BEREA, Ohio -- The numbers, as they say, do not lie, and the numbers for the Cleveland Browns indicate that the team’s offensive struggles in many ways go back to the loss of Alex Mack.
Rarely has a center been so valuable.
“I think,” tackle Joe Thomas said, “the two most important positions for stability are your center and your quarterback because those are the two guys that kind of get everyone else organized on the offense.”
Mack’s injury combined with the reality that the front office left the team without a viable replacement combined to submarine much of what the Browns wanted to do offensively.
“I just think overall, it also falls back to us being productive in the run game to start with,” coach Mike Pettine said. “What I’ve talked about for a long time is, given our circumstances, our best chance to be successful when we were was we stayed ahead of the sticks and we ran the ball well.”
Since Mack was hurt, the Browns have struggled to run and have had zero stability with three different starters at center (John Greco, Nick McDonald and Ryan Seymour). The numbers have suffered predictably:
In the five games Mack started the Browns averaged 146.4 yards rushing per game; in the 10 games he’s been out the rushing average is 88.7 yards.
The Browns had 100 yards rushing in four of the first five games. They have less than 100 in seven of 10 with Mack out.
All the other key numbers have a similar downturn, with points going from 27 per game to 16, and the record going from 3-2 with Mack to 4-6 without him.
It’s clear why Jacksonville signed Mack to a deal that paid him $10 million this season, a deal the Browns quickly matched, as Mack was a transition player.
A Pro Bowl center works in anonymity until he’s not there. Now his value cannot be questioned.
But the way the team tried to replace him compounded the problems caused by his injury.
Neither Greco or Seymour played center before the Browns put them at the position. Greco’s in-game transition in the game Mack was injured worked, but it didn’t work the week after. Paul McQuistan was the team’s major offseason offensive line signing, and he started at guard against Jacksonville. The next week he was out of the lineup as Greco moved back to guard with Nick McDonald moving in at center. McDonald hadn’t played in a game in 18 months and had two weeks of practice after he came off the Physically Unable to Perform List to prepare for his first start.
These things matter because line calls are made by the center, and often are done in a very few seconds.
“Communication at the NFL level happens very quickly,” Thomas said. “You have to analyze and diagnose the defense in seconds and then communicate to the other four guys exactly what you have to do within only a fraction of a second.
“That’s the type of thing that takes years and years of practice to get really good at and proficient. When you throw a couple new guys in there, they do their best, but there’s always going to be little hiccups.”
The Browns ended preseason by gutting their backup line corps, cutting Alex Parsons, who had worked at center during camp, along the way.
Parsons did not have a glittering career before joining the Browns, and teams can’t make roster decisions based on possible injuries, but the Browns left themselves without a legitimate backup center. GIven the importance of the running game, it seems a bit puzzling in hindsight.
The team might have assumed that Mack would not get injured, as he had not missed a down until this season. The Browns did do a good job of providing depth at other positions (receiver, inside linebacker, cornerback).
But serious, freak injury is only one play away.
Mack’s took the steam out of the Browns season because of what he brings to the table and the lack of options behind him.
