Browns Defense Must Improve, but Some Issues May Be Chronic
The Cleveland Browns defense talked a good game heading into the season, expecting to play at a high level, but it's become painfully obvious why the unit is performing so badly, especially against the run. Inexperience is a factor, which is contributing to problems at every level on that side of the ball, but the Browns may simply lack the personnel to be consistently competitive up front due to choices the team made in the offseason.
Entering this season, there were two players on defense the Browns simply could not afford to lose to injury - Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney. The Browns have been without one or both of them in two of their five games and while they played a lot of reps against the Los Angeles Chargers, they were limited in what they could offer as Clowney continues to recover from an ankle injury he suffered against the New York Jets and Myles Garrett continues to work back from his car wreck.
Unfortunately, the rest of the defense didn't take full advantage when Garrett and Clowney were in the lineup as communication failures and missed assignments allowed the Carolina Panthers to come back and take the lead before a 58-yard Cade York field goal saved the win. The Browns melted down against the New York Jets allowing them to steal what should have been another victory.
The secondary has been better in the coverage the past three games including a solid performance against Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. Unfortunately, there are problems that have showed up throughout this season that might be uncurable.
The closer those two get back to 100 percent, the better the defense will be, but it only attempts to mask the underlying problems in the middle of this defense.
The Browns are getting even less from the defensive tackle position than they did last year, which was the worst in the league and often at the heart of the team's defensive failures in 2021. Losing Clowney and Garrett when the team was already missing Chase Winovich to a hamstring injury laid bare to how little the back end of the edge rotation has to offer.
Rookie Alex Wright was expected to be a project coming out of the University of Alabama-Birmingham and that's exactly what he is, which would be okay if he wasn't their first defensive end in off the bench. The hope is that he can use the experience he's getting this year to only develop this year, but to prepare him for a bigger impact next season. The expectations aren't as high with Isaiah Thomas, but he's got his opportunity to prove himself. Winovich may be back as soon as this week from injured reserve, but it's unlikely to be a panacea to the pass rush issues this team has. Still, he might be an improvement over journeyman Isaac Rochell.
The issues up front are causing putting the linebackers under siege. A group that has enough problems on its own has been tasked with the added challenge of taking on blocks, something only Sione Takitaki is equipped to do.
Conceptually, having Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah fly around and make plays despite being around 220 pounds sounds great, but demands that the Browns be stout up front. They aren't, so the safety sized linebacker is unable to play down hill, plays small and is struggling to make tackles.
Likewise, the team acquiring another small linebacker in Deion Jones is a reasonable gamble to make. Jones makes practically nothing in terms of money this year as the Falcons eat $17 million dollars to move him and the Browns can release him at no cost in the offseason if he's unable to return to the form he showed in 2020. For the low cost the Browns was a swap from a sixth round pick to the seventh round in 2024, I like the move while only being cautiously optimistic it will work.
I also believe the two sides have been discussing this deal since the moment Anthony Walker Jr. went down with a season-ending injury. The reason for the delay was the recovery of Jones and the time when he would be eligible to be activated, The timing of the deal looks dramatic but the Browns wanted to do the deal so Jones could get to Cleveland as soon as possible, can start learning the scheme and be ready to practice as soon as possible.
Jones is an upgrade from Jacob Phillips, who was arguably playing as badly as any linebacker in the league. With no help in sight at defensive tackle, the improvement could be marginal.
While there are no shortage of people who would like to see defensive coordinator Joe Woods fired, the replacement isn't going to be able to scheme his way out of these issues. Unless the likely interim Jason Tarver, the linebackers coach can perform the defensive tackle equivalent of alchemy, the defensive interior will remain lead dragging down this defense.
That doesn't mean Woods can't be fired. Ultimately, head coach Kevin Stefanski will have to make that call. And perhaps the Browns see someone they believe can upgrade the unit for 2023. However, I can't help but feel like Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry are telling Woods to hang in there, because they knew the position they were putting him in this season, similar to 2020 when he was tasked to build a defense largely out of spare parts. The best defensive tackles Woods has had since joining the Browns were Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi in 2020. Both have struggled since.
The Browns chose this path for 2022. Whether it was squabbling with then quarterback Baker Mayfield before he sat in limbo for a few months or an unresolved situation with the newly acquired Deshaun Watson, there was plenty of reason for free agents to avoid Cleveland last year. Likewise, the Browns wouldn't want to invest a significant amount of free agent dollars into a team that was at a disadvantage. Finding out that Watson was suspended for 11 games only made the path they chose look more prudent. The timing wasn't right.
Instead the Browns leaned into a young defensive tackle room that hadn't proven a thing, added rookies to provide edge depth and opted to stay young at wide receiver outside of the trade for wide receiver Amari Cooper. The Browns were giving these young players a chance to earn a role on the team in 2023.
Cooper and tight end David Njoku have been so good along with increasing production from Donovan Peoples-Jones that the scant contributions from Anthony Schwartz and David Bell can be overlooked. Conversely, the injuries to Clowney and Garrett put the defensive edge depth into the spotlight. The defensive tackles are failing miserably to this point.
Combined with a number of contract extensions to keep core players in Cleveland, all of which deferred money to future years, the Browns will be in position to roll over the approximately $35 million they have in adjusted cap space now to have $70 million next year. Not only will that help offset the rising costs of the extensions they signed to avoid cap hell at least for the next few years, it will allow them to continue adding to the roster rather than subtracting.
With a fully operational Watson for the 2023 season, the Browns are betting free agents will be far more interested at the prospect of playing in Cleveland, including proven defensive tackles and edge rushers that could strengthen the rotation.
An upgraded defensive tackle room and more help on the edges should provide the Browns defense that Woods envisioned when he was hired. Perhaps the struggles of this season simply become too much to bear with Woods in charge, but it at least appears as if the Browns are still willing to wait to realize that vision.
Does knowing all of that make the decisions the Browns have made more digestible? Perhaps, but it doesn't change how insufferable this group is to watch in the present with an organization that did little more than cross their collective fingers this would work. It's also easy to understand fan frustration as the team asks them to defer their dreams yet another year even if that's their most prudent path to the Super Bowl.
