The Cleveland Browns may have come up short on Monday night in Denver against the Broncos but they sure put on a show for the national audience.
Despite two talented defenses facing off, it was the passing offenses that put on a clinic as Jameis Winston nearly hung 500 yards on the Broncos’ defense along with four touchdowns (six if you count pick-sixes). While the win would have been nice, the Browns will find themselves in good standing with their draft selection.
At this point of the season, it’s better to evaluate your talent and young players and make way for development. Moreover, this is an excellent time to see if Jameis Winston can hold down the team for some time as they figure out the quarterback situation. So far, Winston has been incredibly entertaining when the season had already grown long and tiring under the previous quarterback.
So, what’s taking place as the Browns build toward a better tomorrow? Here’s a look at the snap counts from the exciting primetime game.
OT G. Ifedi
OT J. Conklin
iOL E. Pocic
iOL W. Teller
iOL J. Bitonio
QB J. Winston
It will always be a win when the offensive line can get through a game healthy and onto the next week. The left tackle situation is still in the air with Dawand Jones’ unfortunate injury and so far Jedrick Wills has not been able to make it back onto the field for a last gasp at earning a future job (in Cleveland or anywhere else).
This group only allowed three sacks to the most disruptive defense in football despite throwing it 58 times. They had done something similar the week prior against the Steelers by allowing just one sack and shutting out TJ Watt. When healthy, the Browns’ line has been excellent when combined with Winston’s pocket maneuverability.
TE D. Njoku – 92%
WR J. Jeudy – 91%
WR M. Woods – 77%
WR E. Moore – 74%
RB J. Ford – 66%
LB J. Hicks – 95%
DB G. Delpit – 85%
CB M. Emerson – 85%
CB D. Ward – 79%
DL D. Tomlinson – 76%
LB M. Diabate – 74%
DL S. Harris – 73%
DE M. Garrett – 71%
DB R. Hickman – 68%
DE O. Okoronkwo – 67%
CB G. Newsome – 64%
DB R. McLeod – 58%
LB D. Bush – 50%
Offensively, the only newcomer in the main core was Michael Woods II who replaced Cedric Tillman’s role. This was the first game in which he recorded any stat since the end of his rookie campaign in 2022, making his way back from a rocky 2023 where he ruptured his achilles working out with DeShaun Watson, and then was suspended for violating league conduct policy.
Defensively, we got a bit of an anomaly. Typically the Browns utilize more players and rotations but against Denver, we saw the starting depth chart play a majority of the game. 13 players played more than half the game, and the starting 11 all played more than 64 percent. We saw an uptick in snaps most notably for Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris, but also Ogbo Okoronko as the starting line came off the field less often than usual. The thin air may have gotten to the line as they couldn’t get to Nix who finished without taking a sack.
Ronnie Hickman saw the field plenty in replacement for Juan Thornhill. Thornhill had been trending toward out the previous two weeks after seeing less than 50 percent of defensive snaps in both games and was officially out against Denver. Outside of an explosive play to Marvin Mims and Courtland Sutton, the receivers didn’t find much room to work with and went to the run game instead.
RB N. Chubb – 34%
WR J. Thrash – 17%
WR K. Toney – 7%
Because of the clean bill of health the team had during the game and a heftier utilization of starters, there weren’t many players who didn’t get a lot of run in this game. Because of the game script, it made sense that Jerome Ford was on the field more than Nick Chubb, but for the first time their workload was nearly identical (11 Chubb touches to Ford’s 10.)
We saw some of the depth at receiver get a little more action with the injury to Cedric Tillman. Jamari Thrash finally saw some targets but Kadarius Toney only made it onto the field upon his practice squad call-up, finishing with only six snaps and no looks.