Despite the Cleveland Browns being outscored in their first two games of the 2025 regular season, they really want to play 12 personnel football, with two tight ends on the field and only two receivers out wide. So far, their tight end usage is pretty staggering.
Their most-played tight end, David Njoku, has been on the field for 83 percent of offensive snaps so far this year. That’s more than any Browns offensive skill player other than quarterback Joe Flacco (95 percent), receiver Cedric Tillman
(91 percent) and receiver Jerry Jeudy (88 percent).
Behind Njoku is rookie Harold Fannin, who has played 68 percent of the Browns’ offensive snaps. That’s good for more than any running back on the team or a third receiver. For perspective, the top snap-earner out of the backfield is Jerome Ford, who has only been on the field for 51 percent of snaps. The third-most-played receiver for Cleveland is undrafted rookie Isaiah Bond, who has only been on the field for 33 percent of snaps.
Generally, Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley likes to match defensive personnel to offensive personnel. If the offense has three receivers on the field, something the Browns do at a very low rate relative to the rest of the NFL, he’ll play some sort of nickel subpackage. If the opposing offense only throws out two receivers, he’ll usually just line up in base defense.
So for Sunday’s game, expect a whole lot more of base defense from the Packers than we’ve seen recently. Last week, Green Bay only played six reps of their base 4-3 defense, with three of those six snaps coming in the first four plays of the game against the Washington Commanders.
This opportunity should be a bit of an unboxing for how the Packers play on using Micah Parsons in base sets, too. For the most part, Parsons has been playing in nickel and “cheetah” looks for Green Bay. Of the 23 snaps that the Packers have lined up in their 4-3 looks this year, Parsons has only been on the field seven times (30 percent). In nickel and cheetah looks, Parsons has been on the field for 70 of 112 snaps this year (63 percent).
We’re in a little bit of uncharted territory here, considering how spread out Washington’s offense played Green Bay. The good news? The Packers have a “mini-bye” to prepare for the Browns, as Green Bay is coming off of Thursday Night Football.
We haven’t seen Parsons playing a linebacker position yet for the Packers, something he did a lot of with the Dallas Cowboys and in college. If Green Bay wants to get Parsons on the field with Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness at the same time in Week 3, considering the Browns’ plan of action on offense, then Parsons is probably going to have to play some backer this week. If not, one of those players will have to be on the bench in 4-3 packages.
