Newsletter: The Browns Role in the NFL's Dying Under Center Dropback Game

The Browns should be right in the middle of this nostalgic uprising.

(Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Browns)

The NFL world of schemes operates much like the fashion industry. The popular fads come and go and often they have no warning sign coming. The NFL’s offenses will notice a weakness of the league’s defenses leaning into two high safeties and adjust. Defenses will notice an uptick in motion usage and horizontal schemes and make their adjustment. It’s capricious and it doesn’t come with a warning for coaches and coordinators.

It’s their job to keep up with these trends and find solutions to what the other side is throwing their way. We’re seeing some of these battles right now in a popular fad’s disappearance from league-wide usage. That scheme is the under-center straight dropback passing game.

Once a staple of NFL offense structure, before the days of shotgun prevalence, it has slowly faded out of the league and into obscurity. It’s has become even more rare than ever in the modern NFL. Basically, if defenses notice the offense is under-center, that means run or play-action. They are trained for it and have the footwork and mental processing outlined in their prep work. That’s why when teams do the rare straight dropback pass from under-center it leaves defenses with a look of confusion for a few moments.

It’s become so rare, especially for the Browns post-Watson trade, that when it happens I was on notice. Back in Week 8 of 2023 the Browns had Watson seven-step drop from under-center two times and I was alarmed. They never did this. Both drops were designed to take advantage of how the Ravens play coverage against those under-center looks. They failed to connect on both deep throws but the vision was clear. Find a schematic wrinkle and try to exploit it.

The usage was isolated, as one would expect from an offense catering to Deshaun Watson’s shotgun preferences, but they did come back to it when Joe Flacco took over late in the season as it’s something Flacco has been accustomed to using.

The NFL has gone so heavy into the mold of play-action and shotgun passing that when you see one of these straight drops it’s like a Bigfoot sighting in the wild and just like any thrill seeker, I found myself interested in what the data tells us about the usage, how the Browns use it, and whether it will make a comeback in the near future.