The Opening Drive 8/14: Bank on Volume Headed KC Concepcion's Direction
The Browns offense will crave cheap and easy yards and Concepcion will drive those opportunities
When you spend just about every day at Browns Training Camp, some things start to take shape within offensive structure. I am going to try and relay those things over the next week and pair them with what we see from the team over the weekend in Chicago. Last week’s numbers made the case that Monken’s screen game to Zay Flowers was both a security blanket and a tool that could yield explosive plays — heavy volume, solid returns, one touchdown on 57 catches across three years. When you look at how Monken also mixed in the ground game Flowers became involved in, especially paired with the same concepts being implemented during the Browns install periods of camp, you can see how Concepcion will get the high volume needed to thrive.
Since 2023, Flowers ranks ninth among all wide receivers in rushing yards, almost entirely off jet and fly sweeps — plays where Monken hands the ball to his receiver in stride with the offensive line already turned and blockers assigned, rather than throwing him the ball into a crowd of unblocked defenders the way a screen does.
Concepcion was a frequent target of these schemes at both NC State and Texas A&M where his dynamic open field skills were on display.
Flowers has been good for chunk gains on the ground in a way he mostly wasn’t on screens, and the volume has been sustained rather than a one-year novelty. If there’s a part of Monken’s “manufactured touches” package that actually generates value rather than just target share, the sweep game is it.
The wrinkle is that Flowers never fully embraced that role as his identity. Early in his career he said plainly that he wanted the offense to get him the ball down the field more, not funnel more jet sweeps and screens his way — the sweep production was as much a function of Monken’s design as it was Flowers’s preference. Which is what makes Concepcion even more interesting and easy to see why Monken pushed for him in the most recent NFL Draft. The Browns didn’t draft a receiver who tolerates gadget touches; it drafted one whose college profile featured them as a boost to the already strong downfield profile.
As a true freshman at NC State, Concepcion carried the ball 41 times for 320 yards — 7.8 yards per carry, out of the wide receiver and hybrid positions — while also posting 71 catches and 10 touchdowns through the air. Scouts flagged him specifically for his sweep production and his effectiveness on pre-snap motion and jet-sweep handoffs, and his college usage skewed heavily to the slot, where those touches are designed from.Monken has already signaled it plans to use him that way, aiming to get the ball in his hands as often as possible — including punt returns alongside receiving work. The same manufactured-touch ecosystem Monken ran in Baltimore, applied to a player who’s been living in it since he was eighteen.
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As we’ve noted, Concepcion is a dangerous weapon wherever and however you can get him the ball and A&M didn’t really use him in the screen game enough in my opinion. He has a shiftiness when getting the ball that helps him make the first defender often miss and create that 25% more yardage beyond what the play was expected to achieve.
You can see how these schemes will mesh well with Monken’s past and how Flowers was able to take those manufactured touches and turn them into something meaningful.
Concepcion isn’t just a jet-sweep specialist forced into the league’s most trendy gadget role — my scouting report that highlight his sweep production also praise his separation ability against both man and zone coverage and his short-area suddenness as a route runner, the traits that make a dynamic receiver who can align in diverse roles more than a change-of-pace piece. The risk with a rookie who profiles this well in the manufactured-touch game is that an offense leans on it too hard in year one, using him as a joystick weapon before he’s proven he can win as a full-time route runner, the same tension that shaped how Flowers talked about his own usage two years ago. Getting easy yards in the NFL — those low-risk, high-reward types — are the hardest thing to find. They are far easier to achieve at the high school and college levels. Concepcion has the rare blend of ability as a true receiver and a gadget player who can help find those cheap yards and the Browns are treating him as such.
Monken has one proven source of created explosive value in his skill-position touches, and it isn’t only the screen game — it’s the sweep game, and the numbers back that up in a way they didn’t for the shorter passing concept. While the Browns offense cannot recrreate every piece of the Ravens success, largely missing on the heavier personnel packages this year, they do have a rookie who profiles as a more natural fit for that specific piece of the offense Monken used quite successfully in Baltimore. That matters for keeping Monken comfortable calling plays in a new organization. Whether that becomes Concepcion’s calling card or his ceiling is the more interesting question, and it’s one training camp reps showed we will see plenty of this season.
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