Fantasy Football: 8 Offensive Line Takeaways From 2016

The Browns Need Help Everywhere

Fixing the issues isn't too hard for the Eagles. Just make sure your best offensive linemen don't use PEDs. Totally doable! It's a bit of a different conundrum for the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns also dealt with injuries this year, losing starting guards Joel Bitonio in Week 5 and John Greco in Week 12. The Bitonio injury certainly played a role in the downturn of Isaiah Crowell, but this wasn't an enviable unit even when they were all healthy.

The Browns were dead last in Sack NEP per drop back for the season, and it wasn't even close. They lost 110.22 NEP due to sacks; no other team lost more than 86, putting Cleveland more than three touchdowns behind the second-worst team in the league. It's hard for any quarterback to excel in that environment, making it difficult to provide any true evaluation of Robert Griffin III or Cody Kessler.

The only area in which the Browns weren't truly abhorrent was in runs up the middle. They were third in Success Rate there while finishing 25th to the left and 23rd to the right. This was despite using four different starting centers throughout the year and six different guards between those two positions. It could simply be a testament to Crowell's abilities, but regardless, this was a minor bright spot.

If the Browns want to find their quarterback of the future, they'll need to address the offensive line first. No player can thrive when he's constantly on his back, and that was the assumed state for Griffin and Kessler in 2016. Once they do make some changes here, though, it should be huge for the fantasy viability of Crowell, Terrelle Pryor, and Corey Coleman.