S'all Good Man! 2023 Mock Off-Season

[MWil23]

3 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

 

we line both our ends up out wide af and and expect them to crash down and be ******* superheroes in the run game.  We pair this with middling linebackers and DTs and teams have a notable numbers advantage inside.

Thankfully we also don't have an edge setter against TE who are aligned inside. We expect the Safety to be a run down alley fitter and edge setter, but more than that, we don't have a backside LB fit at all in any capacity. Yes, you read that correctly, we don't account for the backside A/B Gap fit at all, ever. We have the SAM linebacker scraping, the backside linebacker as the A/B plug on the playside, and totally vacate the opposite gap that the opposite side DT is not in. You can't make this stuff up.

3 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Either the ends squeeze down perfectly or we’ve got huge gaps.  I like wide alignments on obvious passing downs, but Jesus Christ we make it easy to run against us.

Building a finesse defense in the AFC North has always been a joke in my book, and I've seen this on repeat for almost 25 years now.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

Thankfully we also don't have an edge setter against TE who are aligned inside. We expect the Safety to be a run down alley fitter and edge setter, but more than that, we don't have a backside LB fit at all in any capacity. Yes, you read that correctly, we don't account for the backside A/B Gap fit at all, ever. We have the SAM linebacker scraping, the backside linebacker as the A/B plug on the playside, and totally vacate the opposite gap that the opposite side DT is not in. You can't make this stuff up.

I assume there some **** I’m just not aware of or something that I’m missing as a fan, but the ease that teams have run on us had been absolutely absurd.

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

Building a finesse defense in the AFC North has always been a joke in my book, and I've seen this on repeat for almost 25 years now.

I think any style can be good, it just needs to be creative, aggressive, and comprised of good tacklers.

I do think you need to at least be competent against a power run scheme in this division and conference though, which we’re not.

[MWil23]

4 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

I assume there some **** I’m just not aware of or something that I’m missing as a fan, but the ease that teams have run on us had been absolutely absurd.

I think any style can be good, it just needs to be creative, aggressive, and comprised of good tacklers.

I do think you need to at least be competent against a power run scheme in this division and conference though, which we’re not.

Our answer against Joe Burrow, who's biggest weakness is holding the ball too long with a suspect offensive line, was to drop 7, play soft zone, and not try to apply any pressure, all while they were missing Higgins, Boyd, and their starting TE. Instead of allowing one of the best man/press man corners to press, aside from one play that he absolutely blew up, and then maybe allocating a S to that side for some over the top support to completely take him away, we played soft zone and aligned Ward off 10 yards for easy completed passes in windows. Total nonsense.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

4 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Our answer against Joe Burrow, who's biggest weakness is holding the ball too long with a suspect offensive line, was to drop 7, play soft zone, and not try to apply any pressure, all while they were missing Higgins, Boyd, and their starting TE. Instead of allowing one of the best man/press man corners to press, aside from one play that he absolutely blew up, and then maybe allocating a S to that side for some over the top support to completely take him away, we played soft zone and aligned Ward off 10 yards for easy completed passes in windows. Total nonsense.

*while taking our best LB who had the highest PFF grade in all of college football his last year in the slot (regardless of position) off the field on 3rd downs.

Im sick of the jackassery.

[MWil23]

Just now, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

*while taking our best LB who had the highest PFF grade in all of college football his last year in the slot (regardless of position) off the field on 3rd downs.

Im sick of the jackassery.

Thankfully we put in...

*Checks Notes*

Whoever #51 is instead.

[Kiwibrown]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

Our answer against Joe Burrow, who's biggest weakness is holding the ball too long with a suspect offensive line, was to drop 7, play soft zone, and not try to apply any pressure, all while they were missing Higgins, Boyd, and their starting TE. Instead of allowing one of the best man/press man corners to press, aside from one play that he absolutely blew up, and then maybe allocating a S to that side for some over the top support to completely take him away, we played soft zone and aligned Ward off 10 yards for easy completed passes in windows. Total nonsense.

I'm starting to move off Joe Woods. Not guna lie.

[BetterCallSaul]

1 hour ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

 

we line both our ends up out wide af and and expect them to crash down and be ******* superheroes in the run game.  We pair this with middling linebackers and DTs and teams have a notable numbers advantage inside.

Either the ends squeeze down perfectly or we’ve got huge gaps.  I like wide alignments on obvious passing downs, but Jesus Christ we make it easy to run against us.

YES. It's the reason I want to spit in Joe Woods' face. I coach defense in HS and I am not exaggerating on any level----we are 10x more fundamentally sound against the run and pass than the Browns are. Our guys play with 10x better technique and are better tacklers. It's absurd to me that we play such a free and loose defense where guys on the DL can essentially freelance their way in and out of gaps.

I love our ideology though of funneling everything back inside....to the worst DT's in the NFL and two--not three--linebackers. It makes perfect sense, right? We don't even make teams pick their poison with run vs. pass. We suck equally at defending both from a fundamental standpoint, letalone an athlete disadvantage. It's soooo bad.

 

Also, we have zero gap integrity on pass rush. Our DE's fly way up the field all the time and we allow them to stunt inside whenever they want. QB's keep getting the edge on us because we don't teach these guys to keep the QB's outside shoulder in pass rush. It's the fundamental aspects of this team that make me want to vomit into a bucket and then drown myself in said concoction.

