Let's Power Rank The Browns: Week 3

The Browns are 2-1 and the vibes are high again

The Browns had a massive bounce-back win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, with the defense continuing to put opposing quarterbacks in hell and the offense finally lifting its legs out of the quicksand. Sitting at 2-1 with a huge home game against the Baltimore Ravens on the horizon, let’s power rank the top five most important players following Week 3.

5. Jerome Ford

Asking Jerome Ford to step in for Nick Chubb and immediately fill that void was always going to be a colossal ask. Despite the Browns making overtures to how much they believed in Ford and how much they had planned for him, their play-calling in the first quarter against the Titans suggested a lack of initial trust in the traditional running game as a whole. There were reverses and tosses to Elijah Moore as well as some extra trickery to set up a simple screen. All three running backs (Ford, Pierre Strong and Kareem Hunt), got touches, and when they did, the results weren’t great. Ford ended the day with just 18 yards rushing on ten carries, good for -.44 EPA per play, and the running game as a whole produced a dismal -.20 EPA per play on the afternoon, a steep decline from what we’ve gotten used to during the Chubb era.

It’s reasonable to believe that Ford will get more comfortable as the lead back going forward, and Kevin Stefanski will scheme to his strengths. And Ford ran a beautiful double move for a touchdown, showing the impact he can make in the passing game in ways Chubb couldn’t. Ford doesn’t need to be Chubb, but his impact on the ground will need to take a major leap forward.

4. Amari Cooper

After a relatively quiet start to the season, Amari Cooper made a massive impact in the passing game against the Titans. Deshaun Watson targeted him eight times on the day, and those targets turned into 116 receiving yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter that put the game to rest. Cooper might’ve come close to hitting 200 yards on the day if a ref didn’t explicably rule him out of bounds on a catch near the sidelines, but them’s the breaks.

Cooper can be both Watson’s safety valve finding open areas against zone defense and a downfield weapon out wide when defenses choose to single him up. Cooper produced an EPA per play of a whopping 1.56 on Sunday, and continues to be the Browns most important weapon at the skill position in this offense.

3. Deshaun Watson and Kevin Stefanski

The chest bump the Browns head coach shared with his quarterback after the aforementioned touchdown pass to Amari Cooper was more than just an expression of joy. It was an exhale.

After two weeks of dismal offensive football seemed to culminate in Deshaun Watson literally throwing a football backwards while being tackled, a throw that would make even Brandon Weeden blush, things got better. Kevin Stefanski had been stubbornly clinging to the offense he built around Baker Mayfield and Nick Chubb, one with the QB under center, shorter throws off bootlegs and play action and the occasional deep shot. That’s not where Watson has thrived, and for much of the first half the Browns offense looked like it was operating, as one user on Twitter put it, inside of a phone booth.

So Stefanski shifted, and Watson started playing like the old Watson everyone has been impatiently waiting to see signs still existed. The Browns put Watson in shotgun and worked the quick passing game out of empty formations. They ran designed QB runs out of it. And they finally started taking some shots more than 10 yards downfield, with both of Watson’s touchdown passes going for 20 or more yards through the air.

The offense remains under construction. But on Sunday, there were tangible signs of a building starting to go up.

2. Jim Schwartz

Nothing sums up the relationship Schwartz has with his defense more than the CBS cameras catching him with a big ol’ smile on his face after the Titans had to call a timeout because Myles Garrett was going in motion like he was Tyreek Hill.

Pick a category, the Browns defense is leading it. My personal favorite happens to be the fact that through three full ass NFL games, they’ve faced just one snap inside the red zone. One. And that came after the Browns fumbled the ball inside their own territory to set the Titans up with primo field position. The Titans went backwards immediately and settled for a field goal. More like Him Schwartz, imo.

1. Myles Garrett

We are witnessing an extinction-level event, and its name is Myles Garrett. The game-wrecker just keeps on wrecking games. He had 3.5 sacks in the first half on Sunday, including a takedown of Ryan Tannehill on the final play before halftime on which the one thing the Titans could not do was…take a sack. It didn’t matter. The Titans had no timeouts, so they could only watch as their quarterback picked himself up off the ground as time ran out, their opportunity to attempt a field goal a thing of the past.

At this point, it feels like the DPOY is Garrett’s to lose.