Where’s Johnny?
September 18, 2014Isaiah Crowell signs with Under Armour
September 18, 2014After the small sample size that is two weeks of the NFL season, the Cleveland Browns are 1-1 and rank fifth in the league with 53 points scored, but could it be possible they’ve been the NFL’s best offense?
The guys at ProFootballFocus.com think so. Despite ranking 21st in yards per play, the Browns top the ProFootballFocus list of highest graded offenses through the first two weeks. For those unfamiliar with PFF, the website watches every play for every team and gives each player a grade on how well they executed their role on that play. Here’s a bare bones explanation from the guys at PFF.
The goal of our detailed grading process is to gauge how players execute their roles over the course of a game by looking at the performance of each individual on each play. We look beyond the stat sheet at game footage to try to gain an understanding of how well a lineman is blocking on a given play, how much space and help a runner is being given on a play, how effectively a pass rusher brings pressure or how well a defender covers a receiver.
The Browns have been without Ben Tate and Jordan Cameron for almost all of the first two games—and everyone is familiar with the absence of Josh Gordon—but thanks to stellar offensive line play and great play calling the Browns’ offense hasn’t missed a beat.
Kyle Shanahan’s offense has the second highest run blocking grade of any team and the fourth best pass blocking grade which propel them to the top of the list. As for the team’s passing and running grades, those are more average, ranking 10th and 13th respectively. Throw that all together, along with the lack of penalties and the oddest statement of the 21st century can be formed: The Cleveland Browns have been the NFL’s best offense.
The players standing out with the highest grades are: John Greco, Joe Thomas, Andrew Hawkins, Joel Bitonio, Alex Mack, and Jim Dray.
In case you’re wondering about the play of Brian Hoyer, the Cleveland QB grades out as PFF’s 26th best signal caller through the first two weeks.
Following Cleveland in PFF’s ranking of top offenses are New Orleans, Detroit, Baltimore, and Denver.
27 Comments
short answer: No
No matter how much I might might dislike my job at times, I can take comfort in the fact that my job is not to watch every play of a football game and grade every player. I think the novelty of that would wear off somewhere around the second series.
I don’t know. If you’re doing analysis, wouldn’t it be awesome to think “I’m getting paid to analyze football!”?
I finally bit the bullet and paid for PFF today. (WOO!) Hawkins has been stellar in just about every category. It was also interesting to see that Schwartz (!) and Thomas rate highly for pass blocking but low for run blocking, while Bitonio hasn’t done as well pass blocking but has been stellar as a run blocker.
Man what a wierd thing to read after the preseason.
I’m glad none of us panicked.
Welcome to the vortex. I find the line grades to be the most beneficial—we can always compare receiving/rushing yards, but how can we tell who was the anchor in a play that allowed those yards to happen? PFF is a great resource.
I don’t know. It just seems to me that analyzing every molecule of sports takes a lot of the fun out of them. I wouldn’t want to do it. But I guess for others it would be a sweet gig.
Amen. That and the D analysis, including missed tackles (Kruger and Dansby have four each, and the rest of the team has a bunch. Ugh.) and coverage stats, which are often surprising.
I agree, but I still find it fascinating that one can even make the argument while (as mentioned yesterday) ESPN finds exactly ZERO players, kicker, or defense worthy of starting in a fantasy football format (including a returning Cameron).
http://www.globalclimatescam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dont-Panic-Again.jpg
Start = dependency you can’t depend on any Browns offensive player after two games. This isn’t difficult to understand.
Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooots of games left!
I really hope they have specialities. An analyst who grades the WRs, a separate one for TEs, etc. Still sounds tedious as all crap to me too.
sure seemed like we could depend on Austin, Barnidge and Hawkins that last drive. and, do you think we cannot depend on West and Crowell?
that last drive right there proves my point. you can’t have a fantasy roster that depends on one drive let alone a last drive. at least not mine.
West and Crowell are getting closer but they split carries so that hurts fantasy value IMO. Right now if I had to pick one I’d go with West. I lost not one, not two but three fantasy backs last week and I didn’t add either West or Crowell. I went with Knile Davis, Darren Sproles and Ahmad Bradshaw. Davis might start this week for me.
I love loot.
you don’t seem to be understanding my point. that is okay.
in fantasy, you want a guy who dominates stats no matter what it does to the offense (hello, 2013 Josh Gordon). in football, it’s nice to have a guy who can do that (Graham), but sometimes better to have a whole mess of guys you can depend on and utilize.
You were able to get Davis, sproles AND bradshaw in waivers?! I want in your league
I think it is you who is not getting the point but that’s okay too!
This was in more then one league but surprisingly Davis and Bradshaw were available in most of them. Sproles only a few.
Not what I heard on Twitter!
Latest thought about Hoyer: while his good hasn’t been great, his bad hasn’t been terrible.
Working theory for about a decade: rather than focus on the best aspects of a football players performance, attention needs to be paid to the worst aspects. We need more low-light reels.
Conclusion: Not being disastrous has thus far made Hoyer the best Browns QB since Bernie Kosar.
SUPERBOWL!
He was using a Minnesota accent.
No Fantasy Team has ever lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
Use them however they most benefit the orange and brown.
This is the NFL, not the dungeons and dragons football quest.
Go Browns!
More hype for the one-win hype throne!
the greatest risk to the season is depth at o-line. the browns surely have the three studs o-line in place having wisely invested two #1s and two #2s there.
it has been scientifically proven that three stud o-lines go to super bowls more often than not. the outliers are the late 90s vikes (15-1), late 60s rams (32-7-3), and coryell cardinals (31-11)… all records we could accept. the only team in multiple super bowls without three studs were the steel curtain steelers (but i suggest that kolb and mullins were actually studs and never went to a pro bowl because they played on teams like the 78 steelers that was already sending 10 players to the probowl).
i am completely serious about this.