CLEVELAND, Ohio - With Jarvis Landry going on injured reserve Tuesday for a minimum of three games, Donovan Peoples-Jones and rookies Anthony Schwartz and Demetric Felton will have to grow up fast and be ready for tougher assignments.
There’s also a good chance that Odell Beckham Jr. will make his 2021 debut Sunday against the Bears, a league source tells cleveland.com, but even if he does, he’ll likely be on a pitch count.
It means that Peoples-Jones, the training camp phenom, and Schwartz, the world-class speedster, will have to put on their big-boy pants and make like Landry and Beckham at times, including being covered by better defensive backs than they normally would’ve faced.
The Browns will also grow the role of triple-threat Felton, who proved during Sunday’s 31-21 victory over the Texans that he’s ready to take on some of Landry’s slot duties.
In fact, the whirling dervish out of UCLA looks like an enormous bargain for the Browns in the sixth round.
But if the Browns are to overcome the loss of their inspirational leader and most reliable receiver in Landry, Peoples-Jones and Schwartz will have to step up and try to avoid the mistakes they made on Sunday. Peoples-Jones had the ball popped out his hands by Justin Reid’s helmet after a 15-yard catch over the middle, and Schwartz stopped on his route over the deep middle to allow Reid to pick off Mayfield’s pass.
Mayfield, who took blame after the loss to Kansas City for a fourth-quarter toss to Schwartz that Juan Thornhill ripped away from him, wasn’t nearly as magnanimous after the Texans game.
“I’m trusting him to be in a certain spot, and he has to roll it in there,’’ Mayfield said. “It’s going to be a bang-bang play. That’s what this league is. We’re going to learn from it, but we just have to take care of the ball. That’s just plain and simple. We have to take care of the ball and stop hurting ourselves.”
Coach Kevin Stefanski also held the third-round pick out of Auburn accountable.
“A young player, Schwartz has made some plays for us already,’’ Stefanski said. “He’s going to continue to make big plays for us, but we would love to see a receiver going there, and at worst, break up an interception and make an incomplete pass. That’s a mistake that a young player makes and he will not make it again.”
In his defense, Schwartz has been called upon for more duty than he was supposed to get early because of Beckham not being ready to start the season. Just hours before the Chiefs game, when Beckham determined after pregame warmups that he wasn’t ready to play, Schwartz learned that he’d receive what offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt described as “a fair amount’' of Beckham’s reps.
He took 31 snaps in Kansas City for 53%, and 30 against the Texans for 49%, which is probably twice as much as he would’ve received had Beckham been active.
What’s more, Schwartz assumed the enormous responsibility both weeks despite missing most of the offseason and training camp with a hamstring injury. Just when he thought he was healed up at the start of camp, he tweaked it again and was back on the sidelines in a bucket hat.
Regardless of how many years a player has been around, missing most of training camp usually results in a rocky road during the season. Some players can overcome it, but most struggle, at least early on.
A speedster who runs a 4.26 in the 40, Schwartz stayed in the game mentally, but there’s no substitute for fighting off a veteran defensive back like Reid who’s determined to break up the pass, catch it himself, or make you pay. Whereas savvy veterans such Landry and Beckham usually draw the team’s best DB, those assignments will now go to Peoples-Jones and Schwartz, and they must be ready.
As for Peoples-Jones, he was All-Berea throughout camp, but live action is completely different than no-contact ball. He too, will have to step up his game, especially drawing better defenders. Given that Peoples-Jones, the Browns’ sixth-round pick in 2020 out of Michigan, came up big in some of the biggest moments last season, it’s easy to forget that he was targeted only 20 times and caught 14 passes for 304 yards, with two TDs.
The two TDs were so memorable it created the perception that he was much more involved than he really was. His first was the 24-yard game-winner with 11 seconds left in the 37-34 victory over Cincinnati, and his second was the 75-yarder in Tennessee that proved to be the difference in the 41-35 victory.
But Peoples-Jones is still a young receiver, and the occasional mistake will be inevitable.
Even Felton, who proved on Sunday that the moment isn’t too big for him with a spinning, rumbling 33-yard catch and run for a TD and another 18-yard reception, will have defenders gunning for him now that he’s had some early success. Stefanski noted that Felton’s role will grow, and rightfully so, but the Browns will have to be patient with their youngsters while they come up the learning curve.
Mayfield’s Ol’ Reliable Rashard Higgins will also be ready for more action the more he heals from a sore hamstring that’s plagued him over the past month.
The Browns also have plenty of other savvy pass-catchers who can help fill in until arguably their best receiver gets back.
They have three excellent receiving tight ends in David Njoku, Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant, and an outstanding pass-catching back in Kareem Hunt. He led the Browns with 5 TD catches last season and had 7 in 2018 with the Chiefs. He also caught 53 passes for 455 yards and 3 TDs as a rookie in KC, and can line up in the slot our split out wide.
In this embarrassment-of-riches season, they’ll just need to scheme it up a little differently with Landry out. They’ve already played a significant amount of 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends) and will continue to do so.
Landry’s also a big part of their gadgetry, bringing the threat of reverses, sweeps, touchdown passes and flea-flickers on any given play. Again, the Browns have plenty of other weapons who can engage in such trickery, especially if Beckham comes back this week.
As for Landry’s emotional leadership, many of his teammates also bring the fire, including Mayfield, Beckham, Hunt, and Higgins. Nick Chubb, in his own quiet run-through-a-brick-wall way, is also inspirational leader for the unit, so contagious-by-committee will be the order of the day.
“There’s only one Jarvis Landry,’’ Hunt said. “He’s a heck of a leader and a heck of a teammate, and he brings it every time he gets on the field. You can’t [pick] one person.”
But you can pick your poison in this offense, and even without Landry, the kids will be all right.
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