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The Cleveland Browns haven't won a game this season. But they have been competitive. The Browns have remained competitive largely thanks to Cody Kessler's solid play, Terrelle Pryor's versatility and Isaiah Crowell's consistency. The Browns are the last remaining winless team but they've played three games on the road and have lost two games by one score, they should have beaten the Miami Dolphins but their replaement kicker missed multiple field goals including a game winner at the very end.
In short, the Browns are better than they appear. The caveat for fantasy purposes it that their positives are almost exclusively on the offensive side of the ball.
Running back Isaiah Crowell fell in drafts during the offseason because it was unclear if he would get enuogh carries on a Browns team that could have been uncompetitive. If playing from behind, the Browns were(/are) much more likely to rely on Duke Johnson Jr than Crowell. On a losing-but-competitive team, Crowell has thrived so far this season. He currently ranks second in the league in rushing yards with 394 and has scored three rushing touchdowns. Only Ezekiel Elliott has more rushing yards than Crowell but the Browns back is averaging an incredible 2.1 more yards per attempt. LeGarrette Blount and Carlos Hyde are the only running backs to run for more yards than Crowell.
Althuogh his fantasy value is limited by his involvement in the passing game, Crowell has just six receptions for 53 yards, Crowell's consistency as a runner in an offense that is setting him up for success should allow him to sustain his production.
The Browns have a good offensive line. The departures of Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz in the offseason downgraded the unit but its reputation suffered too much for losing those pieces. The left side of the line remains particularly impressive with Joe Thomas and Joel Bitonio being two of the best players at their respective positions. For Crowell's longest run of last week's game against Washington, Bitonio carried out the key block while Thomas pushed his man off the edge. In the above gif you can see how Bitonio reaches the defensive lineman on his outside shoulder to seal the corner for Crowell.
Crowell perfectly exeutes this play. He aggressively pushes wide with his initial movement to force the flow of the defensive front with the offensive line. Before passing the point of no return he plants his feet and cuts vertically to advance onto the second level. Center Austin Reiter and right guard John Greco do a good job to push their defenders clear of Crowell's running lane.
The Washington defensive front isn't an impressive unit but Crowell's offensive line proved to be effective against a more intimidating unit when they faced the Miami Dolphins in Week 3. Crowell rushed for 79 yards on 15 carries, a 5.3 average per carry, with 25 of those yards coming on one play.
In the previous example against Washington, Crowell ran outside zone and ran untouched onto the second level. For this 25-yard gain against the Dolphins, he again goes untouched to the second level but this time the offensive line blocks specific defenders. The left side of the line gives up penetration as Thomas is unable to cut off the defensive end as Bitonio goes to double team Ndamukong Suh. Importantly, Thomas doesn't panic and grab the defender. Instead he understands the design of the play and shifts around to help ride his momentum past Crowell as Crowell advances upfield.
On the front side of the play the right tackle rides Mario Williams across Crowell's face while the linebackers on the second level overplay the outside. Kiko Alonso runs himself out of the play but only because Crowell was decisive and ran hard.
With his burst initially Crowell is able to neutralize the ublocked defenders and accelerate onto the second level. He has run with that kind of determination and discipline throughout the season, something that hasn't always been true of his play. Hue Jackson is relying on Crowell running the ball and appears commited to him as a focal point in his offense. That is only giving the relatively young running back more confidence.
Jackson's offense aims to keep the defense off balance. He uses different formations and different play designs to attack the defense in different ways. In the above play you can see Crowell run from shotgun with a pulling lineman out in front. On the front side of the play the Browns use a double tema before one blocker leaves the lineman to account for a linebacker. The Washington defense reacts to this play well and fills the designed running lane outsid. Crowell recognzies this and adjusts accordingly.
Crowell's lead blocker was met aggressively at the line of scrimmage. The defender ploughed into the pulling guard but in doing so gave up his balance for a split second. This allowed Crowell to attack the space inside of him with his acceleration. He was through the running lane before any defender could react.
On this play against the Ravens, Jackson motions a wide receiver behind his quarterback as the ball is snapped to threaten an end around. This does two things. First, it threatens the backside of the play to create hesitation in the linebackers to that side of the field. Second, it swaps a safety for a corneback on the side of the field that the Browns eventually run to. This is a small detail but it's generally better to run at or block a cornerback than it is a safety. it's why teams design plays where the receiver angles infield to block the safety from the start even with a cornerback right in front of him.
After motioning the receiver, Jackson also uses a read-option look to hold the backside defenders. The combination of the option look and the end-around receiver force number 90 and number 54 to stay on the backside of the play for a moment longer than they want to. This also creates a numbers advantage for the blockers leading the way for Crowell.
Crowell easily gets to the second level and gains eight yards before being taken down.
His longest run of the season, an 85-yard sprint to the endzone, came against the Ravens when the Browns ran power. He lined up in the I formation behind his fullback. His fullback and a pulling right guard acted as his lead blockers as the left side of the line clamped down on the nose tackle and defensive end. The left-side tight end and the fullback cleared out the edge while the pulling right guard met the arriving linebacker in the hole.
From there, Crowell's acceleration sent him untouched onto the second level before he ran between two defenders to begin the home stretch to the endzone.
Expeting Crowell to maintain his current pace is irrational. He is on pace for 244 carries over 16 games. Nobody has ever averaged 6.5 yards per attempt on 244 or more carries. If he did manage that he would finish the season with 1,586 yards. Even if he drops off to 5.0 yards per carry, still an impressive number, he would finish the year with more than 1,200 rushing yards. The hope for Crowell is that he can maintain his touchdown rate while potentially growing his role in the receiving game, even if only slightly. Regardless, he should continue to be a very valuable back.
The 23-year old is probably at his peak for the season right now. You should be aggressively trading for him, but the temptation to move too far in the opposite direction always exists also. We didn't expect Crowell to have a hgue year entering the season and nobody wants to get caught overreacting at the wrong time. Crowell has been productive for four weeks now. It's not like he had one or even two big games and then did nothing. He could follow in the footsteps of Devnota Freeman as a young back who took some time to develop and find his idael fit before exploding into a star.
For the long term, these four games have given us a glimpse of Crowell's potential at just 23 years of age. For the short-term, his production is the result of a combination of good individual play, quality execution on the offensive line and diverse play calling. His opponents haven't been stellar but they haven't been feeble either.
