Let’s Talk About The Browns, Freddie Kitchens, And Fantasy Football

Happy New Year LAFB Network! It’s going to be another great fantasy year. Whether you are in a redraft league, dynasty or keeper league, the offseason should be a time to keep fantasy intentions in mind. We all hate Week 16 because it is the conclusion of the season. But the worst part of fantasy football is waiting for it start up again.

Here at LAFB Network, we want to keep all of our readers and followers informed year-round, so we will keep producing some fantasy content. Part of doing that is keeping up with some coaching changes and this offseason will be no different. Before we get to talking about all the moves that are happening currently, I wanted to go back to once upon a time when Head Coaches (HC) like Kliff Kingsbury or Zac Taylor began their reign in their new destinations.

To refresh some of your memories, here’s a little breakdown of the moves that happened before the 2019 season kicked off.

Kliff Kingsbury – Arizona Cardinals HC

Freddie Kitchens – Cleveland Browns HC

Zac Taylor – Cincinnati Bengals HC

Vic Fangio – Denver Broncos HC

Matt LaFleur – Green Bay Packers HC

Brian Flores – Miami Dolphins HC

Adam Gase – New York Jets HC

Bruce Arians – Tampa Bay Buccaneers HC

As some of you may know, Freddie Kitchens has already been terminated as the HC for the Cleveland Browns. That’s the main reason why I thought beginning these articles on Kitchens would be for the better since I, or one of the other LAFB Network fantasy analysts, will eventually have to do another analysis on another Browns HC anyways. So let us begin.

Let’s Talk About The Browns, Freddie Kitchens, And Fantasy Football

The first thing you might ask yourself is why would a fantasy analyst care about coaching changes? Well, I don’t necessarily care about the coaches or the teams they may fall into, but I care about our fantasy prospects. What’s going to happen if some offensive-minded HC gets termed and a defensive one comes in? That will affect the thing we love and cherish the most; Fantasy Football.

When the year began, the OC spot was filled by Todd Monken from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Monken, however, had no shot when play calling was in the midst of discussion. Kitchens withheld the helm from the beginning to the end, rolling with all the punches and trolls of the internet.I think it would be beneficial to start with the good and end with the bad so here are the stats when it came to the Rushing Game from the Browns 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 season.

Rushing Game

2018-2019

Rushing Yards: 1,893

Touchdowns: 15

Attempts: 411

Targets: 100

Completions: 73

Receiving Yards: 607

Rec. TD: 5

2019-2020

Rushing Yards: 1,901

Touchdowns: 15

Attempts: 358

Targets: 105

Completions: 91

Receiving Yards: 726

Rec. TD: 1

Overall it looks like Kitchens kept the Browns fairly relevant when it came to the RB position. We know this. Nick Chubb either helped or murdered your fantasy team and when Kareem Hunt stepped on the field, it was more of the same. Chubb actually led the league in rushing until the very last week when Derrick Henry leaped ahead.

Looking at the stats from last season to this season I thought their attempt differential was significant but their rushing yards and TDs stayed fairly similar. Obviously the rushing attack was eight yards better with 53 fewer attempts, meaning their running game was way more dynamic.

Season 2018-2019 ceased with the Browns averaging 4.6 yards per attempt. Season 2019-2020 concluded with 5.3 yards per attempt. In very few moments of the season, Freddie Kitchens has looked like an offensive mogul; this is one of them.

Before continuing to the passing side of the offense, I would also like to mention the Browns’ completion percentage from both seasons above. RBs were being targeted both years but in the 2019-2020 Season, the RB completion percentage jumps from 73% to 86.67%. This has me thinking that the Browns play calling began revolving more around Chubb, and eventually Hunt, because of the progress they were maintaining.

Receiving Game – Wide Receiver

2018-2019

Receiving Yards: 2,801

Receiving TDs: 16

Targets: 344

Completions: 205

2019-2020

Receiving Yards: 2,629

Receiving TDs: 12

Targets: 331

Completions: 185

The first thing that jumps out to me, as it might to my intelligent readers as well, is that all of their numbers are down even though they had the addition of Odell Beckham Jr. before the season began. If cause and effect mean anything to you, then you also might be thinking of how Jarvis Landry’s numbers might have looked from last season to this one.

Well, as expected, his receiving yards improved and his target share was slightly impacted. In the 2018-2019 season, Landry had 976 receiving yards, 149 targets, and 81 receptions. This season he had 1,174 receiving yards, 138 targets, and 83 receptions.

This was very interesting because Odell didn’t fair too bad this season as well. Beckham had a very quiet 1,035 receiving yards, 133 targets, and 74 receptions. I say quiet because as fantasy owners we are used to Odell Beckham blowing up media outlets with absurd comments or cocky swagger. It might be hard to talk the talk when he’s not walking the walk.

Odell finished the season with four TDs. Landry concluded the season with six so it was truly a heads or tails on this WR duo this season. Freddie Kitchens definitely didn’t make starting either WR a very comfortable decision but both somehow got the job done.

Receiving Game – Tight End

2018-2019

Receiving Yards: 853

TDs: 8

Targets: 112

Completions: 75

2019-2020

Receiving Yards: 497

TDs: 9

Targets: 69

Completions: 41

Where o’ where did the TE go for the Cleveland Browns? With a stud like David Njoku it is shocking that the numbers took such a massive dip. Unfortunately, Njoku went down early in the season and never truly came back.

In 2018, the Browns had more completions than targets this season. I feel like that is saying something about the Cleveland Offense; whether it be Freddie Kitchens, Todd Monken, or even Baker Mayfield.

Originally I thought it was because of Njoku’s injury that the numbers were so insufficient, but after looking through their week-to-week stats for the TEs, I found that the ball was fairly spread around. Sure there were a couple of games with only one or two TE targets sprinkled in there but for the most part, Mayfield still fed the ball to the TE position this season.

But that was for this season. In 2018, the TE position targets were in the double digits. That didn’t happen once this season. Clearly the TE spot got knocked down a few pegs once Kitchens claimed the play-calling roll in full.

Passing Game – Overall

2018-2019

Passing Yards: 4,261

Passing TDs: 29

Interceptions: 17

Completion Rate: 61.5%

2019-2020

Passing Yards: 3,847

Passing TDs: 22

Interceptions: 21

Completion Rate: 59.4%

For the final subject up for discussion, the Browns’ overall passing game. This was the first season that the Browns had Baker Mayfield for a whole season and to his credit, he was the only Browns QB to start every game this year in however many seasons. Everything else, to his credit, looks pretty bad.

Clearly everything is reduced from the season before; 414 less passing yards, seven fewer TDs, four more interceptions, and the lower completion rate. The completion rate is actually the only thing that wasn’t nearly as affected as everything else.

This might be because of the overall stats of the QBs instead of comparing Baker Mayfield’s stats from last season to this one. When looking at those, his completion rate goes from 63.8% to 59.4%. Almost a 5% difference on his completions with more weapons in his arsenal.

Conclusion

When it comes to fantasy football analysis; FIRE THE GUY. But I say that with a grain of salt. Out of four categories Kitchens managed to poop on three of them. He kept the running game intact, even improved its efficiency but did not match the preseason hype the Browns were trying to live up to.