The 2021 NFL season may barely be in the books, but Dave Richard is already getting a jump on his 2022 preparation by highlighting at least one key statistic to know for each NFL team that had a major bearing on their 2021 performance and could mean a great deal for their 2022 outlook. In this space, Dave dives into the Cleveland Browns.
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Cleveland Browns stats to know
It sure looks like this offense will have a refreshed receiving corps in 2022. Two guys Fantasy managers are eyeballing are Donovan Peoples-Jones and Anthony Schwartz. Only one of them saw an uptick in playing time beginning in Week 9 when Odell Beckham fell out of favor in Cleveland.
- Peoples-Jones: 16% target share, 17.6 yards per catch, 15.3 average depth of target, 4.86 YAC/reception, four drops, two targets/zero catches inside of 10 yards.
- Schwartz: 3% target share, 11.0 yards per catch, 10.0 average depth of target, 0.67 YAC/reception, one drop, one target/one touchdown inside of 10 yards.
Peoples-Jones is a tall, rangy receiver who should have a shot to start for the Browns next year. It would help if Baker Mayfield threw more catchable passes his way (58.1% catchable from Week 9 on -- a massive problem), but Peoples-Jones' 2.1 yards of separation per catch ranked fifth-worst among qualifying receivers and tight ends. Schwartz, meanwhile, will need some significant improvement in his technique this offseason to garner more attention than a gadget/deep threat receiver in 2022.
Peoples-Jones and Schwartz could step in as sleeper picks in 2022 as will several players from the 2021 rookie draft class. But which ones will actually live up to the hype? The Fantasy Football Today team dove deep into the 2021 WR rookie class and what their outlooks look like for 2022:
If the Browns don't make any significant upgrades at receiver and let Jarvis Landry move on to another team, Peoples-Jones could be viewed as a potential target hog and volume-based riser up draft boards.
