Cleveland’s defense through the first four games has not been the shutdown unit the coaching staff, keyed by defensive coordinator Joe Woods, hoped for. Even with Myles Garrett playing fantastic and corners Denzel Ward and Terrance Mithcell looking solid in coverage, the Browns hemorrhage points — 31.5 per game, 27th in the NFL.
Poor safety play has been an issue. Other than Karl Joseph’s positive day in Week 3, the duo of Joseph and Andrew Sendejo has had a negative impact on the overall defense this year. Their coverage has been a near-constant struggle for the Browns pass defense.
Many fans, and some of us in the media as well, have been calling for Woods to deploy Ronnie Harrison more. The Browns traded for Harrison late in the offseason after losing second-round pick Grant Delpit for the season due to injury.
Harrison is an experienced starter from his first two NFL seasons in Jacksonville, and he’s shown in the past to be more adept in short-area coverage and sure tackling than either Sendejo or Joseph. But he’s barely played in four games, just 25 total snaps.
Woods might want to change that with veteran QBs like Philip Rivers (Week 5) and Ben Roethlisberger (Week 6) on the upcoming schedule. They’re savvy enough to attack the weakness that has been the safety position. It makes sense to at least see what more Harrison, or even second-year Sheldrick Redwine, can do on the back end.
Here’s what Woods had to say about Harrison on Thursday when asked in his Zoom press conference about playing him more,
“I think his natural fit is probably as a strong safety, but there are positions based on what we are calling where he will have to play in the post at times. It is just something we are evaluating week to week. He is getting better. He is understanding defenses more and more each week, and we are going to really try to get him some more reps in this game and continue to do that throughout the season.”
Harrison played 11 snaps in the win over Dallas and played pretty well. If Sendejo and Joseph continue to have the coverage gaffes they’ve been suffering in the first four weeks, Harrison absolutely needs to get much more action.