Browns Fantasy News

Nick Chubb should post RB1 numbers for the first half of the season and probably longer, as the team begins to incorporate Hunt into the offense over the second half of the season. Duke Johnson remains in limbo, but he should serve as Chubb's primary backup while Hunt serves his suspension.

Shocker. Beckham will now be paired with an up-and-coming young quarterback in Baker Mayfield and the duo are now poised to, as one former Brown put it, wreck the league. Normally we shy away from wide receivers who change teams, but Beckham should see a ton of work and he'll enjoy an upgrade at quarterback to boot. It's a downgrade for Jarvis Landry, who was already a question mark as his usage declined once Freddie Kitchens took over the play-calling. This is obviously a huge boost to Mayfield's 2019 outlook.

Hunt joins an already talented backfield featuring Nick Chubb and Duke Johnson. Chubb was shaping up to be a top 10 pick at his position, though Hunt's arrival throws some cold water on Chubb's upside. Johnson was already being underutilized and speculation has already begun that the team may look to move him. At this point, we're assuming that Hunt will compete with Johnson for backup duties behind Chubb. Keep in mind that the NFL has yet to announce Hunt's suspension, so that will play a factor as well.

It could be just the beginning of the awards for Barkley, who led the NFL with 2,028 scrimmage yards and joined Eric Dickerson and Edgerin James as the only rookies with at least 2,000 scrimmage yards. Barkley and Mayfield are also finalists for the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year – voted on by the fans – and remain the favorites to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year award given out by the league on the eve of Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta next month during its NFL Honors program.

They are close on a deal and it should be done Monday. It's a big hire for new coach Freddie Kitchens, Rapoport said. Wilks struggled with the Cards as the HC, but his defense in Carolina was solid before taking the Arizona job last year.

Monken called the plays for the Bucs for all but one game (Week 10's 16-3 loss to the Washington Redskins), and the Bucs averaged 315 passing yards, 95 rushing yards and 26.2 points per game while he was calling plays. However, new head coach Freddie Kitchens will probably retain play-calling duties in Cleveland after a successful run as the team's play-caller in the second half of the season. Monken should be a good sounding board for Kitchens and QB Baker Mayfield.

As the story mentions, Pagano guided the Ravens to the No. 3 overall finish in 2011 before jetting to Indianapolis to take over the Colts. There, his defenses finished higher than No. 20 just once (in 2014) in six seasons. Otherwise, the defense was a perennial problem. Given all the talent on that side of the ball, the Bears should be fine defensively.

After firing DeFilippo, HC Mike Zimmer demanded that Stefanski establish the run game. Under DeFilippo, the Vikings averaged 40.3 pass attempts and just 21.1 rush attempts, a 65.7% pass rate. In three games under Stefanski, Minnesota averaged 27.3 pass attempts and 27.7 rush attempts for a 49.7% pass rate. The team's offensive pace slowed from 61.4 plays per game under DeFilippo to 55.0 plays per game under Stefanski. Kirk Cousins and the passing game suffered in the final three games, as his fantasy PPG dropped from 17.6 PPG to 15.8 PPG. Meanwhile, Dalvin Cook's usage spiked--he averaged 14.9 touches per game under DeFilippo and 18.0 touches per game with Stefanski calling the plays. His PPG (PPR) was 17.7 over the final three games after averaging 12.9 PPG in eight games under DeFilippo. Adam Thielen's averages (21.8 vs. 8.0) took a major hit while Stefon Diggs' production (18.4 vs. 14.5) also dipped. Keep in mind that one of the three games was at home against the Bears, who own the top defense in the league. Still, the Stefanski full-time hire looks to be good for Cook and bad for Cousins, Thielen and Diggs.

Kitchens called plays for the Browns starting in Week 9 and it certainly appears that he had a positive impact on QB Baker Mayfield. In Mayfield's first five-plus games, he completed 58.3% of his passes for a 6.60 YPA and a 3.6% touchdown rate. In nine games with Kitchens calling plays, Mayfield completed 68.4% of his passes for an 8.57 YPA and a 7.2% touchdown rate. Mayfield was the No. 10 fantasy quarterback (19.0 PPG) in that span, so retaining Kitchens as the Browns' play-caller should result in continued growth for Mayfield in 2019.

John Ross is the only receiver left for the Bengals that you've even heard of. Between Jeff Driskel being under center and Ross' own struggles, we can't imagine that makes him anything more than a desperation flex play.