CLEVELAND — For about 11 months, the Cleveland Browns have had something of an emergency at offensive tackle.
An ever-changing, rarely-improving offense that only thrived for more than a few series at a time last December with Joe Flacco at quarterback has other issues, too — issues with timing, identity, lack of a run game and overall consistency. All of those are tied together, obviously, and they’re probably all in some way tied to the offensive line problems.
Those line issues showed up in the ugliest of ways Sunday, as the Browns (1-2) stumbled to a 21-15 loss to the previously winless New York Giants (1-2). The Browns dressed three tackles, and all three dealt with injuries. Longtime left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. made his season debut following knee surgery last December, but he suffered another knee injury Sunday — it’s not known if the old and new injuries are related — in the third quarter and had to leave the game. James Hudson III subbed for Dawand Jones at right tackle because Jones is dealing with a knee issue, and Hudson suffered a shoulder injury.
Both Wills and Hudson need MRIs on Monday morning. So does Pro Bowl guard Wyatt Teller, who also suffered a knee injury late in the third quarter while blocking on a field goal try and immediately was ruled out for the rest of the game. With three linemen down, the Browns had to re-insert Jones at right tackle, move left guard Joel Bitonio to left tackle, move center Ethan Pocic to left guard and bring two subs off the bench, Nick Harris at center and Zak Zinter at right guard. Even with the starting line intact and the Browns establishing a lead just 11 seconds into the game, the Giants sacked Deshaun Watson three times in the first quarter on their way to eight for the day.
The Giants had early success with the blitz, but mostly they just swarmed Watson with Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence crashing the interior and Brian Burns leading the charge off the edge. Jones couldn’t block Burns, the Browns consistently lost one-on-one matchups and the rush stymied Cleveland while the Giants took a 21-7 halftime lead.
Malik putting on a show 🔥
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/CQaShTjad7
— New York Giants (@Giants) September 22, 2024
Also, that aforementioned field goal was missed. It was that kind of day long before the Browns’ final rally ended when Watson threw a fourth-down pass into Cedric Tillman’s chest at the first-down marker, but the second-year receiver dropped it. The issues are many.
The answers seem few, and less likely to come soon with the state of the offensive line. Even if the Browns find out in the coming days that Teller, Wills and Hudson avoided major injuries, this is a line that’s been shuffling players in and out of the lineup under new line coach Andy Dickerson and, three games in, has established little upon which it can build.
Watson holds the ball too long. The ground game doesn’t scare anyone, which probably at least partially explains coach Kevin Stefanski’s reluctance to try to establish the run. The Browns at least got something out of a quick-hitting passing game when they got an early Week 2 lead in Jacksonville. But in this game, they went from one quick strike to having nothing develop quickly. The Giants’ defensive front is legitimate, but in Week 2 they gave up 425 yards to the Washington Commanders and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels without forcing a punt. Giants opponents got 6.2 yards per play over the season’s first two weeks. This should have been a chance for Cleveland’s offense to take a real leap.
The Browns had just 80 yards on their first 40 plays Sunday. They got 24 on their first play on Watson’s touchdown pass to Amari Cooper, a lid-lifter that was on the script before the Giants coughed up the opening kickoff. Watson put it where only Cooper could get it, and the veteran wideout showed off his rare balance and strength in grabbing it before he fell out of bounds. The Watson-Cooper sideline game was actually back as part of the Browns’ passing attack Sunday, and that’s one of the few encouraging signs.
WHAT A START!!!#NYGvsCLE on @NFLonFOX and NFL+ pic.twitter.com/seNxF7oZUa
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 22, 2024
The rest of it stunk. The Browns have scored 48 offensive points in three games. Watson is averaging 184 passing yards per game. Penalties, drops and missed open receivers have all been part of the problem, and the Giants’ ability to constantly pressure Watson even early in Sunday’s game accentuated all the issues. This offense isn’t just bad. It’s borderline hopeless.
Why did the Browns only have three offensive tackles Sunday? Jack Conklin, who’s also working his way back from a signficant knee injury, went through practice but was ruled out after suffering a hamstring injury during the week. Even when the Browns announced Conklin would be out for this game, they didn’t promote Germain Ifedi from the practice squad as they’d done in the first two weeks when Wills wasn’t available.
It’s not that Ifedi is some sort of savior. He’s been a guard and right tackle throughout his career, and not a starter anywhere since 2021. But since about the midpoint of training camp he’s been Cleveland’s emergency tackle. To not have him active with Wills playing for the first time in almost 11 months and Jones dealing with a knee injury is basically malpractice, not just poor planning.
Poor planning is having to use a timeout before fourth down in the closing minutes following a failed sneak by the backup quarterback. Not having an emergency tackle ready is more than just poor planning. It was part of what quite obviously was bad preparation for an extremely flawed Giants team that played like its season was on the line. The Browns had a full offseason to address their offensive line personnel and a full training camp to get their offense ready, and the early results yield little promise that this season of high spending and high expectations is going anywhere.
The Browns played like they were making it up as they went along before having to make up an offensive line group that previously only existed in Stefanski’s worst nightmares. They followed the quick Cooper score by getting 22 total net yards the rest of the half. A strip-sack of Watson by Burns allowed the Giants to add a third score, and that put everything on a tempo faster than the Browns wanted to go.
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Though Cleveland got a little momentum early in the fourth quarter and then subsequently got multiple chances to steal the game, Watson and Jerome Ford fumbled an exchange on a draw play. The next end-of-drive sequence went from a failed Jameis Winston QB sneak to a Stefanski timeout. Then Watson decided to keep it on a run-pass option after he’d initially chosen to pass. He was stopped short.
The Browns drafted six players in April. Just two were on the active roster for Sunday’s game, and Zinter had to play right guard after Teller’s injury. Zinter will continue to be the right guard if Teller has any sort of significant injury — unless Zinter is needed elsewhere as the Browns’ line shuffle continues. Maybe they didn’t love any of their tackle options in this year’s draft, but with second-round pick Mike Hall Jr. on the commissioner’s exempt list following a domestic violence incident and two third-day picks having been cut, the state of the tackle position says the Browns needed to convince themselves to like a tackle — any tackle — in that draft class.
The way they’re headed, they might get their pick of the top of the tackle class next April. It’s still September, but it’s not too early to declare this offense — with the line as the most glaring example — as being in a true state of emergency.
(Photo of Deshaun Watson: Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)
