Taking Stock of Cleveland Browns Ahead of Week 11 Bye

It's Week 11 of the NFL season, which means the Cleveland Browns have a much-needed bye week. At 2-8 through 10 games, the week off gives the team a chance to regroup and try to turn its season around. It also affords time for players to step away from the grind for a time and for those nursing injuries to have extra time to rest and rehabilitate. 

So where do the Browns stand heading into their week off? Let's take a look. 

Passing Offense

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The only area of progress and positive play for the Browns so far this season has come from the passing offense, which currently ranks 12th in yards per game, at 260.2, and tied for 16th in touchdowns, with 22.

For much of the season, it was led by quarterback Josh McCown, save for Week 1 when McCown exited the game against the New York Jets with a concussion, Week 2 in which he was still recovering from his Week 1 injury, and Weeks 9 and 10, which saw him sidelined with rib and shoulder ailments. 

In his seven starts, McCown completed 165 of his 254 pass attempts for 1,897 yards and 11 touchdowns to four interceptions. He has a 95.2 passer rating and has been sacked 22 times. Those 22 sacks are a problem, though, with six of them leading to fumbles as well as to the injuries that have since cost him the starting job.

McCown's backup, Johnny Manziel, will be taking over as the starter from Week 11 and beyond, a move the Browns announced on Tuesday. The switch came, according to head coach Mike Pettine, because Manziel's "performance against Pittsburgh, I think, validated for us the progress that he's made, the improvement that he's shown and that he deserves this opportunity."

Manziel has appeared in six games this season, with three starts. Of those starts, his Week 9 outing against the Cincinnati Bengals was his most disastrous. He completed only 15 of his 33 pass attempts for 168 yards and a touchdown and was sacked three times. But he did bounce back in Week 10, as Pettine said, completing 33 of his 45 pass attempts against the Steelers, for 372 yards, one touchdown and one interception, while taking six sacks.

The performance led to only nine points for the Browns, but as Pettine said, it was enough of an improvement to warrant Manziel taking over for the rest of the year. With only two wins to their name, the Browns have nothing to lose at this point by taking an extended look at the man once pegged to be the team's quarterback of the future.

And Manziel will have help. Though the Browns do not boast the most flashy of a receiving corps, they do have players who can get the job done.

Leading the pack is Travis Benjamin, who has 48 catches for 736 yards and four touchdowns, along with 241 yards after the catch. Tight end Gary Barnidge also has 48 receptions on the year, for 667 yards and seven touchdowns. Rookie back Duke Johnson has caught 39 passes so far, for 387 yards and two scores and leads the team with 316 yards after the catch.

The Browns have the building blocks of something good to come on offense, at least in the passing game. The question, moving forward, is whether things will improve with Manziel at quarterback or if moving the ball was actually an easier task when McCown served as starter. 

Rushing Offense

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Unlike the passing offense, Cleveland's run game has yet to produce significant dividends. The Browns currently rank 31st in the league in rushing yardage, with 756 yards on their combined 226 carries. They are averaging 3.3 yards per rush and have scored only two rushing touchdowns all season.

The rushing leader is Isaiah Crowell, who has a meager 328 yards on his 107 carries and one score. Next up is rookie Duke Johnson, with 189 yards on his 63 rushing attempts. Cleveland's next two leading rushers are the quarterbacks, Johnny Manziel and Josh McCown.

The reasons for the Browns' struggles to run the ball are manyfold.

They come down to the running backs and their style compared to the run-blocking abilities of the offensive line. They also include the fact that the Browns have often found themselves playing from behind in the second halves of games and taking a conservative, pass-only approach to trying to dig out of the deficit. This has caused Crowell and Johnson to disappear in the final two quarters of games on a disturbingly regular basis.

Browns running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery also lamented on Wednesday to the team's lack of a "bell-cow" back who can regularly handle carries on all three downs. It's hard to see one emerging in the Browns' final six games based on those comments. Cleveland's offense will likely remain mostly one-dimensionally pass-heavy for the remainder of the year.

