The Cleveland Browns will be in a key battle for draft position on Sunday when they face the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Browns come into the game having lost six of their past seven games and have not won a road
game since Week 2 of the 2024 season. The Raiders have only posted one win since Week 1, and have allowed 30 or more points in three of their past four games.
Sunday’s biggest story will be rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders getting his first NFL start, which has to have the networks kicking themselves, as the game will only be broadcast to a small portion of the nation.
On Thursday, Cleveland’s coordinators held their weekly meeting with the media, and here are the key takeaways from what they had to say about the upcoming game against the Raiders.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz
Cleveland, which has had difficulties covering tight ends for decades, faces one of the league’s best this week in Brock Bowers, who has 20 receptions for 230 yards and three touchdowns in the past three games. The Raiders also feature rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, who may be playing better than his stats indicate, according to Schwartz:
“It’s never easy when you’re facing those kinds of guys, particularly (Brock) Bowers. He might be the best pass-receiving tight end in the league right now. He runs like a wide receiver. He runs great routes, and he has great instincts to set down zones. He’s good down the field, so we’ve got our work cut out for us with him. They really missed him when he was out early in the season. Their offense really took a big step back, and now they have him back.
“(Ashton) Jeanty’s tape looks a lot better than his stats. You know, you look at his stats, he’s averaging 3.7 yards per carry, which isn’t great. But then you watch his tape, and you don’t see where that is because that guy is breaking tackles, making people miss. You know, there is like nothing to hit on him. He’s like a bowling ball out there (at) 5-foot-8 and 215, 220 pounds. He’s a power running back. I think that he’s going to be a good player. But just like every week, we’ve got to try to stop the run. We’ve got to try to force them to throw it and take his part of the run game away. They’re a really good line zone running team, and that would be a great challenge for us.”
Rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger earned Rookie of the Week honors after posting 10 tackles and intercepting a pass against the Ravens. But it was one play in particular on quarterback Lamar Jackson that stood out to Schwartz:
“I mean, (that play on Jackson) is going to be on my teach tape for how to play the zone read the way that we play it. There are a lot of different ways people play, like some people surf the defense, end, some people do a chase scrape, and some people have dedicated guys. But the way we played it there, that’s exactly how you want to play it. That’s not an average quarterback out there. (Jackson is) an open field nightmare. You could just see Carson just load up pressure out there, took proper leverage, got off the block, started the game with that. They didn’t go back to it as the game went on, and I think that had a lot to do with it.
“There are a lot of players over the next however many years that are going to see that play, because anytime you put plays like that on tape, coaches use that to say, like, ‘OK, this is the technique we’re talking about. This is how we want it to be played. Hey, let’s take a look at some plays on tape.’ We call them teach tape plays, and that was one of them.”
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees
Browns Nation’s long nightmare is finally over now that quarterback Shedeur Sanders is getting practice reps with the first-team offense. So Sanders should be ready to rip it against the Raiders, yes? Rees cautioned about letting expectations get away from everyone:
“(We) certainly don’t try to put any sort of expectation on guys, especially young players. You know, I think we’re about our process and about what drives that process. Certainly, you look at having a full week of prep, a full week of game planning, a full week of him being in the forefront of your mind as a coach. And he knows that as a player, you hope that all those things benefit and come to fruition on Sunday.
“Expectations – I would say we try to limit those. It’s more about, ‘hey, we’re going to pour this whole week into making sure that you feel comfortable and confident,’ and our goal and our job is to make sure that he gets that feel and gets ready to go on Sunday.”
Cleveland’s offense is going to have to deal with Las Vegas defensive end Maxx Crosby, who is coming off a game where he earned a pass-rush grade of 90.4 from Pro Football Focus, his highest of the season.
To counter him, the Browns will look to limit how many times Crosby faces just one blocker, according to Rees:
“He’s obviously a great player – extremely disruptive, both (against the) run and pass. Even when he’s not getting to the passer, he affects so many passes by getting his hands up, getting in passing lanes. I think he does a nice job of reading the quarterback and getting, when he’s not getting a great rush, and finding ways to mirror and disrupt the ball.
“His motor is tremendous, and he’s one of those guys across the league that can really impact games and change games defensively. He had a strip sack against Dallas, he had an interception against Chicago – like he finds ways to impact the game. So, it’s all of our jobs, offensively, to make sure that we neutralize it the best we can. Understand he’s going to win some of his matchups, but try to eliminate the one-on-ones as much as possible.”
Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone
The Raiders are near the top of the league in average kickoff return (No. 5 at 27.8 yards) but are near the bottom in punt returns (No. 26 at 7.5 yards). The speed of the returners is something the Browns will need to keep an eye on, according to Ventrone:
“The returners are talented, and they have a good core group. They do, top to bottom. They’re pretty good. (Tre) Tucker, (Alex) Bachmann, (Raheem) Mostert, all those guys have done a good job. (Dylan) Laube has done a good job as a returner. So priority on coverage, definitely this week, (as) we’re going against fast returners.”
Cleveland did not allow any return touchdowns against the Ravens, but lost the opportunity to pin the Ravens at the one-yard line when long snapper Rex Sunahara was unable to down the ball. Ventrone is looking to clean up those types of mistakes:
“I think they responded how I thought they would. We’re still not even remotely close to where we should be, though. Just too many mistakes – like the down ball at the goal line, we made the correction against Minnesota, and we go out and have a repeat error. Different player, but we just got to be smarter.”
The Browns and the Raiders kick off on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Dawgs By Nature for coverage throughout the weekend and all day on Sunday.
