Best Browns Outcome: David Njoku, Austin Hooper Play Well, Both Stay After 2021

The best case scenario for the Cleveland Browns would see tight ends Austin Hooper and David Njoku both have excellent seasons, then extend Njoku in order to keep both beyond the 2021 season.

Despite the offense the Browns run under head coach Kevin Stefanski as well as offenses that featured multiple tight ends on premium deals, there’s a sense that the Browns need to choose Hooper or Njoku. Some of this is about the financial realities the Browns are about to face and some of this is about a belief in second year tight end Harrison Bryant, who made a good impression as a rookie. There’s also a resistance to accept that second and third tight ends can be critical to an offense and teams can pay handsomely for more than one.

Hooper had a down season by his standards, but he was hardly bad. That said, he does have a significant amount of pressure on him to have a much better season as a receiver in 2021. Pressure that recent interviews suggest he totally embraces.

In 2020, Hooper played in 13 games. Hooper had 435 yards and four touchdowns, plus 27 first downs. Those numbers are pretty poor by Hooper’s standards.

Save for his rookie year, 2020 is the only season where Hooper was below 526 yards receiving and his catch rate over his four years was 77.2 percent. His catch rate in 2020 was 65.7 percent, a significant drop from that mark.

Had he simply caught 77.2 percent of targets in 2020, he would’ve had 513 yards for the season, which is far more acceptable. There are still areas he can improve including after the catch, but simply producing to the averages from his last three seasons, he would’ve been viewed far better.

A full offseason with an unfettered ability to catch passes with Baker Mayfield, as well as increased comfort within the offense for everyone should produce far better results.

If not, then the Browns will have to make a decision on his contract, which then escalates to $13.25 million in 2022 and 2023. That’s a decision that would need to be made independent of the rest of the roster as well as Njoku.

Njoku, for his part, showed remarkable promise at the very beginning and then the last month, and the playoffs. Against the Baltimore Ravens to open the season, it looked like he was ready to be a big part of the offense even though the Browns were throttled in the game.

Njoku was utilized down the field and took full advantage of his size and leaping athleticism, which included three receptions on three targets for 50 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately, Njoku then suffered an injury which caused him to miss the next month.

Likely a combination of coming back from the injury and the coaching staff getting into a flow with the players they’ve had, Njoku was not incorporated into the offense as much as he might have otherwise been. And it didn’t really change until the second Ravens game. 

Just in the two games against the Ravens in 2020, Njoku caught six passes on seven targets for 95 yards, five first downs and a touchdown. The Ravens are the Browns chief rival for the AFC North crown in 2021 and the foreseeable future.

The last six games, including the playoffs, Njoku had 172 yards on 15 catches out of 20 targets. 10 of those receptions were for first downs.

These are not superstar numbers by any stretch. Even if that was extended for a full season, it would be a solid season, but not a great one. As is so often the case for Njoku, he shows these incredible flashes of what he can be, providing glimpses of how valuable he can be to this offense.

What does stand out from the last six games of 2020 is how much better Njoku improved. He was an outstanding, all-around blocker in the 2020 season, improving from being a solid run blocker and a terrible pass blocker. Njoku has also been a player who has been criticized for drops and inconsistency and save for the regular season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was efficient and reliable, who showed off playmaking ability.

It would be a pretty big gamble to extend Njoku based on that unless they can get him to accept an average salary not much higher than what he’s getting this year on his option, $6.013 million.

Based on Njoku’s attitude and enthusiastic allegiance to the team heading into 2021, it at least appears as though there have been conversations with the team that make him feel like an extended future with the Browns is possible.

Should Njoku be consistent, both in terms of health and production in 2021, he’s going to be an incredibly valuable player and one the Browns want to keep. He will be 25 on July 10th, so he can have a long, productive career, be it with the Browns or someone else. If Njoku simply builds on the strides he made this past season, he can be a great player.

Even with a player like Odell Beckham Jr. coming back from injury, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Harrison Bryant coming off of promising rookie campaigns plus the addition of Anthony Schwartz, a fully realized Njoku can bring an element to the Browns offense that no one else can offer. That doesn’t make him better than someone like Beckham in terms of the difference he can make. Instead, it means he can put pressure on defenses in ways that no one else offers in the offense.

Njoku is the best receiving threat the Browns have in the end zone. He has speed to stretch the field vertically, can high point and has the size and strength to own space and make plays through contact.

Hooper, the most polished tight end on the team currently, is a good athlete, but he simply doesn’t have that same game breaking ability. The fact the Browns can have both of these players under contract is incredibly tantalizing, especially as the offense has gotten faster overall.

Stefanski’s offense often employ multiple tight ends a significant amount because it can be so problematic for the opponent. The Ravens are one excellent example the Browns face at least twice per season.

