Browns '09: Another Second Look

I talked recently about some overlooked players getting a second chance under new head coach Eric Mangini.

I’d like to talk about that some more.

When you look at the running back situation in Cleveland, it isn’t as cut and dried as you might think. Gone are the days where the established veteran is given the job and allowed to fail week after week.

I’m not saying our running backs were the biggest problem on the team last year, far from it, but they were mishandled.

Jamal Lewis was the number one running back on the team in 2008. He had 279 touches resulting in 1,002 yards with four touchdowns averaging 3.6 yards per carry.

Compare that to league-leading Adrian Peterson, who amassed 1,760 yards on 363 carries with 10 touchdowns. Peterson averaged 4.8 yards per carry.

When you compare the two, they don’t even look like they compete in the same league. Granted the Browns’ offensive line wasn’t very good, but I wouldn’t say the Vikings had a stellar line, either.

What is worth pointing out, and they don’t have a stat for it, is the way in which Lewis hit the line in 2008 compared to 2007 when he had 1,304 yards on 298 touches with nine touchdowns, averaging 4.4 yards per carry.

Lewis just didn’t look as explosive hitting that line last year. In layman’s terms, it looked like Lewis had lost a step last year.

Lewis turns 30 on Aug. 26, and 30 is a magical number for running backs for all the wrong reasons. Historically, NFL running backs do all their best work before the age of 30, with their careers steadily going downhill shortly after that inevitable birthday.

Now, this is all a long-winded way of saying Jerome Harrison should have gotten the ball more last year and definitely should be the starting running back going into 2009.

In 2008, Harrison only got the ball 34 times for 246 yards and scoring one lone touchdown. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry.

Looking at those numbers makes me want to criminalize Romeo Crennel’s coaching decisions last year, just so we can have a proper accounting and retribution for such an offensive coaching job.

If you have a running back averaging 7.2 yards per carry after only 34 attempts, that means he tends to find holes and rack up some yards.

Since touchdowns were something Crennel tried to avoid scoring last year, it’s not a surprise he effectively benched Harrison. We wouldn’t want to do something silly like get first downs and put six points on the board.

TO THE DUNGEONS WITH YOU, I SAY!!!!!

The question to be answered this year is whether Crennel was right or wrong in the determining whether he had a bunch of poor talent on the roster that he did all he could do with, or if there’s a roster bursting with talent Crennel could never figure out how to utilize.

I lean toward the latter sentiment. The blank, confused expressions on his face on Sundays the last few years tell me he had his plans and he had his schemes, but he never bothered to match any of those plans and schemes to the actual talent on the roster.

Instead, there was a lot of pounding square pegs into round holes. The results speak for themselves.

Looking back through Mangini’s press conference transcripts, he dropped more than one hint about Harrison being more than what has been shown.

Lewis will get one more shot, of that I have no doubt. But if Harrison comes in and runs circles around him, I expect Lewis to evolve into the Browns version of Jerome Bettis. He would be good for short yardage situations, and the reduced amount of reps would keep his legs fresh through the season.

How running backs Noah Herron, James Davis, and fullback Lawrence Vickers fit into Mangini’s plans will play itself out during training camp. Hopefully, injuries will not force an early decision.

Coming up: I’m not done giving players a second look. There’s a lot to get through before training camp.

See you soon.