2022 Dynasty/Fantasy Preseason Week 3 Game Report: Bears 21, Browns 20
The Bears ran with their 1st-team offense for almost the entire 1st-half, ditto their (mostly) 1st-team defense…facing, I guess some of the Browns 1st-team offense(?) but mostly 2nd/3rd-team offense and defense most of the game.
I’m not sure what the Browns were doing with personnel, but it was mostly backups with a few 1st-team names in there for a spell…and whatever it was, the Browns’ players really didn’t look like they wanted to be there. Give Cleveland an award for this preseason -- absolutely the worst-looking team of the 2022 preseason and there’s not a close second. Whenever the Browns went with some kind 1st-team, especially on offense this preseason (Watson, or now Brissett) -- it was a disaster.
From my view and reading into current events: This Browns team plays with no heart, no spirit, no energy. The team has taken on the stoic nature of their head coach…plus they’ve wrapped themselves in the blanket of negativity from all the Deshaun nonsense, or they didn’t wrap their own selves…someone (the football world) is suffocating them with that blanket.
No one wants to play in Cleveland, the city itself. No one in their right mind wants to play with Deshaun. The head coach is an Ivy leaguer above it all. The ownership is a debacle. This whole thing is going to implode and be a nightmare for several residual years.
The downfall began with this 2022 preseason.
Actually, it began at the press conference announcing Watson signed as the newest member of the Browns -- a deal, a trade, a contract that will go down as the single worst in all of NFL history. Leave it to the Browns to accomplish such a feat.
The Browns were the worst team of the 2022 preseason -- and this Week 3 game was probably their worst overall performance of said preseason. All of which led to a great night for Justin Fields, who is now ‘fixed’/elite (according to the fawning media) because of it…
Dynasty/Fantasy Player Notes…
-- Justin Fields (14-16 for 156 yards, 3 TDs/0 INT), who has heretofore been ‘bad’ and/or ‘lacking’…suddenly completes every pass in a game -- and is a guy who can barely throw a TD pass in real games or preseason ones…well, he threw for 3 TDs in a half here.
Oh, Fields is so awesome!
Oh, the new O-C is so creative!!
Man, fans have no context.
I’ve not seen guys so wide-open in a professional football game in my life/this entire preseason. Little-to-no pressure on Fields. Little-to-no coverage…guys were WIDE open. Browns secondary guys sleepwalking around. When a Bears receiver would catch a TD pass, there wouldn’t be a defender within a yard or two+ of them.
Look at these three TD passes…look at the space the receivers have, look at the time/lack of pressure Fields has, but most importantly look at the reaction/body language of the Browns defenders after…they aren’t even mad or fazed or anything: https://youtu.be/cWVB1oZXAZI
Justin Fields is a bottom 10 NFL QB in an increasingly one of the toughest/most loaded divisions in football with a terrible RB group and a weak receiver group (except Mooney is great but wasted with Fields). This won’t end well. Beating Cleveland’s vacant 2nd/3rd-team defense is not a sign of future returns.
-- I’m not even going to comment on Fields’ counterpart, Jacoby Brissett (13-23 for 109 yards, 0 TD/1 INT). The Browns are a joke, and they are led by one of the 3-5 worst QBs in the league Week 1. Congrats.
-- Speaking of that Bears receiver group, two things to note…
1) This receiver group would be better if they started Dante Pettis (3-37-1/4), but I see they’ve listed him 7th on their depth chart…out of their 7 receivers.
Their proposed starting WR trio: Mooney-Pringle-St. Brown…you gotta be kidding me. Mooney may be one of the 10 best WRs in the game. Pringle and St. Brown are not.
Don’t worry…Tajae Sharpe and N’Keal Harry are there to help.
2) Cole Kmet (3-36-1/3) is every mediocre, stiff, plodding TE the NFL LOVES…but he is not a difference maker. He caught a wide-open TD pass here…breaking a streak of like 22 preseason and regular season games he’s played without a TD recently.
Kmet caught a broken/lack of coverage or QB pressure TD here and that now confirms him (per the fans) as a great sleeper TE the mainstream has been pushing all year.
The Bears are lucky the Browns exist to take heat off the other problematic NFL franchises.
I’m telling you -- it’s the Midwest and Northeast franchises, especially the ones that play outdoors at home…they’re all slow dying/regressing. There’s a reason.
-- David Montgomery (9-28-0, 1-50-0/1) got some work in. He looked solid/OK…but considering how lax the Browns defense was, you would’ve expected more here.
DM is the workhorse…so that’s one of the bottom 5 rushing attacks in the league…with a bottom 5-10 QB and bottom 5-10 O-Line and bottom 5 receiver group. It’s going to be a GREAT year in Chicago!!!
They do have a good defense, though. Eberflus is a very good defensive coach.
-- D’Ernest Johnson (7-29-0, 1-0-0/1) has been toiling away these preseason games…while Chubb-Hunt don’t dare see the field; they’re kept safe. That’s what they think of Johnson.
So, obviously there is no secret Hunt trade being worked on or they would’ve kept D’Ernest away from contact to be the worker with Chubb in-season.
This Browns team/regime is so messed up. The evidence is -- they think they can win with this group and stay in it until they get the golden boy back at QB, so they won’t do the right thing and deal away Hunt and cash out on this season.
-- The Browns best player on offense: Rookie kicker Cade York (2/3 FGs). York nailed another 50+ yard FG here…a 57-yarder. And his lone miss was a just missed 58-yarder. He’s gonna be a top 10 FF kicker if your scoring system rewards distance FGs.
