Five bubbling issues Browns sink their teeth into going into last five games, what's next
Maybe it will get better after a refreshing dip in the waters of the bye.
It has to.
The Browns' 6-6 start was a beer with no bubbles. It was a dollar burger that sat under the heating lamp. It was a December beach vacation in Buffalo.
More: JOK stands by Browns QB Baker Mayfield: '... you guys will see how great a quarterback he is.'
If it quacks like a duck, oinks like a pig, and smells like Limburger, it must be 6-6. What are you supposed to do with it?
Probably not go to the playoffs.
No AFC team has reached the past two postseasons by going worse than 7-5 through 12 games. The preferred route is 8-4 or better.
Of the 13 AFC teams reaching the postseason in 2019 and 2020, 11 had eight or more wins after a dozen games. This includes the 2020 Browns, who were 9-3.
The 2019 Titans and 2020 Ravens were the worst of the lot at 7-5.
Whining about 6-6 does no good. The Browns must come out of the bye as if they care and make the best of what is now a 17-game season.
It doesn't hurt to raise a glass to the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs weren't quite so adrift as 6-6, but they were slumping at this time last year, getting slapped 38-3 by the New Orleans Saints at one point, en route to 7-5.
Yes, the Bucs had Tom Brady. The 2019 Titans didn't. They they hit a 3-5 skid that dropped them to 7-5. They rallied into the playoffs and got to the AFC finals with wins over the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens.
The 2021 Browns are 6-6, not 7-5. The way the AFC shakes out around them, it's not hopeless, but it's also not too soon to be in heavy planning mode.
We've studied the various areas that come into play for the remaining five games, with an eye on where key people might be headed.
Our notes on five of the areas:
1, WIDE RECEIVER
Fifty-two weeks ago, Rashard Higgins starred in the NFL's "game of the year."
Not long after his 21-yard touchdown catch, he made a key play to set up another TD and a 35-34 Browns lead.
Higgins was a big player in a 5-1 hot streak that carried the Browns to the playoffs.
Then, a little piece of Hollywood got frozen in time at Arrowhead Stadium. The playoff game against the Chiefs turned on what at first was a catch seeming to set up a touchdown but soon turned into a fumble near the goal line.
Higgins disappeared.
The 2021 wide receiver group had Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry at the top, Donovan Peoples-Jones coming off rookie magic, and draft pick Anthony Schwartz blowing in with world-class speed.
It was just a dream.
Landry's eighth pro season (eight games, 33 catches, 10.8 average, zero receiving TDs) has been his most frustrating.
It's hard to imagine the Browns paying his $14.3 million base salary for 2022, when he will turn 30.
In the past two games, Peoples-Jones has produced three catches and 26 yards on 10 targets. Schwartz has five catches for 48 yards in his past nine games. It has been easy to remember they were the 28th and 15th wide receivers picked in their drafts.
The cast on hand — maybe even "Hollywood" — must produce immediately to help save 2021. Even then, the cast will be getting company in the offseason.
2, OFFENSIVE LINE
The Browns entered 2021 with a grand collection of blockers.
Right tackle Jack Conklin and guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller were in their primes, coming off All-Pro recognition. Left tackle Jed Wills was a top-10 draft pick with his rookie year out of the way. J.C. Tretter was an iron-man captain of a center.
The 2014 Browns showed how a great line can uplift a flawed team. Joe Thomas, Joel Bitonio, Alex Mack, John Greco and Mitchell Schwartz beat up the Pittsburgh Steelers' front seven twice. It was too bad Mack broke a leg midway through a 31-10 blowout of the Steelers.
Tackle issues have sabotaged 2021.
Wills left the opener at Kansas City after 20 snaps.
Conklin made it through only four full games. The Browns are 3-5 when he hasn't finished or didn't play.
There's no telling if the former No. 8 overall draft pick, though just 27 years old, can come back from a daunting patellar tendon injury. He is signed for 2022, when he is scheduled to make $15 million.
James Hudson, a rookie No. 110 overall pick out of Cincinnati, isn't ready to help and has a long way to go to prove he could be a viable 2022 replacement for Conklin.
