Browns HC Mike Pettine said that WR Andrew Hawkins has stood out at practice: “Short area of quickness, the ability to get in and out of breaks. There was a play today that the defense was called, the coverage was ‘51 double’, which meant double him, and he still got open. That’s when (Browns offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) got after (Browns defensive coordinator Jim) O’Neil a little bit and said, ‘You’re going to have to put three on him. He’s a guy that can win in the slot, and I think it’s important that if you have a guy that can win at tight end, and we think (Browns TE) Jordan (Cameron) can be that guy, and when you can win in the slot, that causes some issues defensively, when you have to now allocate maybe two defenders to the slot receiver as opposed to one."
Hawkins posted a solid 0.17 FP/snap for the Bengals, but he only played 20% of his team’s snaps in 2013. Now he joins a Browns team that will likely be without Josh Gordon, who is reportedly facing an 8-16 game suspension. Without Gordon in the lineup, Hawkins’ main competition for receiver targets may be Miles Austin and Nate Burleson. He could make a living in the slot and become a fantasy factor, especially in PPR formats.
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