Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets

Browns Wire Roundtable: Who are you most excited to watch in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game?

Who are you most excited to watch as the Browns take on the Jets in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game?

We have finally arrived. We have real live Cleveland Browns football tonight as they take on the New York Jets in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. We will get to see the 2023 NFL draft class in the brown and orange for the first time, and while most of the veterans will sit this one out, we will get to see those fighting for a roster spot have the opportunity to shine.

In this edition of Browns Wire Roundtable, the staff discusses who we are most excited to watch as the team takes the field in Canton, Ohio tonight.

LOOK: Browns drop their first official depth chart on the heels of Pro Football Hall of Fame game vs. Jets

The Browns have released their first depth chart of the 2023 season!

We are now just two days away from live Cleveland Browns football after a strong first week of training camp at The Greenbrier in West Virginia. Next up: they prepare to take on the New York Jets in the Pro Football Hall of Fame game. While the starters and high-paid players are unlikely to see the field in Canton, this will be a great opportunity to see the rookies and young players who are battling for roster spots on the final-53.

And on the cusp of their preseason opener, the Browns have also released their first depth chart of the 2023 season. Let’s take a look at each position broken down by their slot on the depth chart.

Joe Flacco will start at QB for the Jets vs. the Browns

Flacco has a 17-3 career record vs. the Browns as a starter but none of those have come since 2018

When the New York Jets roll into FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday, a familiar face will be leading them into Cleveland’s home opener.

Jets coach Robert Saleh indicated that veteran Joe Flacco will be the starting quarterback for Week 2, per Rich Cimini of ESPN. Flacco will start in place of injured Zach Wilson.

There was some thought the Jets would switch to Mike White after Flacco had a poor outing in the Jets’ punchless 24-9 loss to the Ravens in Week 1. the 37-year-old threw the ball 59 times, completing 37 for just 307 yards. He was sacked three times and threw an interception as well as a touchdown.

But it’ll be Flacco, the longtime Ravens starter, trying to take flight against Joe Woods’ defense. The Browns have not had much success against Flacco, who owns a 17-3 record vs. Cleveland as a starter. None of those have come since he left the Ravens following the 2018 season, however.

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Browns PFF grades in Week 16 pass the eye test of losing to the Jets

Outside of Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson, the PFF grades are deservedly low

The Pro Football Focus grades for games don’t always pass muster with the eye test. The PFF evaluators sometimes see things with different eyes than the fans or the media. It’s often neither right nor wrong, just different.

Not in Sunday’s Browns loss to the New York Jets.

The PFF game grades for Cleveland reflect the game notes and rewatch observations. In essence, Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson and Joel Bitonio played well, David Njoku should have played more, Nick Harris had a terrible debut start, and Sheldrick Redwine probably shouldn’t play again.

First, the good…

Vernon and Richardson were the two highest-graded Browns on either side of the ball. Vernon earned his 88.0 overall with eight QB pressures, one sack, three tackles and impressive all-around play at end. Richardson also fared quite well at DT, posting an 81.7 grade. That was brought down by a missed TFL opportunity, but Richardson dominated the Jets aligned across from him consistently.

Bitonio was the top Dawg on offense with a 75.8. That marks the lowest “best” for the Browns offense all season, even in the dismal early-season losses to the Ravens and Steelers.

David Njoku was the only non-lineman to top 70. The tight end played just 31 snaps and was effective as both a receiver and a run blocker. His grade would have been much higher if not for a blown assignment in one of his two pass protection reps. In a game where both Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant scored in the low 50s — a grade that feels too high for Bryant — Njoku needed more run.

Bryant wasn’t the only rookie to earn a low grade. Nick Harris bottomed out with a 50.6 in his first start at right guard. His pass-blocking grade of 28.9 brought back bad memories of Shon Coleman’s regrettable Browns era. Jets DT John Franklin-Myers dominated Harris off the snap on passing plays.

