The Opening Drive 10/7: Despite the Negative, Signs of Life Were Found in Browns Week 5 Offense
Two throws from Dillon Gabriel that should provide optimism.
Look, I tore down the Browns’ offense yesterday about as bluntly as I could. I think, for the most part, the passing game is a wreck right now — and it’s not being driven exclusively by player issues. That’s concerning. My takes are out there; you can find them all below in case you missed any. But for now, I want to spend some time on the positive — Dillon Gabriel’s debut. In a tough road environment, against a well-rested opponent and one of the NFL’s best defensive minds, he held his own.
Kevin Stefanski spoke about Gabriel’s performance on Monday:
“Yeah, a lot of positives. Obviously can always be better, and certainly we as an offense have to be better and score more to help this football team. But for, you know, a young player in that environment versus that defense to take care of the ball, make the plays he made, I thought there were a lot of positives with plenty to clean up. And that’s what he will do. That’s the mentality he has — certainly to be a player that continues to get better week in and week out.”
There were some issues, no doubt — and I documented those — but for an offense with a massive left tackle problem, he handled the little things quite well. He played on time, he felt out key offensive-line mistakes to minimize losses, and he kept the Browns out of bad down-and-distance situations as best he could. Let’s look at two throws that stood out.
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The first throw that stood out was them gem on a tight spacing “smash” concept where Gabriel is reading the cornerback’s hi/low to make his choice. If the corner is low, you hit the corner route from David Njoku. If he is deep, you take the speed out to Jerry Jeudy underneath. The corner does a great job playing the midpoint and forcing this throw to the only spot it could be. Gabriel layered it in above the reach of the corner and Njoku high-pointed the ball well.
The Browns went to a two-man route primary in the low redzone where the left side concept (vertical, speed out) was never going to happen so he comes off the left side and works to his middle read and layers this around pressure in front of him to Njoku perfectly. This is what you want to see your shorter quarterback prove he can handle.
The offense is covered in deep detail if you want more analysis. Make sure to check out the full All-22 analysis and the 4th Quarter breakdown specifically.
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Browns Film Breakdown will return later today with All-22 on the defense.
