Fantasy football: Cleveland Browns’ offensive outlook with Jacoby Brissett at QB
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This means the Browns will turn to Jacoby Brissett as the starting QB through Week 12 (the team has its bye in Week 9). The slate includes home games against the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as well as road trips to face the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills.
Brissett has proven very conservative and not particularly effective as a passer during his first six NFL seasons, as evidenced by his 7.6 average depth of target (aDOT), 60.2% completion rate and 6.4 yards per attempt (YPA). That includes a 5.7 YPA on 225 pass attempts with Miami last season, which ranked 38th among 39 qualified passers.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski has operated a run-heavy scheme throughout his 56 games as an offensive playcaller, and it’s fair to expect him to stick to that philosophy with Brissett throwing the passes. That could prove beneficial for Nick Chubb, who isn’t involved much as a receiver, instead relying heavily on rushing volume and efficiency. Granted, the Browns aren’t expected to be a high-scoring offense with Brissett at the controls, but Chubb, who has finished no lower than 11th in rushing yards and TDs in all four of his pro seasons, will be relied on enough to sustain solid-to-strong RB2 numbers. Kareem Hunt is more involved as a receiver than Chubb, but his workload will be enough to remain in the weekly flex mix.
While the value of Cleveland’s running backs doesn’t change much, we do need to downgrade the team’s pass-catchers. Of course, there’s only one who is currently considered a Week 1 lineup lock and that’s top wide receiver Amari Cooper. We’re also downgrading the secondary receivers (Anthony Schwartz, David Bell, Donovan Peoples-Jones), as well as probable No. 2 target TE David Njoku, though none were being drafted as starters anyway. Cooper is best viewed as a WR3 to begin the season, but could find his way into the WR2 mix late in the season. His adjusted outlook suggests that his fifth-round ADP in 12-team best-ball leagues is a bit rich, so you may want to look elsewhere for your second receiver. The likes of Schwartz, Bell and Njoku remain worthy of no more than a late-round flier in 12-team formats.
Brissett, meanwhile, is unlikely to find his way onto the fantasy radar, as he’s produced one weekly finish better than 19th over the last two seasons and his two seasons as a starter have resulted in fringe QB2 output. Brissett adds some value with his legs, but conservative, inefficient passing in an offense sure to lean heavily on the run isn’t a recipe for fantasy production.
Be sure to also check out our latest projections for the entire Browns roster, as well as the rest of the league.