Browns offensive adjustment after bye week: Get the ball to the wide receivers

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

The Browns had plenty of time to analyze their anemic offense over the bye week. Coinciding with the change to coordinator Tommy Rees as play-caller, the obvious conclusion undeniably is that they’re not getting the ball enough to the wide receivers.

Dillon Gabriel’s 4.9 average yards per pass attempt ranks 35^th and last among qualifying quarterbacks – almost one full yard less than the next-worst figure of 5.7 held by Carolina’s Bryce Young.

Dropped passes certainly have plagued the Browns; they rank third-worst in the league with 17 drops, led by Jerry Jeudy’s eight, which is second to league-leader Brian Thomas of Jacksonville with nine.

But a deeper dive into Gabriel’s four game starts clearly shows that his inability – or reluctance – to throw the ball to his wideouts is a bigger problem.

Of Gabriel’s 134 pass attempts, 78 (58.2%) have been targeted to tight ends or running backs, and 56 (41.8%) have gone to wide receivers.

Gabriel completed 59 of the 78 passes (75.6%) to tight ends and backs. Throwing to wide receivers, he is 28 of 56 (50%).

(Four additional Gabriel pass attempts had no discernible target – the intentional grounding, for example, and are not included in these figures.)

Prior to the game against New England, Rees said the onus was on the coaches to make Gabriel more comfortable in throwing downfield.

“We have to put him in the right spots to see the coverage, trust what he’s seeing, [and then] let it go,” Rees said.

Gabriel proceeded to have his worst game as far as targeting wide receivers. He completed only 2 of 9 passes targeted to wideouts; and completed 19 of 24 to tight ends and backs, most of which gained fewer than 10 yards. When he tried to throw the ball downfield, he was intercepted twice.

I asked Gabriel on Wednesday if he felt uncomfortable throwing to the wideouts.

“No,” he answered. “I think there’s just a mixture of things that have to come together to make that happen, that’s myself included. But you know, like we’ve talked about before, explosive [plays], they got to happen. There’s certain categories within a game that you have to win and explosives and you know, being really good on first and second down so that you’re in some third and manageables and moving the chain, sustaining drives. So that’ll all contribute to that, but no uncomfortability. That’s something that we work on and want to continue to emphasize.”

Gabriel’s height was a pre-draft issue. He was officially measured at 5 -11 1/8 at the NFL Combine. But when the Browns took Gabriel in the third round, GM Andrew Berry said, “The biggest negative that you can say about him is that he doesn’t have ideal height. But that’s not something that we felt showed up in his game or his film at UCF, Oklahoma, and certainly not at Oregon this year.”

So I asked coach Kevin Stefanski on Monday: Is the height issue showing up now in Gabriel’s inability to see the wideouts downfield?

“I understand the question,” Stefanski answered, “but I would not characterize it that way. We need to play better as an offense. Certainly, there’s areas to improve for a young quarterback, but it’s really on all of us to improve.”

I asked Jerry Jeudy if he thinks Gabriel is able to see him on deeper patterns.

“Yes,” he said, without elaboration.

The Chief is happy

Tight end David Njoku, who on two occasions in his nine years in Cleveland asked the Browns to trade him, said he’s happy the trade deadline passed without him being dealt.

“I’m in Cleveland, baby. I’m not going nowhere. I’m not leaving. Ever,” Njoku said. “I’m so happy, man. I’m serious.”

Njoku is in the final year of his contract, however, and said he hopes talks on an extension can now commence.

With the trade deadline behind him, it’s possible the next order of business for Berry will be to extend the contracts of players he wants to keep before they enter free agency in March. Those include Njoku, right guard Wyatt Teller, and defensive end Alex Wright.

It’s your thang … do what you want to do

Stefanski said he’s giving Rees full latitude in his first game as play-caller.

“Yeah, I do think it’s important with a play-caller that you have a call sheet of plays that you’re really comfortable with,” he said. “So, certainly this week, making sure Tommy’s got the quote, unquote, final say. I’m letting him kind of put this thing together. Obviously, I’m helping and making my suggestions, but I want him to feel comfortable and confident with what’s on that call sheet.”

When it comes to making key situational decisions, however, such as whether to go for it on fourth down, etc., Stefanski termed himself “editor-in-chief.”

“At the end of the day, I get final say – we all know that,” he said. “But I want to make sure [Rees] is comfortable as we put the plan together.”

Brownie bits

Cornerback Denzel Ward said there was a full team meeting, with coaches, prior to players taking off for the bye week. “Just really taking accountability,” Ward said. “That’s just all of us. We all got to be better and expect a lot of each other. Just coming together as a team. Be real with one another. Try to find a way to execute whatever the game plan, whatever the goal is.” Ward said he appreciated the Browns did not elect to conduct a fire sale like the Jets. “Yeah, it shows [they] believe in us and each other,” he said. “We have to have their back as well and prove we have the right people in this building to go out and get the job done.” …

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who was inactive for the Patriots game with a back injury, returned to practice on a limited basis …

Players who did not practice were receiver Isaiah Bond (foot), defensive end Isaiah McGuire (illness), left tackle Cam Robinson (illness), and linebacker Carson Schwesinger (ankle).