Guest Article: "Cleveland’s offense has top ten written all over it" by @Besfort2QMBL

Editor’s Note from Zach: @Besfort2QMBL is one of my dynasty leaguemates (#2QMBL). I’d say he has a reputation for being outspoken and after maybe a zillion outlandish claims he finally decided to write about one. Bes brings his boldness to this article and I am really happy to have his debut featured on my blog.

Thanks @lopsidedTrades for letting me post my first article here.

"You like it? You think Cleveland's cool? I never heard anybody say I'm going to Cleveland on vacation. What's so good about Cleveland?" Well glad you asked, let me tell you Joakim Noah. 

The Browns come into this season with by far their best looking team, having drafted TE David Njoku in the first round and adding QB DeShone Kizer in the second. They also traded for Brock Osweiler this off-season from HOU as some QB competition and veteran leadership and added Kenny Britt in the off season to help complement Corey Coleman. (CoCo)

Let's look into their 2 QBs for a moment.

Cody Kessler Profile:

Draft 2016 round 3/pick 93
Age: 24.1
Height: 6'1”

2016 stats:
1,380 yards
6 TDs
2 INTs

In the 8 games Cody Kessler started he impressed with a clean pocket passer rating of 99.1 and when under pressure he had an 82.7 passer rating a +16.4 difference. He was pressured 47.5% of the time which was most among all NFL QBs last year. (via PFF)

I firmly believe the Cleveland Browns will start Cody Kessler in 2017. Kessler flashed some real potential in his rookie season. He showed elite accuracy under 20 yards and excellent play under pressure. Cody Kessler led all QBs in passer rating on crossing routes last season. He may not be the franchise QB for the Browns but he gives Browns the best shot at winning the most games in 2017 and allows the team time to develop their potential future franchise Rookie QB.

DeShone Kizer Profile:

Draft 2017 Round 2/pick 52
Age: 21½
Height: 6'4”

2016 college stats at Notre Dame:
2,925 yards
26 TDs
9 INTs

In 2015 as a redshirt freshman in Notre Dame football, Kizer started the season for injured Malik Zaire. He completing 63% of his passes for 2,880 yards and 21 touchdowns. Kizer earned the starting spot coming into the 2016 season only to struggle after the first five games. He had a hard time reading the defensive pressure late in games. No worries - the big-bodied and strong throwing athletic passer played well in his 23 career starts given his lack of experience. He had the highest QB rating In the nation on play-action passes in ‘16 (154.7). He will need time to develop in Cleveland under Cody Kessler's wing. (nfl.com)

Cleveland Browns new weapons:

Kenny Britt
David Njoku
With Terrelle Pryor, Andrew Hawkins and Gary Barnidge no longer on the team, there are 276 targets up for grabs.

Pryor saw 140 target last year and we can expect the majority of those to go to Corey Coleman this year. Coleman finished with 73 targets last year while missing 6 games with a broken hand.
The majority of Barnidge’s 82 targets should go to TE David Njoku. The 54 targets from Andrew Hawkins and the 73 from Coleman last year will go to WR2 Kenny Britt. That would be 127 targets in total, a career high. Britt had a perfect WR rating on crossing routes last year (via PFF). He makes a perfect pairing with Kessler who had a perfect passer rating on crossing routes (via PFF) Expect those two to link up quite often and don’t be surprised when Britt builds on last years success.

Cleveland Run Game and Offensive Line:

Let's discuss Isaiah Crowell for a moment. He finished as the RB14 in 0.5 PPR last season. He's running behind a new and improved offensive line. PFF ranked Cleveland’s Offensive line 16th best in ‘16 and they've since signed C JC Tretter from the packers and G Kevin Zeiter from the Bengals to help Pro bowler LT Joe Thomas. Both players were top ten at their respective positions. They also get back G Joel Bitonio who played just 5 games last year. That gives the Browns 4 above average linesman to go along with 2015 1st rounder Cameron Erving. Erving has been a major disappointment but the greatly improved line around him should help.

Crowell finished 2016 2nd among all RBs in yards after contact.(@scottbarrettDFB) Expect bigger numbers from Crowell. Don't sleep on Duke Johnson either. He is one of just nine NFL RBs in the history of the NFL to ever record 50+ receptions in each of his first two NFL seasons. He's no Matt Forte or Marshall Faulk by any stretch of the imagination but look for his QB to throw him the ball often on third downs. I expect this team to be very competitive moving forward.

I believe The 2017 Cleveland Browns finish the season 9-7 and second in their division behind the Cincinnati Bengals. To back that up here are my bold predictions for the offensive numbers this team will put up. Looking at the success Kessler had with a clean pocket, his league leading % of attempts under pressure and the major improvements along the line I predict Cody Kessler throws for for 3347 yards 28 TDs and 5 INTs. That would make him an intriguing potential top 12 QB. David Njoku - with his mix of top talent and excellent opportunity for immediate impact - will set the benchmark for all rookie TEs in this draft. With a stat line of 74/894/7, he would come close to matching none other than Jeremy Shockey. Shockey took the league by storm in his rookie season and don’t be surprised if Njoku does the same.

With that being said, are you convinced it's finally time to take that trip out to Cleveland?

Thank you,
@Besfort2QMBL