The Cleveland Browns’ defense played much better this week. It still was far from perfect, but I saw what I believed to be more man coverage, more blitzes, and obviously more times getting home to the quarterback. Now, I’d also say that Tampa Bay executed far less efficiently than Jacksonville did, but that happens in the NFL sometimes.
There’s still work to be done, but for at least one week, it’s refreshing to see a coaching staff that doesn’t say, “I don’t care, I’m not changing my philosophy.”
Lack of adapting is something that has frustrated me with Browns coaches over the years, even with Jim Schwartz to a degree. Let’s see if it continues.
Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 2 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Defensive Line
- Jared Verse logged his first quarterback hit for Cleveland, and it was a better performance than Week 1, but through two games, he hasn’t flashed the same potential he did with the Rams.
- Mason Graham turned in his second straight solid effort, showing to be a consistent force up front. He received a PFF grade of 70.7, and logged his second sack of the season.
- Maliek Collins was back to his starter-level reps, while Adin Huntington’s reps took a hit. That’s something I called for last week, and it came to fruition. Grade-wise, both players still really struggled, so it’ll be interesting to monitor whether Collins can get back to being the dominant force he was a year ago.
- Kudos to Isaiah McGuire, who had a solid all-around game and graded out to a 71.0 by PFF. I even saw him in coverage once. Derek Barnett has also been a good veteran presence thus far for depth.
Linebacker
- We still haven’t seen the lights-out play from Carson Schwesinger, but this was also better than a week ago, and I also made mental note of his one tackle for loss, and then being the guy to close in on Baker Mayfield after that long lightning delay to prevent him from escaping.
- Per PFF, Quincy Williams graded out to a 78.9, third-highest on the team despite a lower tackling grade.
Cornerback
- This was a great day for the Browns’ cornerbacks. Tyson Campbell played hurt and had to leave a couple of times, but Denzel Ward and even Myles Harden stepped up huge. Harden, in arguably his best game, logged his first career interception and received a team-high 90.6 grade from PFF. Ward was a close second with a grade of 90.4.
- After that group, though, it’ll be interesting to see if Cleveland continues to look at their depth. Will we see Michael Coats called up at some point?
Safety
- Besides Jared Verse, the most disappointing defender through two games has to be Ronnie Hickman. He had several bad looks in the open field, which I get is much easier said than done to make those plays, but the angles, pursuit, and execution weren’t there. He did register his first career sack, but also let Mayfield get away a couple other times.
- Emmanuel McNeil-Warren also remains a small part of the defense. He played 15% of the snaps again, but I didn’t even know he was out there. These stats don’t reflect special teams, but it is worth calling out that he had 3 tackles on special teams.
