The Cleveland Browns are a year removed from a Divisional round appearance where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, they are eliminated from playoff contention & sitting at 7-9 & 4th in the division with one more game left in the season. So, where do the Browns look to get back to championship contention?
Well, the offense has been very inconsistent this year. Both OTs, Jack Conklin & Jedrick Wills, along with their RBs & Baker Mayfield have ben banged up at times this season. In a season where they held OBJ out of practice & games, started Donovan Peoples-Jones & Anthony Schwartz at receiver, Baker Mayfield couldn’t get a rhythm going at times this year.
Where should they look to improve on offense?
- Bring in a WR1 & WR3. Whether that’s through the draft, or in Free Agency, they’re going to need a couple. Jarvis Landry can’t be the teams WR1 getting the balk of the targets, and they can’t rely on Rashard Higgins, Schwartz, or Peoples-Jones at this moment.
- Add some depth at OL. If Wills or Conklin go down again next season they don’t have a lot of good guys that can step in for them. They’ve been relying heavily on Blake Hance the last two seasons, but he isn’t someone I’d consistently want blocking my future at QB.
The offense ranks 19th in PPG (20.9), 20th in total offense, along with a 39% 3rd down conversions rate & a 44% 4th down rate, which if you’ve seen any of their games, you could predict a 3 & out and be right most of the time.
Cleveland currently has a projected $39M in cap space for the 2022 off-season, along with eight draft picks in 2022. They will also have some big decisions to make, one including a Baker Mayfield extension.
Cleveland will have multiple contributing players hit FA this off-season too:
TE David Njoku
RB D’Ernest Johnson
WR Rashard Higgins
DT Malik Jackson
DE Takkarist McKinley
