Browns Beat: Combination of Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell 'screams potential'

Browns RBs Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell lined up in the backfield together.

With quarterback Josh McCown standing tall in the shotgun formation, Johnson and Crowell flanked both of his sides. McCown sent Crowell in motion to the far right as a receiver, causing confusion among Cleveland’s linebackers. McCown hiked the ball, faked a pass toward Crowell and, instead, dumped it off on a screen play to Johnson, who bolted into the end zone for a touchdown.

The play design was complex, but the combination of Crowell and Johnson on the field together was more intriguing. Crowell’s powerful stride and bruising style combined with Johnson’s shiftiness and burst is a mixture that screams potential.

Once the Browns were done with Ben Tate (Week 11), Crowell out-touched Terrance West 90 to 68 over the final seven games, but West had the last laugh, turning 20 touches into 106 yards and a TD against the Ravens in Week 17. (A seemingly healthy Crowell touched the ball five times for 22 yards.) The team drafted Duke Johnson and last season HC Mike Pettine was handing out touches based on practice performance, so Crowell's current 6th round ADP seems steep given his uncertain workload and Cleveland's projected offensive struggles. In PPR formats, we'd rather pull the trigger on Johnson since it looks like the team is trying to find ways to get him on the field as much as possible.