Then there’s Redwine. In just 12 snaps he earned a putrid 26.8 grade. There was some hope the second-year safety could build off a solid performance against the Giants in Week 15 but he bottomed back down to the unacceptable level of play he showed earlier in the season.

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Snap count notes and observations from the Browns loss to the Jets

Lots of players hit season-highs in action out of necessity

There were a lot of unfamiliar faces playing prominent roles in the Cleveland Browns’ Week 16 loss to the New York Jets. The team snap counts reflect just how depleted the roster was by a combination of injuries and a last-minute COVID-19 situation that sent six players to the reserve list less than 20 hours before kickoff.

As an example, Ja’Marcus Bradley was on the field for 77 of Cleveland’s 81 offensive snaps. The wide receiver had played 15 total snaps all season before Sunday’s game. Marvin Hall, who started at WR for the Detroit Lions in Week 12, played 74 in his first action in Cleveland.

Nick Harris got his first career start at right guard and went the distance. Kendall Lamm also earned ironman status at left tackle.

Nick Chubb out-snapped Kareem Hunt at RB, 47 to 35. The two were on the field together for the Browns’ first offensive snap and then divvied up the rest of the game.

Tight end David Njoku seemed poised for a bigger role with his WR-like skills, but he saw his normal level of action at just below 40 percent of the snaps. Rookie Harrison Bryant had 67 at tight end, more than Austin Hooper (59) and Njoku.

On defense, four players never left the field: CBs Denzel Ward and Terrance Mitchell, safety Karl Joseph and end Olivier Vernon. All played all 69 snaps.

Myles Garrett played 58 as he continues to struggle with the lingering effects of his COVID-19 infection. Mack Wilson, a healthy scratch in Week 15, was forced into playing almost half the reps on defense (32 of 69). Elijah Lee and Tae Davis also made rare appearances at linebacker. Normally they strictly play on special teams, but Lee had three reps on defense, Davis two.

Browns run game failed when the team needed it the most

The Browns got away from what works best and it cost them against the Jets

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The Browns ran the ball 18 times for 45 yards against the New York Jets. Those figures represent a season-low for the mighty Cleveland rushing attack.

It came in a game where the team figured to lean on the run. With the top four wide receivers all out due to a COVID-19 snafu and two inexperienced offensive linemen were thrust into action, an offense built around the prodigious talents of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt figures to be the one chance for the Browns offense to survive.

Instead, Baker Mayfield threw the ball 53 times. Hunt got just four carries, netting 11 yards. Chubb had a brutal day, managing just 28 yards on 11 carries and going down on first contact on almost every attempt.

Was the blocking good? No, no it was not. Rookie RG Nick Harris was badly overmatched by Jets DT John Franklin-Myers. Replacement left tackle Kendall Lamm and TE Harrison Bryant both whiffed on some blocks, too. There was very little room for Chubb and Hunt to run, but they didn’t exactly attack aggressively up the field either.

Was the game script favorable to running the ball? No, it was not either. But early in the game it was, and the Browns consciously chose to emphasize the pass. The first two drives featured nine passes and two Chubb runs. The Jets loaded the box ready for the run, but that has been a situation where Chubb can break the big play. The Browns didn’t stick with it, not even when the score situation favored the ground-and-pound.

It was a tactical error by the Browns coaching staff and Kevin Stefanski. The Browns have thrived all season by hitting big plays on the ground and setting up play-action off that. On a day with no receivers with any experience and a Jets defense missing its best player (DT Quinnen Williams) on the front, it was a poor choice.

It’s not the only reason the Browns lost. Mayfield fumbling on the final two drives was a killer, as were the inexcusable blown coverages that led to the Jets’ TD passes in the first half. But the run game was the one real chance the depleted Browns had to win the game, and they barely tried it.

