Green Bay Packers will have to Find Answer for Browns Trio of Tight Ends
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers are coming off a defensive performance in which they did not have an answer for Baltimore Ravens’ tight end Mark Andrews.
Quarterback Tyler Huntley was able to pretty much find Andrews whenever he pleased, as the Baltimore tight end finished the game with 10 receptions on 13 targets for 136 yards and two touchdowns.
Now, Andrews is a Pro Bowler and has been one of the more productive tight ends in football for a few seasons. There have been plenty of games where he puts up these kinds of numbers. But the head-scratching part of all of this is that everyone knew Andrews was going to be targeted heavily, and early on, it was clear that having him one-on-one against Darnell Savage was a mismatch. However, there really weren’t any sort of adjustments made on the Packers’ part to double-team Andrews or forcing Huntley to go elsewhere with the ball.
The Green Bay Packers should be prepared for a heavy dose of the Cleveland Browns’ three tight ends.
This week the Green Bay Packers won’t be up against a tight end as productive as Andrews, but the Cleveland Browns do have three tight ends that they feature heavily in the offense. Unlike last week with Andrews, Green Bay should be prepared for a heavy dose of Austin Hooper, David Njoku, and Harrison Bryant.
As I just mentioned, individually, these three do not meet Andrews’ production, but collectively, Hooper, Njoku, and Bryant get into the ballpark. Together the Cleveland tight ends have combined for 949 receiving yards on 116 targets with seven touchdowns, according to PFF ($$).
Njoku ranks third on the team in receiving yards, and he is tied for first in touchdown receptions, while Hooper ranks fourth in yards, and Bryant ranks sixth. In terms of targets, Hooper ranks second, Njoku third, and Bryant eighth.
To illustrate this point further, according to Sharp Football, Cleveland plays with at least two tight ends on the field in 44 percent of their personnel groupings and they play with three tight ends a whopping 19 percent of the time, far more than any other team this season–so yeah, you can expect a lot of these three on Saturday.
"“It’s no secret we love running trio, and we love being in bigger sets,” Hooper said via the News Herald. “It’s been an advantageous personnel group for us throughout the year."
In terms of individual matchups, Njoku with his size and athleticism, could present the biggest problem for this Green Bay Packers defense. But overall, this is going to be a very important game for the Green Bay linebackers and safeties, who will oftentimes be covering Njoku, Hooper, and Bryant. Heading into Week 16, opposing tight ends are averaging 5.5 receptions per game against the Packers–the eighth-highest average in football.
As was the case just a few days ago, we know that the tight ends for the Browns are going to be featured heavily. Again, neither player on their own is the caliber of Andrews — which is important to note — but collectively, they can still do some damage, and the Green Bay Packers will have to be ready for that as well as make adjustments along the way as needed.