The Cleveland Browns Approach To Defense, The Model They Are Using
The Cleveland Browns have taken an interesting approach to their defense, signing a handful of players to one year deals, especially compared to the offense where the team has made four moves that are all multiple-year moves. The moves on offense come with a sense of permanence while the defense feels temporary and there are a few good reasons for both.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski knows what he wants to do on offense and there were a lot of pieces in place to hit the ground running. The moves they made really established their identity quickly and the only major need to be addressed on that side of the ball is left tackle. They can use some depth at wide receiver, but if they can get a left tackle, this offense can be largely set for a few years.
Offense also tends to take longer to build than defense. There's so much more of an element of timing and chemistry; not just between a quarterback and his receivers but offensive linemen working together and a back getting a feel for the blocking.
There's certainly chemistry on defense when it comes to communication and getting a sense of teammates and how they execute assignments. Overall, defense is far more of an individual process. Players have to do their job in a vacuum, so adding players or changing players isn't as disruptive.
The one-year deals themselves gives the team options. A few of them, Karl Joseph and Kevin Johnson, are players that have real talent but have had injuries in their careers, so this protects them from the worst case scenario. The Browns, they hope they're great, regardless of whether they keep them or not. Certainly, they'd have the option to extend them if both sides are amenable, but if they enhance their value on the open market, the Brown benefit there as well.
The Browns aren't going to release any of these one year deals, so they will all be unrestricted free agents. If they go to other teams and the Browns aren't actively trying to add free agents (players released by other teams do not count), they will build up compensatory value for 2022.
As an example, the New England Patriots, with their free agent losses, have basically already maxed out their compensatory picks for 2021. They've lost Tom Brady, Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Elandon Roberts, Danny Shelton, Ted Karras and Nate Ebner in free agency to this point. They've signed Adrian Phillips which may cancel out Collins and the signing of Beau Allen will cancel out Danny Shelton, but the Patriots are going to end up with a boat load of compensatory picks.
The picks themselves are useful as they can use them to pick players, but the Browns may use some of their draft picks as ammunition for trades. If the Browns have a successful season this year, they may go into next year looking for pieces that make them a real contender. In that scenario, they may look at draft picks as ways to acquire established veterans from teams that either need to dump salary or are rebuilding to give themselves some finishing pieces.
The Philadelphia Eagles under Howie Roseman are outstanding at this and just acquired corner Darius Slay for a third and fifth round pick, giving him a contract extension. Andrew Berry spent last season with the Eagles and Roseman and when it came to defining aggression, this is one of the avenues to which he alluded.
If the Browns are largely set on offense, save for the left tackle, then the NFL Draft can be focused heavily on defense. That's not exactly an epiphany, but they've provided some hints in terms of how they will approach the defense in the draft.
Letting Joe Schobert walk wasn't about Schobert. If he played a more premium position, they'd have re-signed him. Everything with the draft is through the lens of value, so if a linebacker they absolutely love falls to them in the second round, they would take them. But practically speaking, look for the Browns to add linebackers in round three and later, simply looking at players to fill specific roles.
Their premium draft picks are going to be focused on adding to the defensive line and secondary. Obviously, the safe assumption is the Browns will use their first pick on an offensive tackle this year, but particularly corners and defensive linemen on first and second round contracts are excellent cost savers for high end talent. And for the defensive line in particular this free agency period, mediocre players are landing lucrative deals. The Browns could theoretically land a defensive lineman that can impact the quarterback in the second round that costs pennies on the dollar for four years.
Outside of Myles Garrett, Sheldon Richardson and Denzel Ward, the Browns have few assets that make a real impact on the salary cap and figure to be on the team for the foreseeable future. There are players they hope can rise to that level, but that also fits into the plan on defense.
If they can draft well, the Browns will find talent on defense that will be on rookie deals. They will keep some, but will end up letting many walk in order to repeat the process. That's the challenge for defensive coordinator Joe Woods. He and his staff will be given a ton of players in the form of draft picks and cheap free agents, but he has to try to integrate them quickly in order to put the best product on the field.
Obviously, having a consistently great defense is the goal, but the nature of this strategy is attempting to create runs. The offense must be great. And certainly the Browns appear to have the tools to do just that, but the offense led by Baker Mayfield is the engine of the team. The defense is always going to be a slight disadvantage, being subject to so much more volatility in personnel, but on the right run, they can enable the Browns to win a Super Bowl.
It's a plan that's been executed before and won a Super Bowl. Before coming to the Browns as part of Sashi Brown's regime, Andrew Berry spent seven years with the Indianapolis Colts and worked with Bill Polian. He executed this plan that enabled the Colts to win the Super Bowl in 2006.
Their offense had Peyton Manning, Tarik Glenn, Jeff Saturday, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai. That was obviously the team's engine that allowed them to cruise through the regular season on a yearly basis.
Their defense cost next to nothing in terms of salary. And only a few of them were past their rookie deals. Booger McFarland was their big addition in the offseason from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the final piece of the defensive puzzle. Six of their starters were draft picks still on their rookie deals, including Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Antoine Bethea, Cato June, Jason David and Gilbert Gardner. Gary Brackett was an undrafted free agent, who was starting and the team had also drafted Marlin Jackson in the first round to supplement their secondary in 2005.
The defense played pretty mediocre football in the regular season, but came together to play really well during the playoffs, which was enough for Peyton Manning and the offense to win the Super Bowl. The teams won't look the same, but this is the model of team building the Browns are trying to employ, hoping to achieve the same result.
