Through the first three games of the 2023 NFL season, the Cleveland Browns are playing defense at a level we rarely see. The 3-0 Browns rank first in Defensive DVOA, and they have the sixth-best DVOA through the DVOA era, which goes back to the early 1980s.
The numbers are pretty insane. Cleveland ranks first in net yards per passing attempt allowed at 3.5. The NFL average is 5.9. They’ve allowed 14 first downs in the passing game – the NFL average is 32.2. They’ve allowed 2.8 yards per rushing attempt – the NFL average is 4.1. They’ve allowed one passing touchdown. The NFL average is 3.9.
We know about Myles Garrett, Za’Darius Smith, and all those pass-rushers — we’ve discussed that before. It’s time to turn our attention to what the Browns are doing on the back end, because their pass defense — albeit against Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Tennessee Titans offenses that have struggled to bust a grape at times — is particularly obscene.
Per Sports Info Solutions, that pass defense has allowed an opponent passer rating of 61.1 — only the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys have been better. Their Yards per Coverage Snap of 4.2 leads the league. Their Passing EPA allowed of -40.68, and their EPA Per Play allowed of -0.42 are both second-nest behind the Bills, their Positive Play Rate Allowed of 24.5% is by far the NFL’s best (the Cowboys rank second at 35.2%), and on and on and on.
So, let’s turn to the Browns’ secondary, and detail how that’s working so well. We must start with safety Grant Delpit, who’s playing out of his mind this season. Delpit has two pressures, 15 tackles, nine stops, and he’s allowed eight catches on 11 targets for 22 yards, 16 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 37.3. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz loves to use subtle twists of the knife through a game in coverage, and Delpit has been Schwartz’s perfect foil because he plays with his hair on fire all over the field.
Whether he’s covering Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals through the deep third…
…or blitzing from the slot to upset Joe Burrow…
…Delpit can do it all from everywhere.
Schwartz talked a lot this week about the challenges presented by the Baltimore Ravens’ offense and Lamar Jackson.
“There’s still a lot of carryover from last year, particularly run game and quarterback run game, but probably a little bit more emphasis on some of the dropback game,” Schwartz said on Thursday of Baltimore’s offense under new OC Todd Monken. “His completion percentage is way up. They’re trying to get high-percentage completions, get the ball out of his hand fairly quickly, but that goes both ways. It comes out of his hand a little bit faster, but sometimes he’s really dangerous when he’s holding the ball a long time, making guys miss and making big plays down the know the field. There’s still a lot of carryover from years past. And I think with Coach [John] Harbaugh there, he’s not going to let it get too far away from his philosophy and their effort to be physical and control the game with the run game. So, there’s a lot of stuff there, and we’ll have to be ready for a lot of different personnel packages. They use different packages within personnel packages and things like that. So, we’ll match it a lot of different ways.”
It’s a tremendous matchup, and Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get into it in this week’s “Xs and Os.”
You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” featuring detailed tape and metric breakdowns of Week 4’s biggest matchups, right here:
You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…
…and on Apple Podcasts.
