Newsletter: Data Tells All, Myles Garrett Bullies, and Mike Hall Has Moments

How the data tells an accurate 2024 story and two Browns' defensive lineman worth watching yesterday.

(Photo - Cleveland Browns)

I wish you good morning and hope this Monday finds you surviving on caffeine or your stimulant of choice. As Browns fans we’re in a tough spot and I tried to describe it last night on the BFB Post-Game Show as best I could. We want the Browns to compete and play the game the right way, but we also know that losing in the middle of the final stretch of a 3-10 season is necessary. The highest draft pick possible is all that matters from last week until April. The higher the pick, the more the opportunity that comes with it.

But we haven’t been here since 2017. And by “here” I mean in the middle of a truly lost season. So, it’s a tough rewind to when things five months from now matter more than the action happening in December. Even in 2019, 2021, and 2022 there were late December “in the hunt” games that still mattered. This is a lost season by every definition and it comes without a “young team” label. This was a team that was supposed to compete for the division. This result is hard to process and might just leave the franchise at one of their lowest moments since the turn of 2010. That is how defeated all of it feels.

On top of the record-based results we also have the data telling us exactly what feels right in our eyes. The Browns operated an offense in 2023 that struggled through the early portions of the year, and then limped through the middle of the year without Nick Chubb and practice squad-level quarterback play. Joe Flacco’s arrival helped the product, but overall it was among the worst in the NFL. That led to serious offseason attempts to rectify it with coaching changes, personnel additions, and schematic tweaks. Even now an in-season play-caller change. Yet the results are a worse product this year and it is staggering.

We can track this today courtesy of Kevin Cole at Unexpected Points.

The issue that is underlying everything on a bigger scale is the Browns cannot lean on the rushing attack in a way that formed Kevin Stefanski’s original NFL DNA. They throw more than an offense with poor quarterback skill level should, as you can see below, and this is yielding ineffective drives that end quickly and produce too many awful turnovers.