Home / Cleveland Browns / Cleveland Browns Free Agency: New Tight End Jim Dray Signed for Important Blocking Role Cleveland Browns Free Agency: New Tight End Jim Dray Signed for Important Blocking Role By Bob Evans Updated: March 13, 2014 Dray Jim Dray brings a much needed blocking element to the Browns. While many Cleveland Browns fans were waiting for the team to announce the signing of a bigger name player like Ben Tate, general manager Ray Farmer and the front office made an extremely underrated signing on Thursday afternoon, inking tight end Jim Dray to a three-year contract. According to Pro Football Talk, “The team announced no terms, but PFT has learned via a league source that it is a three-year deal worth $5.626 million in total value. $2.25 million that is guaranteed and will all be paid in the first year of the pact.” Though the total value of the deal seems a little high, this was an excellent signing nonetheless. To understand why the Browns signed another tight end when they have Jordan Cameron, Gary Barnidge, Keavon Milton, Andre Smith and MarQueis Gray already on the roster, you don’t have to look any further than new offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan. See, Shanahan is bringing the family’s patented “zone blocking scheme” to Cleveland, and one of the key components of that system is a dedicated blocking tight end who understands the scheme. Enter Dray, who played his collegiate career in the pro-style zone blocking scheme at Stanford. Standing 6’5” and 255 pounds, Dray spent 2006 to 2009 paving the way for Toby Gerhart en route to a 1,871-yard and 28 touchdown senior season in 2009. For those who do not recall, Gerhart finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting that season and took home a trophy case full of collegiate awards. Following the 2009 season, Dray would be labeled one of the best “blocking tight ends” in the 2010 NFL Draft. He was then drafted in the seventh round by the Arizona Cardinals, where he has spent his entire career until signing with the Browns. If you are looking for gaudy receiving numbers, you aren’t going to find that with Dray. During his four seasons in the NFL, he has racked up just 33 receptions for 302 yards and two touchdowns in 55 career games. Most of those totals came during the 2013 season, as he played a much larger role in the offense—catching 26 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. The reason for his ascension into the starting lineup (starting 15 of 16 games according to the team website) was the introduction of the zone blocking scheme to the Cardinals in 2013. Bruce Arians, the team’s new head coach last year, installed the scheme the moment he arrived in Arizona—which led to a breakout season from sixth-round pick, Andre Ellington. Though coming in shared duty, Ellington would rush the ball 118 times for 652 yards and three touchdowns—an average of 5.5 yards per carry. With Shanahan bringing his zone blocking scheme that boasted the No. 1 rushing offense in 2012 and No. 5 rushing offense in 2013 to Cleveland, it was very important to find a durable blocker for his offense. Last season in Washington, Logan Paulsen served that role, playing 70.7 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. The next closest TE on the Redskins was Jordan Reed at 33.1 percent of the snaps. For the Browns last season, Cameron played 87.5 percent of the snaps—but very rarely was counted on in a blocking role. Barnidge logged 47.8 percent of the snaps and served the blocking role from time to time, but still wasn’t that “physical dominator” at the point of attack. The rest of the Browns TEs logged around 12 percent of the snaps total, with Gray getting 9.9 percent. As you can see, the Browns roster was in desperate need of a guy capable of logging a lot of snaps in that blocking tight end role—which was exactly why they signed Dray. He proved to be more than capable in that role last season, playing in 63.3 percent of the snaps on offense. He also contributed on Special Teams from time to time, logging 26.5 percent of the snaps on that side of the game as well. Many of you have instantly questioned this move, saying the team was not in need of a tight end at this time, but that just wasn’t the case. For this new scheme to work, you need a guy who isn’t afraid to put his head down and do the dirty work outside of the tackles—and Dray is just that guy.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:45:31 +0000
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