Dawgs By Nature
It’s no surprise or secret that the Cleveland Browns’ offense is one of the most inept in the entire NFL right now, but there are really only two main reasons as to why. It’s not Kevin Stefanski or any specific member of the coaching staff either.
Using the front office or coaching staff for what’s going on right now, at least for the majority of it, isn’t realistic whatsoever. The game of football, especially on offense, relies heavily on situational playcalling and execution. The playcalling has been fine 80-90% of the time. Execution is the part that’s absolutely destroying everything that Cleveland has going for it right now, and it’s really only a problem in two specific areas.
Since the beginning of Spring practice, the Browns’ wide receivers have been consistently and inexplicably dropping passes at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, that’s carried over into the 2025 season, and it’s one of the main reasons why Kevin Stefanski’s offense has been coming up short in crucial situations this year. There have been countless drops by both receivers and tight ends on big third-down plays over the past handful of matchups that would’ve undoubtedly kept Cleveland at the very least in the game.
The amount of dropped passes by this team is beyond the word “unacceptable”, and until that problem gets solved, nobody at the quarterback position is going to have success with the Browns. Patrick Mahomes wouldn’t have been able to do much better than Joe Flacco did with the team this year.
The other problem is the offensive line play (again). It’s even more magnified this season because, aside from just losing a step and underperforming in general, the interior trio is showing signs of age and a lack of athleticism at the point of attack. They’re just simply not as dominant in the run game anymore, though Joel Bitonio has been playing surprisingly well as of late.
They aren’t holding up or being as dominant at the snap as they used to be, and the entire room likely needs to be revamped in 2026. The team is kind of handcuffed to what they have right now, so things might not be improving as much as we’d like to see throughout the rest of the 2025 season. To have success, Kevin Stefanski might need to alter the overall run plan a bit towards a more power-based scheme that allows this offensive line group to take advantage of angles and blocking in space.
Do you remember what Stefanski’s offense looked like, especially the rushing offense, when constant mistakes weren’t being made in key situations? The 2023 team sure does. Those 11 wins that season came with a constant rotation at quarterback as well, but guess what that team didn’t do? Drop crucial passes every week.
That was also the last “good” season that C Ethan Pocic had as the point-man of Cleveland’s offensive line.
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