Newsletter: Duce Staley Provides Key Insights Into 2025 Offense Plans
Some necessary confirmation and three important quotes.
We are in the slow period, folks. We will be doing plenty of previewing in the coming weeks to prepare for late July’s Training Camp and with that comes projections and . Inside that previewing will be developing what this offense will look like based on former editions before 2024 and snippets of snaps we have seen from the group during the June team periods.
While they have hinted around a desire to revert to who they were before the experiment in baseline scheme we saw last year, particularly from the veteran offensive lineman, it has yet to be confirmed in any meaningful way. I have been on the search for more information since the decision came to remove Ken Dorsey and overhaul their offensive line approach.
Mike Bloomgren’s hire was a key indicator in the process, and upgrading Tommy Rees into the coordinator role spoke to Stefanski’s return to calling plays, but there are always nice pieces of information that come from the position coaches time with the media. They tend to get a little more candid.
Let’s look at three quotes from running backs coach Duce Staley that really caught my attention. Some of them in a good way and some that have me slightly concerned.
Asked what excites him about this group in their desire to rebuild their running game.
“All offseason we talked about just rebuilding the run game as far as going back to day one when Kevin got there, going back to when he was in Minnesota, running wide zone. That’s one of our staples that we’re going to stick to and we have the backs for it.”
This is the biggest takeaway from the session. Sure, I have been telling you guys for about six months they will be returning to more of what got them here from Kevin’s Cleveland arrival but it is always good to hear it out loud. Staley letting this loose tells us that wide zone will return beyond just the obvious gap schemes that Bloomgren specializes in over the years. He will tap into his time spent with Bill Callahan in his previous NFL tenure and get the Browns back into the right kind of baseline for their running game and then stem into the play-action preferences. I will cover this for you in detail again in the coming month but feel confident they will be going back to what they know best and hopefully expanding they stylistic nature of how they use it. Also, Staley, and those making draft decisions, feel their two young backs fit that criteria well.
Asked about development from Dylan Sampson through OTA and Minicamp.
DS: “Dylan has been meeting with C.O. (WR Coach Chad O’Shea) in there and going over some of the receiver splits and routes and just being able to just take his game and expand it. It’s been awesome.”
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