Getty Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods.
Despite holding the Baltimore Ravens to only 3 points in Week 15, Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods may still be on the hot seat. The Browns’ up-and-down defensive performances in 2022 have led many insiders to question Woods’ scheme and, ultimately, his ability to right the ship.
Following the Browns’ 13-3 victory, Cleveland.com’s Dan Labbe warned, “You have to proceed with caution” in regard to Woods.
“Can you bring Joe Woods knowing two years in a row your defense has been a disaster to start the season?” Labbe asked during an appearance on the December 18 episode of “The Orange and Brown Talk” podcast.
Labbe said fans shouldn’t “read too much into” the Browns’ holding the Ravens to 3 points because “they still did give up a bunch of chunk plays.” He also noted that Baltimore had scored only 13, 10 and 16 points in three of the previous four games before the loss to the Browns.
“I don’t think he has done enough to necessarily save his job at this point — and I don’t think he can,” Labbe said.
All Part of the Business
Woods, who has been holding critics at bay all season long, appears to be used to the noise. Following the Browns’ 39-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins, he addressed the issue at his postgame press conference.
“It’s part of the business,” Woods said. “You can’t let it affect you. You can’t ride the emotional roller coaster. I know what type of business I’m in. It’s a fair business. We’re in the business of winning, and right now we’re not doing it, so that criticism is going to come. It’s deserved in some instances, and I promise you I’m doing everything I can to get this thing turned around. But we have to execute and we have to play better on game day.”
Woods has been forced to patch together a defense that’s been riddled with injuries. The Browns have lost four starting linebackers — Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Sione Takitaki, Jacob Phillips and Anthony Walkers Jr. — to season-ending injuries. Now, they head into their Week 16 game against the New Orleans Saints with three of their defensive stars — defensive ends Jadeveon Clowney and Myles Garrett and cornerback Denzel Ward listed as questionable, with Clowney in concussion protocol.
The Browns’ defense has been historically bad in terms of expected points added per rush, according to CBS Sports’ Cody Suek.
“Went all the way back to 2010. No defense has allowed more EPA per rush thru 10 weeks of a season than the 2022 #Browns at 0.139,” Suek tweeted on November 16.
Still, Garrett, the team’s biggest defensive star, has come to Woods’ defense.
“We are what we are. He’s our DC, and at the end of the day we’re on the field executing his calls, whether it’s a perfect call or not,” Garrett told reporters on December 15. “I don’t believe in perfect calls, we have to go out there and execute whatever he calls and make him right. Could there be better calls for situations? Of course. But he’s not perfect, neither are we. So we have to be able to go out there and make the most out of it and perform at a high level.”
The Future Is Now for the Browns
Even if the Browns (6-8) win out their remaining three games, they would still only have a 1% chance of making the postseason because of all the additional help they’d need from other teams. This team is effectively playing for next season and beyond.
As the offense continues to gel around Deshaun Watson, the defense must now focus on the future as well. The Browns defense will have an opportunity to make a statement in the final three games as they face off against three teams with struggling offenses in New Orleans, Washington and Pittsburgh. The way the defense closes out the season will undoubtedly impact the 2023 season. The question that remains is how significantly will it change the coaches room.