Kevin Stefanski: Not having receivers is no excuse in Browns’ loss to Jets

Coach Stefanski refuses to make excuses for the Browns’ loss to the Jets

Losing your entire group of starting receivers less than 24 hours before a game is certainly less than ideal. And judging by the result of the Browns’ 23-16 loss to the hapless New York Jets, they could have used Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins and Dovonan Peoples-Jones.

Although the Browns were without their top three pass catchers, head coach Kevin Stefanski preached that was no excuse to lose to a team that came into the game with a 1-13 record.

“That has nothing to do with the result of this game,” Stefanski told reporters after the game. “We got beat. We had plenty of guys. We had all of the guys we needed and we didn’t get it done.”

The Browns’ three fill-in receivers, Marvin Hall, Derek Willies and Ja’Marcus Bradley, combined for six catches for 72 yards on 13 total targets. Bradley accounted for the majority of that total with his 60 receiving yards on five receptions.

With a combination of miss throws, dropped passes and incorrect routes ran, Baker Mayfield finished 28-of-53 for 285 yards and no touchdowns. Stefanski still insisted on the absence of his three starting receivers was not the reason the Browns lost.

“I think you’ll talk to Baker shortly and he’ll agree with what I am telling you guys,” Stefanski said. “We had all of the players we needed. We had plenty of [guys] active. We trusted the guys that we were playing today. That’s why they’re Cleveland Browns. That’s not the story here.”

Before the game, the Browns spent the morning in a parking garage adjacent to the team hotel running through their walkthrough which was canceled yesterday. Although Cleveland’s fill-in receivers Marvin Hall, Derek Willies and Ja’Marcus Bradley had yet to see game action all year, they were prepared for this afternoon’s game.

“It was a little too late in the week to wholesale change everything and we didn’t need to,” Stefanski said. “Those guys were in all the meetings. They were at the walkthroughs and at practice. They understood the plan.”

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5 quick takeaways from the Browns brutal loss to the Jets

The depleted Browns couldn’t quite handle the 1-win Jets

The Cleveland Browns picked a very bad time to have a very bad game. Down several key starters due to injuries and a COVID-19 contact tracing outbreak that crippled the offense just hours before kickoff, the Browns fell to the 1-win Ney York Jets, 23-16.

Cleveland falls to 10-5 with the gut-wrenching loss, losing control of the top Wild Card seed in the process.

It was a tough game to watch. The Browns offense was badly neutered by missing left tackle Jedrick Wills, right guard Wyatt Teller and the top four wideouts on the roster. The Jets, to their credit, played solid on defense and made just enough plays on offense to capture their second win in a row.

The Cleveland Browns inactives for Week 16 vs. Jets

Only 4 inactives but plenty of roster shuffling

Shorthanded doesn’t begin to describe the Cleveland Browns’ status entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET kickoff with the Jets in New York. The sparse inactive list reflects the Browns’ roster issues caused by a late outbreak of contact tracing and injuries.

The inactives list doesn’t include the multitude of players placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list over the weekend. That group includes Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins and the receiving corps as well as LBs Jacob Phillips and B.J. Goodson.

Just four players are inactive:

S Tedric Thompson

T Jedrick Wills Jr.

G Wyatt Teller

DE Joe Jackson

Wills is out with an illness and Teller was already ruled out with his ankle injury.

Jedrick Wills ruled out vs. Jets with an illness

Kendall Lamm will take over for Wills

The Jedrick Wills roller coaster stopped at the bottom of the track after a crazy week. Wills will miss the Cleveland Browns game against the New York Jets with an illness.

The team revealed the illness and announced the move on Sunday morning just hours before kickoff. It means the Browns will roll with third-string Kendall Lamm as the starting left tackle in New York.

Wills was placed on the COVID-19 list during the week because he was deemed a close contact with someone who tested positive. Wills cleared COVID-19 protocols on Saturday and was activated, and the rookie LT traveled with the team to New York.

Alas, he will miss the game now anyway. And with backup Chris Hubbard on injured reserve with a major knee injury suffered last week, the job falls to Lamm.

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