The Browns Should Run With Mike Vrabel’s Goal Line Idea
Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Vrabel has always been known as a savvy NFL coach. One of the reasons he was brought on with the Cleveland Browns was to bring his creative ideas up north. Seeing as the tight end depth behind David Njoku isn’t exactly deep, Vrabel believes… Myles Garrett??? is someone who could help that.
Vrabel recently appeared on the Pardon My Take podcast and pitched the idea of Garrett being involved in the team’s tight end package for the goal line.
“[Kevin’s] like ‘we have a pretty new offensive staff, lot of guys who have transitioned on to other places and now we’ve hired some really good coaches that are new to Cleveland. Why don’t you hang out on the offensive side and give a defensive perspective?'” Vrabel explained. “Tommy Rees, former quarterback at Notre Dame, Alabama Coordinator and he’s coaching tight ends so he’s like ‘why don’t you work with Tommy,’ and the tight ends. I played a little tight end in my day, you know.”
Pardon My Take host Dan Katz then suggested that the Browns should use Garrett in the position, to which the former Tennessee Titans coach made a shushing motion.
It’s something Vrabel was obviously thinking about beforehand, but maybe it’s something the Browns are thinking about now. Vrabel was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his play as a middle linebacker with the New England Patriots, but he did play a little offense, too… at the tight end. During his 206 career games, Vrabel caught ten total passes, and all of them found the end zone.
Garrett is a freak athlete, and using him in that type of package would probably be a mismatch. The downside, however, is always going to be a concern about injuries. Are the Browns willing to risk their defensive star, the anchor of their defense, to get hurt trying a new position just to get a little more production once or twice per game, when they get into the red zone?
The Browns don’t have many weaknesses on this team, but tight end is one of them. Last season, Njoku caught 81 passes for 882 yards and six touchdowns. After Njoku, though, production quickly fell off. Jordan Akins has a ton of familiarity with Deshaun Watson from their days in Houston, but his last season with the Browns wasn’t a good one. Akins played in 17 games but caught just 23 passes for 132 yards and zero touchdowns. Giovanni Ricci is the third-string tight end, and in three years with the Carolina Panthers, he caught only nine passes for 102 yards, none of which found the end zone.
Ken Dorsey was brought in this offseason to be the new offensive coordinator, but Kevin Stefanski appears set to retain play-calling duties, which makes the decision not to improve the tight end position even more confusing. When Stefanksi was the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, the team used the most two tight end sets in the NFL, but that clearly doesn’t seem to be the plan this season. If it was, there might have been a little more urgency to bring in a No. 2 tight end with a history for production.
Back in May during OTAs, Dorsey said that he was working closely with Stefenaski to install the offense, so either Dorsey or Stefanski could be the one who doesn’t prioritize using two tight ends as much. “You know, it’s not my system,” Dorsey said during OTAs on May 30. “It’s not Kevin’s. It’s our system, and so we’re developing our system, and these reps right now are invaluable for us.”
Deshaun Watson has plenty of playmakers at his disposal, including Jerry Jeudy and Amari Cooper. Still, when you get into the red zone, they can always use one or two more. If the Browns don’t want to go and make a trade for another tight end during training camp, the Browns really would be smart to use Garrett, at least at times. There will always be concern about injuries, but the payoff to the offense could be huge in the most crucial of moments. Garrett’s 6-4 frame and big body would be an incredible mismatch against big defenses. It’s easy to imagine Garrett finding the end zone a couple of times this season and think that Vrabel might be onto something here.
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