Browns near top of teams scoring TDs on 4th down

HC Kevin Stefanski’s riskiness pays off enough it seems

For some, professional sports are quite simple. Wins and losses along with the traditional statistics tell the story. For others, professional sports is anything but simple. Causality, advanced statistics and all the details matter.

This Cleveland Browns detail may not be that interesting for the former, but the latter will find the nuance fun.

Browns HC Kevin Stefanski has been known to go for it on fourth down since he took over the team. There are lots of reasons Stefanski chooses to be aggressive including starting five quarterbacks and having the NFL’s worst completion percentage last year.

Cleveland was tied for the fifth most fourth-down attempts in 2023 with three of the worst teams in the NFL (Carolina Panthers, New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals) and the aggressive Detroit Lions above them. The Browns offense converted on a middle-of-the-pack 50% of those attempts.

Of the four teams that attempted more than Cleveland, only the Lions had a better conversion rate at 53.3%.

Interestingly, the Browns offense scored 10% of their touchdowns, including the one to WR David Bell captured above, on fourth downs:

It is important to note that the percentage does not necessarily mean a team was overly successful on fourth down, just that a higher percentage of touchdowns came on that down. The Los Angeles Chargers number shows the team’s struggle on offense last season and their need to take as many risks as possible.

Going into 2024, Cleveland hopes they won’t have to rely on touchdowns on fourth down as much. Instead, much like the Super Bowl participants, getting that number closer to zero would be the goal.