BEREA, Ohio — A good run game is any quarterback’s best friend. Unless, of course, you ask the quarterback to increase his role in the rushing cause.
Browns QB Deshaun Watson added a new twist to the old saying Wednesday at Browns practice, where Cleveland is searching desperately for solutions to an offense producing math so ugly that it looks backwards. Watson averages more yards per carry (6.1) than he does yards per pass attempt (4.8) through three weeks. Three of Cleveland’s five longest runs this season belong to the quarterback (whose longest is 16 yards). And despite logging 15 fewer carries than running back Jerome Ford, Watson leads the Browns in yards after contact (80 to Ford’s 76), which, come to think of it, gives me an idea to help the quarterback’s best friend.
What about calling more run plays for the team’s most dangerous ball-carrier?
“For me?” Watson responded Wednesday.
Yeah, a reporter responded.
Watson laughed. “I’m not trying it,” he said. “If I don’t have to run, I’m not going to run. So, I’m not trying to take any hits.”
Why not?
“Because I’m not a running quarterback, in a sense,” Watson said when asked why he doesn’t want more designed runs. “I can make things happen, but I’m not trying to run. I’m not a running back. It’s not my specialty. They signed me to throw the ball, make decisions, and be a quarterback, not a runner.”
How’s that working for you? Watson ranks bottom five in QBR, EPA (expected points added) per play and completion percentage over expected — not to mention first in sacks taken — entering Sunday’s game against the Raiders. Cleveland’s run game ranks 27th in rushing success rate and EPA per play. In short, nothing about the Browns’ revamped, Watson-centric offense looks functional through three weeks. And at 1-2 with the worst point differential in the division, now feels like a good time to start re-thinking your approach.
Go back to the basics: We all know passing works better if the offense can also run. And we all know that a dual-threat quarterback makes a rushing attack more dangerous. In fact, four of the top six rushing offenses (by yards per carry) this season — Baltimore, Indianapolis, Arizona, Philadelphia employ four of the league’s most athletic quarterbacks: Lamar Jackson (Ravens), Anthony Richardson (Colts), Kyler Murray (Cardinals) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles).
On average, those teams have called 10.3 designed runs (3.4 per game), which do not include scrambles, for their quarterback through three weeks. The Browns have called three total (11 yards, one touchdown) for Watson, and under normal circumstances, I’d understand. The quarterback has already suffered enough hits this season. He’s always been more of a scrambler than a runner (1.5 designed runs per game for his career), and he’s played just three games on the surgically repaired shoulder that ended his season a year ago.
Again, if your offense is scoring points, why risk it?
“It can,” Watson said when asked if his running threat could help the run game. “It possibly can, so I won’t say that it won’t help out the offense as far as just the run game. But I mean, coming back from an injury I don’t think that is high priority for Kevin to put me in that situation because go out there, (call a) designed run and something happens, then it’s like you’re mad at Kevin. So I feel like it’s a lose-lose situation.”
But again, the offense isn’t scoring points, or gaining first downs, or winning. The Browns need a boost, a spark, need to try something different. And Watson has no issue taking punishment in the pocket or on scrambles.
“… Until I have to be dragged off the field or something like that, I’m going to go 110%,” he said Wednesday. “That just always been my MO. So I’m never gonna hesitate on pulling or running, things like that. ”Obviously, I’m going to be smart and not trying to run up or run over no defensive guy…
Nobody is asking him to. The Browns don’t need Cam Newton back there. They don’t need a “running back” or even a running quarterback. But it might help if they had a quarterback more willing to run by design, at least until Nick Chubb comes back, or the offensive line finds its groove, or Watson and his receivers find theirs.
Don’t take my word for it. Take the word of Watson’s blockers. Tackle Jedrick Wils Jr. said it helps a rushing attack “a lot” when teams have to account for a rushing threat at quarterback.
“I mean, they’ve gotta account for him,” Wils said. “Having that extra person in the box, they’ve gotta be ready for Deshaun.”
Center Ethan Pocic labeled Watson a “weapon as a thrower and a runner,” in an interview with cleveland.com. Browns guard Nick Harris, who moonlights as a Cleveland’s fullback, said that “involving quarterback runs always helps.”
“…You want him to get the ball as much as possible, whether that’s running it, throwing it — whatever,” Harris continued. “That type of caliber of talent, you want to get involved either way.”
In this case, the Browns just want to move the ball. Their pass game has been grounded, and their running backs aren’t moving forward. Their quarterback can make people miss, however, and his talent could solve other problems (that is, if he agrres to use it more).
The best rushing teams run their quarterbacks because it evens the playing field. It freezes defensive ends an extra half second on plays where the quarterback could run but doesn’t. It adds an extra responsibility to a 10-person rushing attack, and it could help correct the Browns’ backwards math equations.
Unless, of course, defenses know the 11th player doesn’t want to run.
