The Cleveland Browns will be the first team the Baltimore Ravens will face in the 2020 NFL season. As has happened so often over the last two decades, the Browns endured an offseason rife with change off the field. A new head coach and general manager were hired, as the team looked to finally put an end to the mediocrity and ineptitude that has plagued the franchise since they returned to the NFL in 1999.
But just how much has actually changed and what will the Ravens need to do to beat the Browns’ offense? Let’s take a look at what Baltimore can expect from Cleveland on the field on Sunday.
Browns offense
New coach Kevin Stefanski will be calling the plays to start the season for Cleveland, giving us a little insight into what should be expected.
Stefanski spent the last 14 years as a member of the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff, rising from an assistant in 2006 to offensive coordinator in 2019. We should expect the Browns to adopt many of the schemes that Stefanski deployed last season, at least from a personnel standpoint. This will be quite different from the offense that Freddie Kitchens called during his sole season in charge of the Browns.
Under Kitchens, the Browns lined up in 11 personnel on 57% of their offensive snaps. By contrast, Stefanski’s Vikings had three wide receivers on the field just 25% of the time, the lowest rate in the entire NFL. The Vikings’ preferred offensive grouping was 12 personnel, with two tight ends on the field 34% of the time. Only the Philadelphia Eagles (52%) lined up in 12 more often than the Vikings. The Browns went with this grouping on 23% of their snaps.
When it comes to playcalling, Stefanski was more inclined to run the ball than Kitchens. In neutral game situations (with the score within seven points), the Vikings ran the ball 47% of the time. The Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, and Oakland Raiders were the only teams with a higher run percentage than the Vikings. The Browns’ neutral score run rate of 41% was the 11th lowest.
With all of Stefanski’s tendencies and how Cleveland’s roster is built, we could see a little more smashmouth style of football from the Browns this season. That should help insulate quarterback Baker Mayfield some while allowing running back Nick Chubb — arguably the team’s best offensive player — to take the brunt of the workload with the hopes of hitting on big plays without the big mistakes they were known for last year.
But with the addition of tight end Austin Hooper to a receiving group that includes Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr., don’t sleep on this passing attack. They’ve got more talent than most of the teams in the NFL and it’s now a matter of getting it all to flow together properly to take advantage of those mismatches, something previous coaches and coordinators struggled to do.
We’ll see if a new coach and potentially a new scheme will change things for the Browns. But they remain a ridiculously talented team that can’t be underestimated, no matter what their final record has been.