2020 Dynasty/Fantasy Week 3: Game Analysis: Browns 34, Football Club 20

I take notes during the live watch. I re-watch the game on tape looking for hidden clues to report on. Here are my notes/takes on what I saw and how it related to FF 2020. I write anywhere from 1,000-3,000+ words on each game, and I have to move fast to get to all of them through the week…so, please forgive any typos/grammar.

For all you who are wanting to take the points with the Browns over Dallas this week because ‘Dallas sucks’ and ‘the Browns aren’t playing bad football’ – just note: The Browns were not the better team here. Washington led 20-17 after three quarters, warts and all…and losing Chase Young in-game early. It was two terrible 4th-quarter Dwayne Haskins’ turnovers that gave the game away.

The Browns are dreadful to watch except Nick Chubb is a majestic to watch run the ball (against a terrible group of linebackers).

The Browns are now (2-1) but they are getting ready to get wiped off the ‘good vibes’ landscape. They could lose their next 5-6 games in a row. Tough schedule + they aren’t very good – sure, they looked OK-ish against Cincy and Washington, big deal.

The Football Club blew a golden opportunity to take a commanding one game lead in the NFC East. They will get obliterated by the Ravens this week and change QBs for Week 6 – likely Alex Smith, if not Kyle Allen.

Fantasy Player Notes…

 -- If Alex Smith takes over…we won’t know what to expect (because how ‘able’ is he?). But I assume if he is being 53-man rostered, and not put on I.R. for weeks or for the year – then he must be ready to go. It’s a great human-interest story WFC can rally behind and go win the division…if Smith has any juice left.

Assuming Smith is still solid…everything on offense gets a bit better upon a change (that will happen Week 6).

It would get better with Kyle Allen too; anything is better than Haskins.

 -- It’s not getting any better with Baker Mayfield (16-23 for 156 yards, 2 TDs/0 INT). Baker still has talent. I see flashes of old Baker now and then, but this offense/passing game is dreadful for him and OBJ is absolutely killing him. No QB-WR tandem has worse chemistry than Baker-OBJ.

Baker is ‘playing well’, supposedly/that’s because they’ve won two games. He isn’t even averaging over 200 passing yards per game this year.

I want nothing to do with him in Cleveland, not for redraft or Dynasty. His career is in peril and even a change of teams could be a 1-2 year makeover. No, thanks. Too many other QBs to ride with.

 -- This Cleveland offense beating up Cincy and Washington isn’t fooling me, that’s why I think you’re OK to explore a trade ultra-high on Nick Chubb (19-108-2, 1-2-0/1) in PPR. Not because he isn’t a talent, but that he just beat up the #31 and #21 run defenses for 2 TDs each game…and that will halt when he has to face top run defenses Weeks 5 (IND) and 6 (PIT) and Week 4 vs. DAL may not be great either. He comes off the field most passing situations for Kareem Hunt – it’s a tenuous situation where he’s trading like a top 3-5 overall RB for fantasy…but could fall to RB 1.5-2.0 the rest of the way, easily (in PPR).

 -- J.D. McKissic (5-15-0, 3-37-0/4) still looks like the best Washington RB to me. He started again, is playing the majority of the snaps but Haskins can’t get him the ball as often as he should. Haskins takes one look downfield and fires…he doesn’t have time to dump passes off. Kyle Allen and Alex Smith happily do that.

 -- Rookie WR Isaiah Wright (4-29-0/4) is a talented football player. I’m surprised he’s leapt Steve Sims in the starting lineup, but Sims doesn’t work well with Haskins’ style. Wright is a hard-nosed big play guy who has a serious ‘drops’ problem from time-to-time. I hope he works out, but this is a big hit on Sims’ career…the fact the new regime pulled the plug so fast – unless Sims’ toe was bad, and he tried to play through it. I don’t think so, I think they are rolling dice haphazardly hoping something clicks with Haskins…but it’s not the WR’s issue.

 -- Montez Sweat (4 tackles, 1 sack, 2.5 TFLs, 3 QB hits) fared pretty well with Chase Young lost in-game. Sweat is coming into his own as a top pass rusher talent. He should get 10+ sacks easy this year.

Snap Counts of Interest:

34 = Chubb

29 = Hunt

54 = Hooper

40 = H Bryant

63 = McLaurin

45 = Inman

29 = I Wright

23 = Sims

18 = Gandy-Golden

34 = McKissic

25 = Gibson