The Cleveland Browns are not a great football team. Most experts and casual fans agree on this point, including, apparently, Adrian Peterson’s daughter. However, after their Week 3 game against the Vikings yielded the team’s first win of the season, they may be a lot closer to good than pundits previously thought.
The Browns scored 31 points in their victory on Sunday after putting up just 16 in their first two games combined. Much of that relative offensive explosion can be attributed to the improved play Cleveland received from its quarterback with Brian Hoyer replacing the injured Brandon Weeden after Week 2.
The former Michigan State standout threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns (albeit against an admittedly shaky Vikings defense) and apparently became America’s newest superhero in the process as well. More importantly as far as fantasy owners should be concerned, he put some of the players around him back on the fantasy map.
Hoyer is a relatively unknown commodity in the NFL; Sunday was just his second start in five years in the league, so I would advise fantasy owners to wait to pick him up until he’s proven he can be a viable asset on a consistent basis.
Opportunistic owners should be focused not on Hoyer, but on some of the players catching his passes, in particular wide receiver Josh Gordon and tight end Jordan Cameron.
Gordon is only 22, but he has already established himself as a premier deep threat in the NFL. The 16.1 yards per catch he averaged on his 50 receptions in 2012 were the third most among rookies and ranked eighth overall in the league. That’s despite playing with Weeden, a quarterback who ranked 27th among passers on yards per attempt.
The former Baylor wide-out played his first game of the season on Sunday after being suspended the first two due to drug-related infractions and showed no signs of a sophomore slump. He had 10 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown thanks to a whopping 19 targets from Hoyer, which led the league in Week 3. It’s clear that Gordon is the Cleveland quarterback’s No. 1 target and will act as a security blanket for the inexperienced thrower.
Cameron is not the down-field threat Gordon is though. His 13.5 YPC is not too shabby but he has been a wizard at getting himself open in the red zone this year. I wrote about the USC product in my weekly “Who’s Up, Who’s Down” column Tuesday, but Cameron’s productivity this year bears repeating.
He’s hauled in four TDs and 20 receptions already, figures that are good for second and seventh in the league respectively. It warrants mentioning that his best game was also the one in which Hoyer started; he made three of his trips to pay dirt on Sunday.
It is very possible that both Cameron’s and Gordon’s fantasy value will fluctuate with the performance of Hoyer (or Weeden if he wins the job back), so it is unlikely they will continue the kind of production they showed against Minnesota’s shoddy defense.
On the other hand, even if Hoyer plays decently, his two favorite targets are worthy of consideration in deeper leagues. If the quarterback happens to have more 300-yard performances, however, Cameron and Gordon could find themselves in rarefied fantasy air. Keep an eye on the Browns. They’re not great, but they’re improving.
Dylan Sinn is a freelance contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSinn or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
