LeBron James thinks the NBA season is too long
October 16, 2014Browns vs. Steelers, LAN parties, Sports Talk Radio commercials – WFNY Podcast – 2014-10-16
October 16, 2014In his latest column for ESPN dot com, NFL Insider Adam Schefter sheds some light on the fact that the Cleveland Browns are not only doing work, they’re doing work with players who largely went unappreciated when placed against their peers.
No team in the league is getting more production out of less talent than this year’s Browns, who take a 3-2 record to Jacksonville for Sunday’s game versus the Jaguars.
Cleveland’s starting quarterback, Brian Hoyer, is an undrafted free agent. Its backup running back, Isaiah Crowell, is an undrafted free agent. Its three top wide receivers — Andrew Hawkins, Miles Austin and Taylor Gabriel — are, you guessed it, undrafted free agents.
All together, the Browns have gotten 1,106 snaps from undrafted college free agents at the offensive skill positions, more than any other team in the NFL.
The Browns are presently one of two teams in the NFL to not have a first-round draft selection at any offensive skill positiong—quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end—yet lead the league in offensive efficiency. But if you thought their players were unheralded, get a load of the coaches.
Kyle Shanahan spent days wondering where he would find work after Washington let him go. Baltimore considered hiring him before giving its offensive coordinator job to Shanahan’s former boss in Houston, Gary Kubiak. Cleveland and Shanahan were stuck with each other.
Dowell Loggains struggled to land another offensive coordinator job after Tennessee fired him, being bypassed by the Giants before he accepted the quarterbacks coach position in Cleveland.
And together, two former fired offensive coordinators have keyed Cleveland’s resurgence. Shanahan has dialed up run plays on 51 percent of Cleveland’s plays — a 20 percent increase from last season and the highest rate in the NFL. The Browns lead the NFL with eight rushing touchdowns, four more than the league-low four they had all of last season.
In the business world, this is called “parsimonious.” In the football world, it’s called “about damn time.” After years of watching immense levels of crap, it’s refreshing to see what a team can do when given a scheme that fits it. Mike Pettine hasn’t tried to crow-bar the West Coast offense into the playbook. He hasn’t forced Brian Hoyer to play under center when the situation doesn’t call for it. He hasn’t tried to turn a running back into a fullback.
This team is young, raw and looking to prove a point. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the city of Cleveland talked playoffs around this same time a season ago, only to go 4-12. But I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that, after this season, the Browns will also have two first- and two fourth-rounders again in the upcoming NFL draft.
24 Comments
Great job by Shanahan and staff something I thought I’d never say a few months ago but gladly do now!
Not crazy about the backhanded compliment or the statement of “getting more production out of less talent.”
That is a false premise saying that because Hoyer, Crowell and the WRs were UDFAs, they are “less talented.” Maybe our success is that they are as or more talented than drafted guys, or that the media underestimated the team (yep), or others (scouts and personnel depts. around the league) misjudged those guys’ talent.
The world is full of backhanded compliments how else do you explain Steve? Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Personal foul #1! I’m spanking myself as we speak and I don’t mean that way either sickos.
Typical media speak: the higher the player was drafted the greater the talent; mistakes in talent evaluation don’t happen for these kinds of narratives.
ESPN is already trying to push Kyle Shanahan out of Cleveland!!!
🙂
somewhere joe banner and mike holmgren are still trying to take credit for this
hilarious. Go Browns.
It’s called Twitter where Banner trolls away!
The nightmare days of Shurmur are over.
Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary) describes talent as long patience. Start with Hoyer in your discourse.
Nothing in this article seems like it could be described as “parsimonious.” It does not mean being resourceful or maximizing output from little. It means cheap, stingy, frugal. And I’m not sure anyone in the business world says “parsimonious.”
Its funny… I dont believe (I may be wrong here) when the Browns hired Shanahan that there was a lot of talk around the NFL about what he did with Alfred Morris in Washington. Morris was a forgotten 7th round pick from Florida Atlantic… and in Shanahan’s offense exploded as a rookie. I feel like most people were giving Morris the credit?
So the Browns know how absurd it was to LEAD THE NFL IN PASSING ATTEMPTS LAST YEAR (I still cannot get over this. Weeden and Campbell. WOW)… and bring in Shanahan who has proven he can establish the running game. Sign a hungry back in Tate, take what most thought was a reach in West, use coaching relationship connections and sign Crowell. Change the blocking scheme to allow our OL to excel… and BAM! ESPN now writes about our team.
I don’t know… I guess I either don’t like the portrayal that we are getting lucky by winning with less… OR… I am just that excited that a plan actually worked for once, and I am dying to see it KEEP working, and just want them to keep writing about it!
Morris has quickly been going downhill too. 100 YPG in 2012, 79 in 2013, and 64 this year so far. I don’t get caught up in people saying we are lucky or not that good or whatever. Just win.
Time to get tickets? Only $80 right now
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what espn will never understand: the team that wins the line of scrimmage wins.
they’re equally confused about the cowboys who spent three of their last four first round picks on tyron smith, travis frederick and zack martin.
browns talent is prominent on the o-line, easily top five in the league. espn just cant bring themselves to appreciate talent there.
Absolutely. The only positive the “experts” pointed out went something like: “Look at what Shanahan did with RG3. He is going to do the same with Manziel!”.
In reality though… its what he PLANNED to bring to the running game. Dude knows how to do it. That is one thing that nobody can doubt now. Think about his Dad’s Denver teams. They were constantly producing “plug and play” RB’s. Take them in the 5th round… and they become machines.
No doubt. Too many former players OR people that love to hear themselves talk. Here is a tip…. to be a successful NFL gambler… watch and listen to ESPN all week long. Listen to all the experts opinions on the upcoming games. And fade away.
Unfortunately… that means Jags +5.5 on Sunday!
Wow. I have never seen this site. I’m buying!!! What a deal!
The guy we probably SHOULD be tipping a hat to is Phil Heckert. Sure there are some very recent moves that have been key, but he was the first guy since ’99 to successfully turn over the roster and draft decently.
Next story will be about him becomming a HC…
ESPN tends to hype what looks good on TV, not what actually wins games. For them, the point of the game is the highlight reel, when winning football involves a lot of stuff that never shows up on a highlight reel.
There’s nothing glamorous about perfect footwork and synchronized team play to open up nice holes for the running back to make 5 YPC rather than 3 YPC, but those extra 2 yards are the difference between a first down and 3rd down and 4. Defensive linemen get a little bit more attention, but only if they hit a QB.
Also highly relevant is that most of the key stuff that non-QB players do takes place away from the ball, and most of the time the ESPN cameras are watching the ball. The “analysts” back at the office don’t even see the receiver who drew the attention of most of the secondary leaving the receiver on the other side of the field wide open.
also, count how many of those analysts are former offensive linemen or OL coaches.
To be fair, to the “average” sports fan “the point of the game is the highlight reel.” Sites like this aren’t populated by average sports fans, IMHO; cleveland.com is.
We were 3-2 at this point last year…and on a collision course with Brandon Weeden’s underhand flips.
Love the point about not forcing things. The RB as FB illustrates it perfectly. You want a FB, just get a gd FB.