would be a luxury that could enable the Browns defense not be just respected but feared.
Contrast that against the defensive tackle position where the Browns have youth and need proven talent. Malik McDowell, Jordan Elliott and Tommy Togiai should all be back with the Browns next year with Elliott the most experienced of the trio, entering what will be his third season. Adding another draft pick to the mix when they need impact is counterintuitive. It could work, but it doesn't seem the best use of resources. The Browns aren't likely to make a big splash, but this is the position that stands out to spend free agent dollars.
Depending on how the Browns proceed with pending free agent safety Ronnie Harrison along with the overall importance of the position to their scheme, they will need to keep looking to add more help there. No team can have too many corners and the Browns will want to give themselves depth behind Troy Hill and Greedy Williams, who will both be in the final year of their respective deals.
With the back end of the defense having a year to fully digest the base coverage scheme and feel each other out, look for Woods to try to improve their blitz packages for next season. That would diversify how this defense can attack opponents, increasing what teams have to prepare for without really adding anything coverage-wise. It would simply mean putting in more work in straight man coverage.
The Browns have been inconsistent when they've brought pressure, giving up the lion's share of explosive plays under these looks despite only blitzing a little over 20 percent of drop backs per TruMedia and Pro Football Focus.
A combination of blown coverages and simply not getting home when sending pressure has left the Browns defense vulnerable, often exposed. Woods likes to blitz in long down and distance situations to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly, then rally to the ball, tackling it short of the line to gain.
That would be the first area where the Browns would benefit, but it expands how the Browns can disrupt opposing offenses. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah's straight line speed and explosion stood out as compelling reasons to blitz him his rookie season. Overachieving in other areas and the Browns defensive line able to create its own pressure, blitzing him became less critical. He was doing so much work as a run and chase defender, a key reason the Browns have been effective rallying to the football limiting the damage done by completed passes.
When JOK was initially drafted, it was on the heels of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers using linebacker Devin White to terrorize opponents as a second level pass rusher against athletic quarterbacks, including a dominating performance in the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.
The Browns internally compared JOK to Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers, but it's difficult to imagine White didn't leave an impression. The Dallas Cowboys and their use of Micah Parsons isn't going to be lost on the Browns either.
The other goal the Browns will have is to get Grant Delpit to be able to function in every aspect of the safety position, including the free safety role Woods envisioned him playing as a rookie. Delpit, coming off the Achilles' he suffered has improved over the course of the year with experience as well as getting further away from the injury.
If Delpit is confident playing single-high in addition to split safety roles, that would allow the Browns to further disguise their coverage looks and let John Johnson III be the versatile option envisioned when he was signed as an impact free agent opposed to solely operating as the defense's last line of defense.
There's nothing wrong with Johnson playing free safety. He has shown capable to be great at it, but if the defense can vary their looks, jump into every coverage they run including an added wrinkle of forcing the offense to identify the safety roles every play, it's one more element that provides an advantage for the defense and leads to possible mistakes for them to exploit.
It helps to illustrate why Joe Woods was not only the right person to install and lead this defense, but also understands that continuing to add and evolve that side of the ball will be critical to keep offenses off balance and stay ahead of the curve.
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