When talking to Cleveland Browns fans, there are likely a number of things they would have liked to have seen differently in 2016. From quarterback choices down, it seemed the Browns were destined to lose constantly last year. However, when asked about the 2016 Nfl Season, Hue Jackson has one specific thing he wishes he could have changed about the season.
Jackson said that he did not feed the ball to running back Isaiah Crowell enough last year. The Cleveland Browns head coach said that he beats himself up about that.
Isaiah Crowell in 2016
Through the 2016 NFL season, Isaiah Crowell was one of the better running backs in the NFL when it came to yards-per-carry.
Crowell averaged 4.8 yards-per-carry, which ranked seventh in the NFL for all running backs who carried the ball at least 10 times a game. However, that is where the problem lies.
While Isaiah Crowell ranked seventh in yards-per-carry, he finished the season 15th in total rushing yards with only 952 yards. He also ran for seven touchdowns, which was tied for 15th in the NFL. Hue Jackson can only imagine what Isaiah could have done if he had carried the ball more.
Through the 2016 NFL season, the Cleveland Browns only handed Isaiah Crowell the ball 198 times, which was 20th in the NFL. While Crowell ranked 15th in rushing yards, he was the only running back in the Top 20 who had less than 200 carries.
Jordan Howard of the Chicago Bears was second in rushing yards in 2016 with 1,313 yards. If Isaiah Crowell had carried the ball the exact same amount of times as Howard (252), he would have ranked eighth in the NFL in rushing yards.
The 2017 Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns made some major changes in the 2017 NFL Draft and while they still have major question marks at quarterback, the team should improve drastically from 2016.
However, one thing that should remain constant is Isaiah Crowell at running back.
Despite having poor to average quarterbacks all season long, the Cleveland Browns threw the ball 63.4 percent of the time in 2016. Only three teams threw the ball more. However, despite throwing the ball more than almost every team in the NFL, the Browns ranked 27th in the NFL in their percentage of their yards that came from throwing the ball.
Hue Jackson said that the Browns were in a lot of the games in 2016 and were throwing the ball a lot to come from behind. However, he said that Isaiah Crowell was one of the most productive players on his team and this year Browns fans will finally get to see what happens when Isaiah gets the chance to run more.
