The Cleveland Browns are targeting San Francisco 49ers defensive backs coach Joe Woods to be their next defensive coordinator.
Steve Wilks was informed that he would not return as the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.
This has led to everyone to believe that Joe Woods will be the one to replace Wilks on Kevin Stefanski’s staff.
Speculation about this move actually came almost a week ago.
And for anyone already doing the 4-3 vs. 3-4 debate, stop. For the love of god stop. Wade Phillips did not run a 3-4 and neither will Woods.
Now that we got all of that out of the way, let’s go a bit further. Woods will run a man coverage scheme, a drastic change from Wilks’ zone scheme. This will benefit a lot of the Browns defensive backs. Denzel Ward’s man coverage skills are top notch. Ward was fantastic in man coverage as a rookie. A return to a man coverage scheme should do wonders for him.
One player to watch is Greedy Williams. Williams is best when deployed in man coverage. Playing in Wilks’ zone heavy scheme last year did him zero favors. The fact that Williams came to play in Cleveland in Wilk’s scheme was considered a bad fit from day one. Playing in man coverage should see him improve upon his rookie campaign.
Joe Woods could be a great hire, but there is a concern.
Good luck covering the tight end? Baltimore has multiple tight ends that they use throughout the game. Lamar Jackson loves throwing to his tight ends, so that could be a problem. Also it appears that a ton of depth is required to run this scheme properly. That means Cleveland will have to evaluate their current roster properly, free agent defensive backs, and those in the draft to properly put together a secondary.
