Dawgs By Nature
Last season, the Cleveland Browns lost 14 games. This season, they are about to end up with another year of double-digit losses.
The offense has been horrible. Of course, part of the reason is that the offensive line went from five good starters to one. Only seven-time Pro Bowler Joel Bitonio remains the lone starter from the Week 1 lineup. Cleveland has started three quarterbacks, which remains a position of constant flux. Instability at the offensive line can kill this side of the ball.
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Running back has also been an issue with injuries to rookie Quinshon Judkins. TE David Njoku has always had his share of being hurt and missing games.
And while the offensive line is easily the worst position group on the entire roster, right behind that is the receiver room. With this description, do we state the truth or give some kindness to this room?
If the offensive line is horrible, the receiver room is atrocious. Bad. Appalling. Terrible. Horroroso.
And it all starts with veteran Jerry Jeudy.
Jeudy is the Browns’ undisputed WR1. There isn’t another body in the receiver room that anyone would consider to be the team’s Number 1 receiver. Not even close. If Jeudy were to leave or end up on IR, the team would simply be devoid of a #1 receiver with a bevy of #2 and #3/4 guys running routes on the field.
Jeudy is it for Cleveland. Yet, his production numbers don’t identify him as such this season. 100 targets with less than half that number of actual catches (48). That alone screams yikes. 585 total yards gained. Already having completed 16 games, that is just a 36.6 yards per game average. Is this a misprint?
Two touchdowns? His cap hit this season is $7.979 million. That’s $3.899 million per touchdown catch. Where is the application for that job?
30 first down conversions come out to be about two a game. 161 YAC. And it’s not like he isn’t playing much. He has played on 875 snaps, which is 84.87% of all offensive plays.
And Jeudy is durable, so he has played in every game this year, which means all these production stats are not like he has missed a ton of games with an ailment or two. Nope, he is playing and starting.
So, what is the deal with Jeudy?
Last year, he was one of the few rays of hope on a roster that lost 14 games. Jeudy had 1,229 yards with 90 receptions and four scores. He had 57 first-down conversions for an anemic offensive attack. He averaged 72.3 yards per game and had 145 targets while playing in every game. For his efforts, he was named to his first Pro Bowl.
Jeudy posted a Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 73.5 last year, rating him the #38 receiver in the league out of 133 WRs who were graded.
Some may point to the fact...
