The Opening Drive 8/19: The Browns Are Up To Something On Offense
The breadcrumbs are being laid for Week 1.
Welcome in for another Opening Drive. This fine Tuesday marks the start of the football week for the Browns as they return to action at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus for the final week of Training Camp. It’s a crucial stretch for many of the fringe names fighting for a spot on the 53-man roster, and this week will be all about identifying who has the most important game of their life when the Rams visit Cleveland this weekend.
Kevin Stefanski will speak around 1:15 PM today, addressing the team’s decision to name Joe Flacco the starting quarterback, how they plan to fold Isaiah Bond into the offense quickly, and much more. With so many talented players competing for limited roster spots, this week will be filled with fierce competition—culminating in Saturday afternoon’s matchup at Huntington Bank Field, where Browns fans finally get to see their team at home as preparations continue for the season opener just under three weeks away.
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If you haven’t been paying attention over the years, one of my favorite preseason hobbies is taking little scheme notes that I think will matter for the season’s broader plan. Stefanski is constantly trying to evolve his offense and give it modern twists that make it hard for defenses to sit on tendencies. Each preseason, the Browns will roll out a scheme or two that makes me tilt my head. This year, two plays in particular did just that. Let’s take a look.
The first was a scheme the Browns ran twice in the opening preseason game, which I documented on social media. They gave Shedeur Sanders a swing-screen pass with a center-pull concept, but they layered it with the “alert” option of throwing the backside slant if the window was open via pre-snap alignment and initial post-snap movement. Sanders threw it twice. Neither was completed, but he attempted the “option” slant throw both times.
I saw another “alert” concept against the Eagles, and the Browns ran it twice in the afternoon. Stefanski called this stock “HB Draw” concept for his running back—a delayed handoff designed to sell the pass to defenders inside the tackle box before handing the ball off to hit the vertical pass-rush creases. Nothing new there.
However, layering the concept with the ability for the quarterback to throw “alert” hitches to his two outside receivers is very new. Watch the play unfold below, where the wing tight end and center climb to the linebackers before Gabriel quickly throws the hitch to his left.
The play drew a flag for “ineligible man downfield” for a couple of reasons. First, Luke Wypler has to be a little slower coming out of his initial pass drop before climbing to the linebacker—offensive linemen cannot be more than one yard downfield on pass (RPO) concepts in the NFL. Second, and more importantly, Gabriel has to throw this without a hitch or slight delay in his decision. Timing is everything in this scheme.
The Browns went back to the concept on their next drive as well. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the hitch route Gabriel can throw if he likes the pre-snap leverage. If there’s a down corner (press coverage), then his receiver runs a takeoff route that Gabriel can also throw—as you’ll see from the “X” at the top of the screen.
The schemes just stood out to me. The Browns’ offense of late—the past few seasons, really—has been searching for “easy buttons” to push, ways to generate cheap yards. Every snap has felt like a grind, so it appears Stefanski is trying to bake in new “easy button” alert concepts that give his quarterbacks simple throws based on leverage without sacrificing the primary design. I very much approve of this approach and think it’s a strong way to pursue those cheap yards with quarterbacks who lack mobility.
Lastly, the Browns are clearly setting something up for Week 1 against the Bengals. They’ve put a string of “trick plays” on tape this preseason, consisting of two straight weeks of toss reverse plays with late “orbit” motion behind the concept. It didn’t go well in Carolina last week, but it popped for 16 yards in Philadelphia. That’s unusual for the preseason, as most teams prefer to keep these plays in their back pocket, saving them for when the games truly matter.
Pair these concepts with the “hook-and-ladder” they ran in joint practices with the Eagles, and it’s hard not to notice that they’re doing something interesting. This could amount to nothing more than forcing the Bengals to prepare for designs they won’t actually use early in the season—just a way to make them waste time on a few trick plays. Still, it does make me raise an eyebrow.
At the very least, the Browns are making the Bengals notice the variety of schemes they’re willing to run. Don’t be surprised if they pull out a trick play off this look in Week 1, perhaps with a new wrinkle added. Maybe even a pass off the reverse? Who knows. But I’m very interested to find out—because they’ve been quite intentional about showing the concept.
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Browns Film Breakdown will return later today with some type of All-22 for you to consume.
