The Cleveland Browns took one on the chin from the Saints in week eleven. The Browns’ fourth-quarter collapse saw the game go from tied at 14 a piece to an eventual 21-point loss. Now it is time to pull it all apart and bring you the week 11 Stock Report.
Luckily for the 2-8 Browns, they do not have long to dwell on their failed mission in New Orleans. The Browns have a quick turnaround with a home game against the Steelers on Thursday. Before we turn the page to Pittsburgh, we must sift through the wreckage and bring the stock report from the Browns’ week 11 loss.
Stock Up: Jerry Jeudy
It can be hard to find things to be excited about when you lose the way the Browns did to the Saints. However, the Browns passing game looked better than it had all season in the week 11 loss. The largest contribution from the pass catchers came from Jerry Jeudy.
Jeudy enjoyed his best game since joining the Browns, catching six passes for a whopping 142 yards and a touchdown. The Browns’ biggest highlight of the afternoon came on an out-of-structure play at the end of the first quarter.
Winston was flushed out to his left and found Jeudy out at the Browns’ 35-yard line, Jeudy turned upfield and outran the defense for an 89-yard touchdown. It was the team’s longest play of the season by 50 yards. Even if you took that one play away, Jeudy still averaged over 10 yards per reception on the afternoon.
Jeudy’s trajectory since Jameis Winston took over at quarterback is promising. In Winston’s three starts, Jeudy has 18 receptions for 294 yards and a touchdown. This past offseason the Browns invested in Jeudy with the hope that he would prove to be a solid number two receiver for the team. With competent quarterback play, the acquisition of Jeudy looks like a solid investment.
Stock Down: Juan Thornhill
In a game marred by less-than-stellar effort on the defensive side of the ball, one player’s lack of effort stood out more than others. Juan Thornhill turned in his least inspired performance since joining the Browns in 2023.
Thornhill registered five tackles on the afternoon. However, Thornhill’s tackling was not the issue in New Orleans, it was his effort to put himself into position to make tackles that is the matter of concern.
There were several plays where Thornhill turned in a halfhearted effort, but one play stood out above the rest. Early in the second quarter, Marques Valdez-Scantling caught an unchecked shallow crosser, turned upfield, and ran up the sideline for a 71-yard touchdown. Thornhill was in the middle of the field and initially looked to have an advantageous pursuit angle, but then it looked as if Thornhill never transitioned into a full sprint, and the pursuit angle was quickly erased by MVS.
There are only two explanations for Thornhill’s inability to track down Valdez-Scantling, either Thornhill simply does not have the speed necessary to close the distance or he did not fully commit himself to the pursuit. Unless Thornhill is battling an unknown injury that hampered his effort, either answer is unacceptable for a free safety at the NFL level.
Stock Up: Denzel Ward
Denzel Ward is having a mercurial 2024 season. Either the Browns’ Pro Bowl defensive back is on the field playing like a top-flight cornerback or he is off the field and injured, there has been no in-between this season.
Sunday’s game in New Orleans was a microcosm of his 2024 campaign. Early in the first quarter, Ward visited the medical tent. Then after returning to the game, Ward, who leads the NFL in pass breakups, registered his first interception on the season on an ill-advised throw from the Saints’ Swiss Army knife, Taysom Hill.
Ward would later register his second takeaway of the game when he stripped Hill of the football inside the red zone. Unfortunately, Ward also suffered a rib injury while recovering the ball and was forced to miss the end of the first half.
Due to the Browns’ overall lack of success, it will be difficult for Ward to receive the recognition he deserves. While an All-Pro nomination might elude him in 2024, Ward, when he is on the field, is playing like one of the best corners in the NFL. The Warden will square off with plenty of talented receivers down the back stretch of the Browns’ schedule, but his toughest opponent might just be the dread injury bug.
Stock Down: Dustin Hopkins
Coming into the 2024 season, the Browns had several players that qualified as candidates for regression. Names like David Njoku and Amari Cooper were bandied about all offseason as players that were likely to take a step back in 2024. However, due to his outlying success in 2023, maybe we should have seen kicker Dustin Hopkins as someone who could fail to live up to expectations.
In 2023, Hopkins was automatic, converting 33 of his 36 field goal attempts, including a flabbergasting eight of eight from over 50 yards. Hopkins also set an NFL record in 2023, making at least one field goal from over 50 yards in five consecutive games.
Unfortunately for the Browns and Hopkins, the kicker has struggled mightily in 2024. Coming into Sunday’s game in New Orleans, Hopkins was 14 of 18 for a 77.8 field goal percentage, which is a career worst for the 10-year NFL veteran kicker.
Hopkins saw that percentage take another dip on Sunday when he missed his only two field goal attempts, pulling them both to the left. The optics of it look worse because Hopkins actually missed three times (all to the left) but was bailed out on one due to a Saints’ penalty, even though he would go on to miss a chip shot later in the same drive.
One of Hopkins’s misses came from 51 yards out, which puts him at four of eight on the season, matching his career percentage before he came to Cleveland last season. Hopkins’s two misses on the day did impede the Browns’ momentum, but because the Saints pulled away by 21 points his performance was ultimately not a deciding factor. The Browns need Hopkins to turn it around because he’s not just the kicker this year, he is under contract with 2.8 million guaranteed next in 2025.
