Cleveland Browns Tire of Running Back By Committee
By Cory Buck
Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said he wants one of his three running backs to separate himself from the pack.
Few NFL teams sport three viable running backs, but the Cleveland Browns currently have that luxury thanks to a backfield that includes incumbent starter Ben Tate along with rookies Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell. None of the three has earned a clear cut lion’s share of the carries, though Tate has come close. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said that’s by design and that he’s waiting for someone to grab the reins in the backfield.
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“If they want to be out there more, they need to separate themselves and show that they’re obviously better than the other guy and we’ll keep them out there more,” Shanahan told Mary Kay Cabot at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
One obstacle to this notion is the dreaded ‘game flow’ argument made by many running backs, who prefer to get a bunch of carries throughout a game than to get just a few here and there.
“Being a running back, you’ve got to feel a defense out,” said Terrance West. “You’ve got to get a rhythm. That’s just all running backs. You’ve got to feel a whole defense out. If they rotate three backs, it’s hard to get a good rhythm.”
This begs the question of how long it took for any Browns back to feel out the Jacksonville Jaguars defense in Week 7, when Ben Tate was the team’s leading rusher with 36 yards on 16 carries. West had 8 yards on 5 carries while Crowell tallied 18 yards on 7 carries. It’s going to be hard for the Browns to justify any runner getting a bulk of the carries when all three post lackluster numbers like that against a porous defense.
“I’d love for one of them to step it up and separate themselves from the others,” Shanahan concluded. “In the meantime, they’re all doing a good job though.”
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