Jerry Jeudy, Denzel Boston’s reps signal a chance: Browns offensive snap counts

The Cleveland Browns’ offense struggled in the first half, but not due to quarterback play. They shot themselves in the foot with procedural errors or penalties. Late in the second half, they were only 1-of-9 on third downs, consistently being in long third down situations. But on the final drive, with a bunch of manageable situations, they went 4-of-4 to finish a respectable 5-of-13 on third down. This is stuff to build on, giving a glimpse of maybe, just maybe, Deshaun Watson being serviceable to this offense after all.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 2 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Quarterback

• In what I’ll deem to be his best game as a member of the Browns, QB Deshaun Watson seemed to do everything right. He completed 80% of his passes, didn’t turn the ball over, was accurate, and succeeded with pressure in his face. According to Pro Football Focus, he was the team’s highest-graded offensive player with an 88.8.
• What we said about Watson before still holds true. He is in the unique position where, yes, it makes sense to give leeway to a guy who is coming off of two Achilles’ injuries as needing to get back into a rhythm. However, he also gets less leeway because we saw a bad product from him consistently prior to that. If this is the start of a turnaround, it’s up to him to continue making that happen.

Running Back

• The Browns’ running game needs to get going. Todd Monken was asked about it on Monday, and said it hasn’t been good enough. Nonetheless, Quinshon Judkins still got a solid grade from PFF, in part due to his receptions and decent pass blocking grade.

• With Dylan Sampson out, instead of giving Raheim Sanders an increased load, those backup reps were split between he and Jaleel McLaughlin.

Wide Receiver

• Here we were talking up KC Concepcion all of training camp and the preseason, and its Denzel Boston who has taken over the team. He led the team in receiving reps and had the breakaway touchdown for Cleveland. You can see how Watson likes throwing to a big target like him, giving him that degree of trust with his radius. Boston was the third-highest graded player on offense by PFF, with a grade of 69.8.
• You can see how Jerry Jeudy’s role has diminished, as he only played 59% of the snaps, third highest on the team. Jeudy slipped coming out of his break on his one target. To his credit, he helped with a block on the touchdown to Blake Whiteheart.
• Tylan Wallace received 25% of the receiving snaps for the second straight week. Isaiah Bond only played four snaps, but caught one pass for a first down.

Tight End

• We got some more involvement from Harold Fannin this week, and he continues to be a load to try to bring down. The Browns were going to have him take a snap on a quarterback tush push, but the Browns false started.
• For blocking, Fannin’s grades continue to be no good. Blake Whiteheart had a solid day in the blocking department, though, so they balance each other out a little.

Offensive Line

• This was not the best day for Tytus Howard, who had some penalties and also appeared to yield at least one sack. He was the team’s lowest-graded pass blocker this week, and was even worse in the run blocking department.
• Spencer Fano had a nice second game, grading out to a 72.9 by PFF (second-highest on offense). He received high marks in both pass and run blocking.
• Overall, the guards (Zion Johnson, 48.4 and Austin Barber, 47.0) received poor grades from PFF too. However, Barber did extremely well in pass blocking, but was lackluster in run blocking. The same goes for Johnson overall.