There's Got to be a Morning After

In my last post, I mentioned Jonathan Cooper.  Sobo recently looked at his performance vs the Bengals in depth.

I had to read over some parts a few times, very slowly, and think I understood most of it, eventually.  It was very educational!  

Click the link at your own risk, but if you feel lazy you should just trust my interpretation here.

First off, this time, the Browns ran an inside zone scheme which Isaiah Crowell kicks butt in HINT HINT.  It so happens that this scheme is tailor made for Jonathan Cooper and Cameron Erving HINT H I N T.

This offensive line ran on the Bengals front seven, right AT Vontez Burfict, who Cooper took care of after handing a DT off to Pazstor.

Cooper has extra-long arms, giving him a reach advantage over most tackles and linebackers.  He gets his hands on them before they can get moving, and then can push off them to peel off to the second level.

Erving also did much better picking up stunts, but Cooper was great at this, too.  Much as I like John Greco, he has been beaten like a drum on stunts recently.

That's not unusual or anything; as I've said, stunts are very hard to stop for any guard or center.  That's why Cooper's performance here was truly exceptional.

Per Sobo, Jonathan Cooper can get stood up in man blocking, but excels in space.  In other words, he is a zone-blocker and a puller.

Hue Jackson, please please please just let these guys do what these guys do best and stick with the inside zone.  If you do, you can run the ball with Isaiah Crowell.  Even on Buffalo.

And the Browns HAVE TO run the ball in that nasty weather with Griffin at quarterback.  This is a good chance for some zone read stuff (and play action off it).

The Browns will probably lose anyway, because of McCoy plus Tyrod's legs, but if they use ZONE BLOCKING they can run the ball on anybody in the NFL H I N T  H I N T.

Anyway, I hope I didn't just put the whammy on Jonathan Cooper.  I was just about to express optimism about him going forward.

It's a chain reaction.  If Cooper succeeds (that is, if the Browns use a lot of zone blocking HINT), it means with the return of Bitonio, there might be a four-player competition for right tackle in 2017, and Greco could compete with two other guys to start at center.

Or, they can be stubborn about man blocking and indeed have to draft players better suited to that scheme, and let some of these guys go kick ass with other teams.