Blake Hance, who has spent time in five NFL camps since going undrafted in 2019, has been used as a more stable right tackle option than Hudson. Injured utility tackle Chris Hubbard, going on 31, is in the last year of his contract.
Tretter, who will turn 31 soon, has played every down of offense, 5,044 snaps, since joining the Browns in 2017. He is signed through 2022.
3, TIGHT END
The 2017 draft was supposed to contain one of the better tight end groups.
O.J. Howard, who went 19th overall to the Buccaneers, caught roughly as many passes through three seasons as Travis Kelce catches in one. Howard blew out an Achilles in 2020 and has 14 catches in 12 games this year.
Evan Engram, who went 23rd to the New York Giants, is having a respectable career, with 251 catches for 2,754 yards in 60 games, but the team is an awful 22-54 since he arrived, and his production is down this year.
David Njoku was the third to go, at No. 29 to the Browns, partly because he was the youngest and least experienced. By 2019, he seemed like a wasted pick, but now he has passed the other two. He has made a few spectacular plays within his 27 catches for 407 yards in 2021.
Njoku remains a bit enigmatic from play to play, game to game. Most of his production has come in the six losses. In the six wins, he has totaled nine catches for 91 yards.
Austin Hooper signed a four-year, $42 million contract in 2020. His Cleveland run has been odd. In 13 games with the 2019 Atlanta Falcons, he had 75 catches for 787 yards.
In 25 games for the Browns, he has totaled 74 catches for 696 yards.
In the recent loss at Baltimore, Hooper was targeted three times and didn't make a catch.
Second-year Brown Harrison Bryant's injury is just the 2021 team's luck. He was on his way to a career game (three catches, 50 yards) before going down with a high ankle sprain on his 16th play at Baltimore.
Njoku can be a free agent after the season. Next year's tight end group could include Stephen Carlson, a former undrafted player who made a strong impression before suffering a knee injury in the 2021 preseason.
4, DEFENSIVE LINE
Coordinator Joe Woods has come around. His unit has allowed 16 or fewer points in five of the past six games, the exception being a nightmare in New England.
Veterans Jadeveon Clowney and Malik Jackson are playing about how the organization had hoped. They are part of the reason to think the team could be tough in the playoffs. Their work will be wasted if the Browns don't make it and they leave as free agents.
Jackson, who will turn 32 next month, has handled a heavy workload at tackle alongside surprising Malik McDowell. Jordan Elliott, a No. 88 overall draft pick in 2020, played one-third of the downs in the first six games and has bumped up to more than half the snaps in the past six.
It's hard to tell how well Clowney enjoys playing opposite fellow former No. 1 overall draft pick Myles Garrett. Everyone noticed their simultaneous responses to one of Lamar Jackson's key plays for the Ravens on Nov. 28. Clowney slammed his helmet on the field in disgust. Garrett sought out Jackson to congratulate him.
Will Clowney, going on 29, want to keep playing with Garrett, who is signed through 2026?
Former first-round pick Takk McKinley, who has played nine games and is back from an injury, rotates in at end behind Garrett and Clowney. He can be a free agent after the season, which is kind of a theme for this group.
5, LINEBACKERS
Rookie Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was an obvious keeper even before springing for 13 tackles at Baltimore. He has the bearing of a captain and a star.
It could be that the Browns will go forward resigned to filling in the linebacker gaps around "JOK," who inexplicably fell to No. 52 overall in the draft.
Middle linebacker Anthony Walker has rounded into an every-down middle linebacker. The fifth-year pro is signed only through this year.
Sione Takitaki, a No. 80 overall pick in 2019, has carved a niche as a run-defending linebacker and core special teamer. Jacob Phillips, a No. 97 overall draft pick out of LSU last year, is coming off injury but will get a chance at some point.
Mack Wilson, a No. 155 overall pick in 2019, has played more than 13 defensive downs in just two of his past nine games.
Veteran Malcolm Smith, 32, has bounced around in 11 games, playing nine downs at Baltimore and 41 at Cincinnati in recent times. He is signed only through this season.
The Browns have plenty of players and groupings to weigh coming off the bye, even aside from Baker Mayfield, whose complicated story everybody is watching.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Baker Mayfield not lone issue Cleveland Browns take to Ravens rematch
