The Cleveland Browns have been living a lie at wide receiver for no less than two years and hoping a healthy Odell Beckham would finally deliver the difference maker they have sought. The healthy part only lasted about a quarter and the overall product at receiver has been nothing short of mediocre this year, regardless of who has been out there.
Beckham is far and away the most talented receiver on this team, but that's also not doing a whole lot within the design of the Browns offensive scheme. They focus on taking what the defense takes away rather than trying to dictate their own terms, so unless they manufacture touches, which has happened on occasion, he's going to get the ball when the coverage dictates. When it works, it can be a thing of beauty, but when the open options don't deliver as happened against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it produces a substantial amount of second guessing and finger pointing.
Beckham caught one ball for six yards in the game and was unable to catch a pass down the middle of the field that would've taken a Herculean effort. That's all they did with him. David Njoku, the most consistent receiving threat on the team only became involved late in the game, catching three passes for 39 yards, including one that went for 24 yards.
So if the Steelers were putting their effort into stopping those two, other players needed to step up and take advantage of opportunities. That unfortunately did not happen. After not dropping a pass the entire 2020 season, Rashard Higgins registered one of the team's six in this game. He also had a false start penalty. D'Ernest Johnson dropped a pair of passes. And Jarvis Landry, who many thought was the missing ingredient in the offense, had a false start, two drops and lost a fumble. He also caught five passes for 65 yards on ten targets.
Landry missed four games after a sprained MCL, then came back against the Denver Broncos, where he had 37 yards receiving on five catches out of eight targets. He also dropped a pass and then left the game after twisting his knee again.
That doesn't make Landry a bad receiver, but he's not saving this team from its mediocrity at the wide receiver position either. He's an extremely well paid average receiver that has been hailed a hero because of his leadership, reliability and toughness. There is no questioning his leadership or toughness, but the reliability has always been overstated.
Landry makes some incredible catches, but he also drops passes. He has always dropped his share of passes with the Browns.
The bigger problem for Landry in a game like this one against the Steelers is this is the exact game where he's supposed to thrive; facing a heavy zone team, where he can find holes, settle in space and make catches. He did that, but he also made critical errors that contributed in the team's loss along with miscues from other players on that side of the ball.
Landry is going to struggle against heavy man teams as he did in the playoffs against the Kansas City Chiefs. In the offseason, he got slimmer and tried to maximize his quickness to help, but the injuries he's currently dealing with may have rendered that a wash at least for the time being.
Unless Beckham is going to break out and put together some great games as he deals with an ailing shoulder, the Browns wide receiver position has limited options and upside.
Donovan Peoples-Jones hurting his groin has kept him out the last two games, which is a notable loss and could provide a lift, but rookie receiver Anthony Schwartz has no clue what he's doing at this point. Higgins is reasonably solid, but needs to find the form he showed last year if he's going to lift this group.
Unless the Browns make an unlikely trade to bring in another receiver, which would require them to dump one. As it currently stands, there isn't a single reason for the Browns to bring back Beckham or Landry for the 2022 season, just as there isn't a salient argument to get rid of them now. It's an offseason problem that needs an offseason solution.
They simply have to find a way to make the offense work more effectively with the players they currently have. This Steelers performance hopefully represents rock bottom for the receiver room and there won't be another game with false start penalties or that many drops in a game from that position.
It's also realistic increasingly unrealistic to expect this room, particularly the top two, who amount to 14.37 percent of the 2021 salary cap, to suddenly play to a level commensurate with that investment. They never have and this season was supposed to be their best opportunity to finally make it all worth it.
Both Landry and Beckham have shown incredible toughness and seem to be genuinely positive influences within the locker room, but the Browns need production and wins. If that doesn't happen, all the folklore and intangibles in the world isn't going to make up for overwhelming disappointment or save from them from being unceremoniously dumped in the coming offseason.
READ MORE: Browns Offense Cannot Get Out of Its Own Way in Loss to Steelers
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November 01, 2021 at 08:49AM
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Browns Poor Return on Investment at Wide Receiver Impossible to Ignore After Loss to Steelers - Sports Illustrated
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