Passing Defense

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The Browns' passing defense isn't what it used to be in terms of the secondary. And in terms of the pass-rush, it's only gotten worse as well. Last year, the Browns totaled 30 sacks on defense but at least had one of the league's top secondaries to show for it. Now they cannot hold anyone down in the passing game, neither up front nor in coverage.

The Browns have given up the 29th-most passing yards this year, at 2,685. They have only six interceptions and 16 sacks. The defense has allowed the sixth-most passing plays of 20 or more yards this year—35—and the second-most passing plays of 40 or more yards.

No cornerback has an interception. And according to Pro Football Focus, every corner who has played for the Browns this year has given up at least two passing touchdowns, save for Charles Gaines and Justin Gilbert, who have played only double-digit snaps on the season.

With no real pressure being created up front, opposing quarterbacks aren't being forced into throwing errant passes that the Browns in coverage can make plays upon. And the secondary is getting burned repeatedly by deep passes.

The coverage scheme has been a problem, with players like Johnson Bademosi routinely in single coverage against the likes of the Pittsburgh Steelers' Antonio Brown or the Arizona Cardinals' Larry Fitzgerald. And even Bademosi getting significant playing time at cornerback is a problem.

Shaking up the pass defense, both in the front seven and in the secondary, is something that should happen during the Browns' week off. The coaches will have to keep experimenting with the combination of players they put on the field to try to improve the end result. Cleveland had hoped to make a tough passing defense a hallmark of the team this year, but that has simply not been the case. It's back-to-the-drawing-board time during the bye week.

Rushing Defense

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Defending the run has been a longstanding problem for the Browns, and 2015 is no different. Currently, the Browns are giving up the most rushing yards per game in the league, at 138.8. They've allowed nine rushing touchdowns, are tied with the San Diego Chargers with 11 rushes of 20 or more yards allowed and tied with the Detroit Lions with four rushes of 40 or more yards allowed.

According to Pro Football Focus, only defensive end John Hughes has an appreciably positive grade as a run defender, while 19 others have negative grades in that area. But there has been a recent sign of improvement. The Browns held the Steelers to just 60 yards of rushing offense in Week 10, and Pittsburgh back DeAngelo Williams had only 54 yards on his 17 carries, just a week after rushing 27 times for 170 yards and two scores.

There are dangers to selling out against the run—namely, opening up passing lanes in single-coverage situations, which have been highly unkind moments for the Browns this year. But if they can at least shore up this area of constant weakness over the final six games, there will be one sign of improvement on a defense that hasn't shown many this year.

Special Teams

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Cleveland's special teams haven't been all that bad this year, to say the least. Pro Bowl-caliber punter Andy Lee is averaging 47.8 yards per punt, has punted 19 times within the opponents' 20-yard line, has only four touchbacks on the year, and of the 26 punts returned, they've come out for an average of just 7.2 yards per punt.

Kicker Travis Coons has made all 16 of his field-goal attempts this year, including five-of-five from 40-49 yards. He has missed two extra points, something nearly every kicker in the NFL has struggled with this year, but he's not yet made an egregious error that has cost the Browns a win.

In the return game, Travis Benjamin is back to his typical form after a 2013 knee injury negatively impacted his performance in 2014. He's returned 22 punts for 273 yards and a touchdown, giving the Browns the third-highest punt return yardage in the league. Cleveland also ranks 10th in kick-return yardage, with Justin Gilbert doing the most work. He's returned 10 kickoffs for 261 yards so far this year.

In coverage, the Browns have allowed the ninth-most return yards on kickoffs, 569 in total. But thanks to Lee's masterful punting, their opponents' 26 attempted returns have yielded just 188 yards. The Browns have also not yielded a single punt- or kick-return touchdown. 

Cleveland's special teams unit is doing far more to help the team than hurt it this year. With Lee punting, Benjamin returning punts and Coons yet to miss a field goal, this has been one of the most consistent areas for the Browns this season.