NFL Playoff Preview Countdown: No. 8 Cleveland Browns

This is an excerpt from this week’s edition of Mike Tanier’s NFL Walkthrough, available every Monday at The Messenger…

2023 Season in a Nutshell

When Deshaun Watson succumbed to injuries and kismet after six rusty/wobbly starts, the Browns turned to a rotating cast of backups before finally signing 38-year-old Joe Flacco. The Super Bowl XLVII MVP and likely 2023 Comeback Player of the Year embarked on a torrid stretch that propelled the Browns into the playoffs, but it was the Myles Garrett-led defense and clever game-planning on the fly by Kevin Stefanski that kept the Browns in position to make a run in the first place.

Quarterback Joe Flacco

Original-recipe Flacco was an immobile, cautious game manager who used one of the strongest arms of the early 2010s to set up comeback routes and judicious deep shots along the sidelines. The barrel-aged version of Flacco we’re currently enjoying is more of a grizzled gunslinger. Flacco mixes touchdowns and turnovers with nifty play-fakes and unlikely Liam Neeson-climbing-a-fence scrambles. His success doesn’t look very sustainable, but at least Flacco is no longer the internet’s laziest punchline.

Offense

Stefanski and Flacco love play-action, which slows the pass rush for one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and creates room for Amari Cooper and tight end David Njoku to operate. Nick Chubb’s Week 2 injury created opportunities for a Kareem Hunt/Jerome Ford/Pierre Strong committee.

Stefanski is not afraid of wrinkles to supplement the Flacco Experience. Hunt takes Wildcat snaps, scrambling rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson makes short-yardage cameos and backup center Nick Harris sometimes lines up at fullback, which only helps to sell the play-action deep shots.

Defense

Jim Schwartz’s unit was on a historic pace until a rash of injuries depleted the secondary and Myles Garrett suffered a shoulder injury, but the Browns defense is still among the league’s best. Garrett battled through the injury to become a Defensive Player of the Year favorite. Denzel Ward (who missed a few weeks during the defensive slump), Martin Emerson Jr. and Greg Newsome II form the best cornerback trio in the playoffs.

Schwartz prefers man-to-man coverage, with Ward on the offensive right, Emerson on the left and Newsome in the slot, with Garrett lined up so wide that he’s also practically in the slot. The Browns blitz when they want to, not when they have to.

Special Teams

Dustin Hopkins’ field goals kept the Browns alive in several early-to-midseason games, but Hopkins suffered a hamstring injury while trying to make a tackle on a kickoff return in Week 15. Punter and placekicker holder Corey Bojorquez suffered a quad injury in the same game. Placekicking became a liability when Riley Patterson and Matt Haack took over. Bojourquez is back. Hopkins’ status is uncertain for the playoffs, though it sounds like he will be back.

Bottom Line

The Browns’ presence in the playoffs is a testament to the value of coaching, defense, offensive-line play, shrewd waiver-wire maneuvering and, most importantly, not folding the tents at the first sign of adversity (looks side-eyed at the Jets). They may be this year’s Team Playing With House Money, but the Browns have a defense capable of shutting down most of the great-on-paper/shaky-on-the-field offenses in the AFC playoffs, plus a quarterback who once guided a team past Peyton Manning and Tom Brady en route to a championship.