And the Browns have yet to truly explore the limits with which they can utilize their tight ends. A combination of factors including limited time as a result of a truncated offseason, trust in Mayfield and his protection, the Browns were pretty conservative in their scope of what they want to be able to do with the position. This is something they started to branch out with toward the end of the year as the tight end position became a more pivotal part of the offense in the passing game.

The simplest way to illustrate the difference is in how much the team started to use empty formations later in the season. Mayfield showed he could operate effectively despite only having five blockers and the opponent knowing he was going to pass, finding favorable matchups and exploiting them.

Tight ends started getting put out in space as opposed to largely being attached to the offensive line. Njoku, Hooper and Bryant made the most of their opportunities and their production reflected it. Teams rarely have enough defenders to really defend one good tight end, let alone two or even three on the field at once.

As an example, against the New York Giants, a game where all three played and the wide receivers were not out due to COVID-19, the tight end trio combined for nine receptions on ten targets for 82 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

This was the game when the offense was its most efficient. Some of that was due to the fact that the Giants were at a severe talent disadvantage, but the Browns were ridiculously efficient, particularly in the passing game.. And because Baker Mayfield was so effective, the 82 yards the tight ends had did not take away from anyone else. 

Rashard Higgins, Jarvis Landry and Donovan Peoples-Jones combined for 192 yards and a touchdown on 14 receptions and just 16 targets. Mayfield was 27 of 32 overall. Even without a superstar receiver, the Browns were able to move down the field almost unabated and the tight ends are a major reason.

That game may be the best illustration of the Browns offense working as it was imagined, even if the team only scored 20 points in the game. The Browns are hoping they can continue to expand their capabilities in 2021, adding more talent and a consistent vertical component.

In a world where the Browns can get great seasons out of both Hooper and Njoku, they can certainly afford both of them under the salary cap. They would need to backload the contract for Njoku, something they are inclined to do anyway to fit it around when Hooper’s becomes the most expensive; 2022 and 2023. If Njoku simply made around what he’s making this season for those two seasons give or take, then the team can escalate his contract when Hooper’s is set to end.

This year, the combined salaries for Hooper and Njoku only combined for $14.263 million, which is extremely reasonable. If they can keep it at $20 million in 2022 and 2023 when Hooper’s contract pays out $13.25 million, so long as they are producing, that’s good value.

The New England Patriots are scheduled to pay the combination of Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith $28.75 million in 2022 and $30.25 million in 2023. The Browns could be getting a deal by contrast.

If the Browns were to release backup quarterback Case Keenum ahead of the 2022 season, they would incur $1.33 million in dead cap for 2023, but they would save $6.5 million in cap space for 2022. That one move could cover the cost of paying both Hooper and Njoku.

The fact that Njoku would be making less early in his contract would also not interfere with Beckham’s deal which runs through 2023, which is also important. Should Beckham and Mayfield connect the way the team hopes, keeping Njoku would not force them to make a move with Beckham’s contract.

As for Harrison Bryant, his future appears bright. He caught 24 passes on 38 targets for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns. 14 of the passes he caught went for first downs.

Bryant showed he can be a professional football player after a good rookie season, able to contribute both as a receiver and blocker. Perhaps after 2022, there is more reason to find ways to put him on the field. However, he is limited as an athlete, doesn’t have ideal size and most importantly, he will still have two more years on his rookie deal. So at least financially, there’s no pressure on the Browns to go away from having a strong nucleus of three tight ends, which is no slight to Stephen Carlson, who has done a nice job in limited snaps.

In the same respect, the Browns did not move on from either Odell Beckham or Jarvis Landry despite earning a combined $30.5 million in 2021 even though Rashard Higgins was the most efficient wide receiver in 2020 and Peoples-Jones put together a promising rookie season.

So yes, the Browns could let Njoku walk, get a compensatory pick in the pipeline and save money on the position. They would need to then get a good replacement for Njoku to function as depth at the least. 2020 showed how valuable tight end depth was as none of their featured trio played all 16 games.

Bryant missed the finale due to COVID-19 as well as the playoffs. Hooper missed three games including two for an appendectomy and Njoku missed a month. As illustrated by their issues at corner in 2020, the Browns likely aren’t in a hurry to gut their depth if they don’t have to, especially since Bryant is so cost effective. The Browns were able to suffer injuries and have players miss games without making a meaningful change in their offensive approach.

Hooper and Bryant have deals that end the same year. If Bryant is a good player, the team could divert the money from Hooper to keep him in the fold on an extension.

Tight end is not only a valuable position to the Browns and what they hope to achieve on offense, but they are challenging to find. The payoff is huge and more than accounts for the investment. As frustrating as Njoku’s career has been for various reasons, both for him and his critics, everyone should be thrilled if he can put together a career year along with a great year from Hooper, forcing the Browns to keep both along with Bryant, so the Browns don’t have to go digging for another one that could take a few years to develop. This would also give the Browns one of the best tight end groups in the NFL, which is when their offense is at its most dangerous.

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