The ball is going to Brown pre snap no matter what. This has been coached to JA, when you see Cover 0 and Brown, your #1 WR, is in tight man coverage, you throw the ball his way. If he beats his man you throw the ball over the top. If he doesn’t you throw back shoulder.
The problem I have is they have run this play this season against Cover 0 and have had minimal success with it. Also, if you look at the bunch formation the secondary is playing off and you only need 4 yards, someone should be open on that sides. Why isn’t Josh being coached to read the defense a bit more. This is situational. While the Brown 1v1 is a nice look, it’s a low percentage play. And the bunch formation, just presnap, looks like a better look and higher percentage play seeing as you only need 4 yards.
Also, re:Dawkins, JA sets the protections. Dawkins immediately blocks down inside, as if that was the protection. To me that reads as JA didn’t think the CB was blitzing and set the protection as such. Also history tells us he has a tough time diagnosing the CB blitz.