The Cleveland Browns recently bolstered their wide receiver depth but not by targeting any of the wide receivers still lounging on free agency. Instead, Cleveland picked up former quarterback Terrelle Pryor. In an offseason filled with blockbuster trades, coaching changes, Deflategate, and the re-emergence of Tim Tebow, a quarterback changing positions just seems par for the course in 2015. Will this gamble pay off for The Browns?
Cleveland is sorely lacking in the receiver department, so any help should be a boost. Dwayne Bowe, Brian Hartline and Andrew Hawkins look to be the starting three for the 2015 season. They finished 66th, 91st, and 53rd (respectively) in standard fantasy scoring last year, which is not much of a ringing endorsement for the upcoming season. Hawkins showed flashes of brilliance last season, and he accounted for more first downs (44) than any other receiver or rusher. There are still questions, however, if he can handle the workload of a WR1. All this translates to a lot of roster upheaval in Cleveland.
One way that Pryor could help the organization is still through the use of his arm. Wide receiver Mohamed Sanu has completed 100% of his passes for the Cincinnati Bengals, going three for three last season. You can see some of his handy work in the video below, so perhaps offensive coordinator John DeFilippo can find a way to bring back Sanu’s Wildcat days at Rutgers.
Not to mention, Pryor’s size and athletic ability would be an asset. At 6-foot-4, 233 pounds, Pryor is just simply a big target. If you couple that with his strength and 4.38 speed, you get a wide receiver with a lot of possibilities. The NFL is riddled with basketball/football combo players, and one thing that all these players have in common is being a strong end-zone threat. Pryor’s latent basketball skills and size may just help him beat out the competition for red zone targets.
Speaking of the end zone, there has been a lot of speculation about how the new two point conversion rule will affect teams. Cleveland attempted two conversions last season but failed to punch the ball in. This tells us two things:
1. They are willing to attempt the conversion (eight teams had zero attempts),
2. They aren’t very good at it. Pryor offers a quadruple threat in this arena: by lining up at QB and running or passing for the touchdown, using his size and strength in the end zone as a receiver, or by receiving a shovel pass then lofting the ball into the end zone. All this is speculation, but the possibility is there.
Overall, the addition of Pryor is a small loss/big reward situation for the Browns. I am excited to see how they will utilize their newest addition.
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Categories: 2015 Fantasy Football
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It’s hard to levy any accurate value to Hawkins with Bowe on the squad considering that Bowe has the pedigree and it’s obvious that the Browns plan to use him as a #1 or he wouldn’t be there at all. Coupled with the fact that McCown is going to force the football to who he wants regardless and you have a recipe for a ton of targets for both Bowe AND Hawkins. At their current ADP, I think Bowe provides a ton of upside and should be a great flex starter or backup for bye weeks and injuries.
Bowe is definitely under appreciated and a steal. As Payton states though there is still a lot of roster upheaval in Cleveland, and not many concrete answers are availalbe. Thanks for checking out the article.
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