Gameday has arrived and for us “older” (thanks, Myles Garrett) fans, the Cleveland Browns facing the Baltimore Ravens will always mean something more. The anger, vitriol, annoyance, and even a twinge of jealousy permeate the minds of Browns fans toward the team that was stolen away from Cleveland.
RB Quinshon Judkins returned to practice this week with Cleveland and the team activated him on Saturday, waiving WR Gage Larvadain in the process. According to Ian Rapoport of The NFL Network, Judkins will start out getting backup snaps:
In Week 1, Jerome Ford was in on 54% of the snaps (41 total) while Dylan Sampson had 33 snaps (43%) and Raheim Sanders saw just three snaps, and carried the ball on all three of those.
While fans and media have noted Ford’s limited burst (1.3 ypc), most teams are very cautious of having rookies take a majority of snaps at running back due to pass protection concerns. Exotic blitzes lead to the need for quick decisions to protect, in this case, Joe Flacco from getting hit. Rookies are often slower to recognize which block they need to make.
For his part, Sampson looked good in pass protection in Week 1 despite being smaller in stature.
Our weekly snap count piece will be interesting to digest after Week 2 to see how the running backs are used.
How many snaps and carries do you think Judkins will get today?
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