Newsletter: Browns Offense Better Prepare For The Unexpected Against Saints

The recurring practice injury bug bites again, and preparing for a different Saints defense in Week 11.

(Photo - Cleveland Browns)

Welcome to the weekend, my people. I don’t know about you guys but this week was particularly brutal. Sick kids, sick parents, and just a lack of routines we are used to doing and thus one of the longer weeks I can remember. We should really think about backup parents for when we get sick. Has anyone considered this business model? Might be worth it for a young entrepreneur. Thank me later.

Speaking of debilitating situations, for the first time in a long time it felt like the Browns were in fantastic injury shape outside of the IR prognosis for Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, but even with that injury to their star linebacker, the group was collectively quite healthy. Then Friday happened and we have come to find out a key part of intrigue in the second half of the season, Mike Hall Jr., was hurt in practice and his status for not just this week, but the next few following it, are in bad shape. We know he is out Sunday but it seems there is more to come.

This trend of practice injuries is a problem for the Browns. Dawand Jones lost the back half of last season to a practice injury. Several others have also seen nagging injuries arrive during these sessions. Something philosophically is off about the energy used in these sessions or how they ramp up to the tougher parts of practice.

The NFL is difficult enough to make it through games on the injury side, these practice ones are particularly crushing.

When watching the Saints defense it is clear they lack explosive front four players. They rank in the bottom third of the NFL in pressure percentage per dropback but they get creative in blitz packages and coverage deception. Watch how difficult they make the processing from the quarterback against this bunch set.