[BetterCallSaul]

And am I crazy or should we be giving all the DE reps to Clowney and Garrett? I don't really pay attention to other teams rotations of DL, but why in the EFF do I have to watch Garrett and Clowney on the sideline for half the freaking game? Are they really that tired from playing 1/3 of the football game on the DL? These are elite athletes. They shouldn't need 10 minutes of real-time rest after 8 plays.

I might be crazy, but why is this even a thing? We basically waive the red flag as far as putting pressure on the QB when we take these dudes out. Is this a common practice across the NFL or are we the only team that keeps our *only hope* of making plays on defense on the sidelines for that amount of time?

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, BetterCallSaul said:

And am I crazy or should we be giving all the DE reps to Clowney and Garrett? I don't really pay attention to other teams rotations of DL, but why in the EFF do I have to watch Garrett and Clowney on the sideline for half the freaking game? Are they really that tired from playing 1/3 of the football game on the DL? These are elite athletes. They shouldn't need 10 minutes of real-time rest after 8 plays.

I might be crazy, but why is this even a thing? We basically waive the red flag as far as putting pressure on the QB when we take these dudes out. Is this a common practice across the NFL or are we the only team that keeps our *only hope* of making plays on defense on the sidelines for that amount of time?

I don’t think other players getting snaps is an issue, it’s that we don’t scheme anything up to help those dudes so we’ve got some decent young prospects being told to just go out and whip everyone’s ***.  That’s not a plan.

[#32]

There is an old adage the best defenses were strong up the middle where majority of plays occur.  The Joe Woods schemes looked to emphasize corner and safety play by not giving up long passes.  Well Joe it does not work. I believe a strong disciplined D line is the first key to put pressure on QB to throw quickly.  Next priority is FS who is quick to read and tough.  Lastly a MLB who can stuff the run and move D linemen to correct lanes before the snap.

[DawgX]

So... what you're all saying is that we should fire Joe Woods, right?

That alone will make me feel good about the offseason.

[brownie man]

I think one of the underrated problems in this defense is the lack of a true centerfield FS. 
 

That’s really not JJ3 skill set. He’s either a two high safety or SS in a cover 3 scheme. He doesn’t have that Ed Reed, Marcus Williams, Minkah type range. 
 

He’s been playing out of position since he got here. We really need a guy like Jessie Bates. If Cinci lets him go we need to cut JJ3 and put that money towards Bates. That’d solve a lot of over compensation issues in this scheme. 

[BetterCallSaul]

4 minutes ago, brownie man said:

I think one of the underrated problems in this defense is the lack of a true centerfield FS. 
 

That’s really not JJ3 skill set. He’s either a two high safety or SS in a cover 3 scheme. He doesn’t have that Ed Reed, Marcus Williams, Minkah type range. 
 

He’s been playing out of position since he got here. We really need a guy like Jessie Bates. If Cinci lets him go we need to cut JJ3 and put that money towards Bates. That’d solve a lot of over compensation issues in this scheme. 

It's a huge problem and in my opinion, the biggest problem with our entire defense if you look at talent. Yes, our DT's and MLB's have been atrocious, but those are easy to shore up...and a lot of that is due to the scheme not helping them out at all. The major issue that is going to be trickier to do is to find a ball hawking FS to patrol the deep middle. JJIII is a bad athlete. Always has been. He is a solid football player from an instinctual standpoint, but he's getting outathleted every single week. You can't have that...especially if you're insistent on being a zone team. Teams will scheme him into 1 on 1 situations with superstar athletes, like the Bengals did to us.

The modern day FS has to be able to cover like a cornerback. It's why I loved Damarious Randall when he was here. He, in his very short prime, was the ideal realistic modern-day FS. Of course we should be looking for Ed Reed, but Ed Reed's don't grow on trees. We can find a Damarious Randall in the off-season.

[brownie man]

30 minutes ago, BetterCallSaul said:

It's a huge problem and in my opinion, the biggest problem with our entire defense if you look at talent. Yes, our DT's and MLB's have been atrocious, but those are easy to shore up...and a lot of that is due to the scheme not helping them out at all. The major issue that is going to be trickier to do is to find a ball hawking FS to patrol the deep middle. JJIII is a bad athlete. Always has been. He is a solid football player from an instinctual standpoint, but he's getting outathleted every single week. You can't have that...especially if you're insistent on being a zone team. Teams will scheme him into 1 on 1 situations with superstar athletes, like the Bengals did to us.

The modern day FS has to be able to cover like a cornerback. It's why I loved Damarious Randall when he was here. He, in his very short prime, was the ideal realistic modern-day FS. Of course we should be looking for Ed Reed, but Ed Reed's don't grow on trees. We can find a Damarious Randall in the off-season.

Totally agree with you 

I’m on the pay Jessie Bates train especially if we stay with a similar scheme. 
 

Give me Jessie Bates and/or Daron Payne this offseason. If we don’t resign Clowney and cut JJ3 I think we could possibly afford them. 
 

Everything else in the draft and cheap vets. Maybe let Conklin go too for Hudson. That’d free up some cash as well. 

[mtmmike]

Ok guys 

Your the Gm you have a 2nd round pick plus you get your pick of defensive coordinator. 

Tell Mr how you fix this team next year.