The 2025 version of the Cleveland Browns will be different than last year. It has to be. Nobody can accept another 14-loss season without heads rolling.
Training camp is just two short months away. There are several storylines that will intrigue Browns fans, and the entire league, for that matter.
This could be the only subject in this article, and everyone would agree. Front and center will be the competition with this group and the attention it will garner.
Veteran Joe Flacco was signed to a one-year deal worth $4 million to be the starter for the 2025 Browns. Whether or not that comes to fruition will be determined. He will be entering his 18th season and is 40 years old. When he arrived in Cleveland in 2023, he played in just six games, one being a playoff disaster.
That season, starter Deshaun Watson had issues moving the offense and scoring points. Flacco had the opposite effect in that he had four games in which he passed for over 300 yards, including a 374-yard outing against the Chicago Bears in Week 15. In three of those games, the team scored 31, 36, and 37 points.
But place Flacco into the wait-and-see category. Before he took control of the Browns' offense that year, he wasn't even the New York Jets starter the year before and hadn't played at all that year until he got the call from Cleveland. He hadn't been a starting QB since the 2017 NFL season. When he left Cleveland and signed with the Indianapolis Colts, he didn't set that franchise on fire and only started five games.
Browns' GM Andrew Berry traded for Kenny Pickett. Normally, a franchise doesn't ship off its valuable draft picks to another team and then not keep the player. He is a former first-round draft selection and has 25 NFL starts. Pickett has come out publicly and stated he has no intention of handing the job to Flacco and will work every day to supplant him as the starter.
It may just be that Pickett is very talented. Steelers Hall of Fame QB Terry Bradshaw said this about Pickett's time in Pittsburgh:
"They throw a kid in there for two years, and you've got an offense that doesn't fit and doesn't work, and they can't run because their offensive line's not even good enough for a run-blocking team. Now, they're saying Kenny Pickett is a failure. He wasn't a failure, the Steelers were a failure."
Then there are the two rookies.
Shedeur Sanders comes to camp with a ton of social media attention. He is saying all the right things about competing for the starting position and will become the best player in the room. At one time, he was projected to be a Top-5 player but fell five rounds as every NFL club passed on him five times. None of that matters now.
One thing is certain, the entire NFL will be watching Sanders and see if the media circus follows him around much like Johnny Football's tenure in Cleveland.
Dillon Gabriel was taken in Round 3. It was widely known that head coach Kevin Stefanski would select a young quarterback and had his choice of talent when he chose Gabriel. The native-born Hawaiian isn't saying much so far, and seems to be satisfied with being the player stationed in the background while others garner the spotlight.
The ideal situation for the Browns is for either Flacco or Pickett to start while the younger duo sits back and absorbs as much as possible for now.
Flacco stated after Wednesday's OTA practice:
"I see myself as a guy that can play in this league. So, if your main focus was just like, hey, but I'm going to get you ready, you're just not taking care of business. The best way to be a mentor, honestly, is to show people how you go to work and, like I said, hope that they pick up on that stuff, but not necessarily force them to pick up on the things that you do."
Regardless, Stefanski will have his hands full with the development of two rookie quarterbacks. It will be interesting to see how the Browns keep all four, as they traditionally have only kept three QBs on the active roster.
The Browns have a tradition of hiring great running backs and trying to cram the ball down the defense. And while Nick Chubb was healthy with a stellar offensive line, that continued.
But the offense got away from that last year with Ken Dorsey's failure as offensive coordinator. The play calling was sporadic, and the Browns struggled to score points. It didn't help that the QB play of Watson was spotty and downright awful. Plus, the offensive line was a laundry list of guys inserted almost every week. At the end of the year, Cleveland had allowed the second-most sacks.
What used to be the offense's strengths, the run game was horrible. Ineffective schemes did not benefit this team. As a result, the offense became one-dimensional. No team passed more in 2024 than the Browns (65.03%). But Cleveland was atrocious on third-down conversions and ranked second-to-last in pass completions (59.76%).
Will this offense get back to its roots? Stefanski has traditionally focused on a wide-zone running game coupled with play-action. He has used his tight ends as important pieces to the offense, who must be able to catch and be good blockers. This forces the defense to use a base lineup, which will create mismatches.
He got away from his offensive approach with Dorsey, along with the use of Watson's abilities, which favored more spread and improvisation. Will Stefanski's offensive strategy return?
The offensive line is almost the same as the line that was ranked #3 in the league in 2023. The lone exception is the insertion of Dawand Jones at left tackle instead of Jed Wills. There is good backup material now with OG's Taven Jenkins and Zak Zinter, along with OT Cornelius Lucas.
And now the Browns have two very good receiving tight ends in veteran David Njoku and the newly drafted Harold Fannin, who led the nation in receptions plus receiving yards. Not at receiver, but as a tight end. These two will change this offense.
One item to note: the Browns have a fullback under contract. Troy Hairston has played with the Houston Texans for the past three seasons and was signed in January. It has been three years since the offense had a fullback in camp. What is going through Stefanski's mind regarding adding a fullback? Is this a sign that the focus will be totally on running the ball?
Perhaps that question was answered when Berry drafted RB Quinshon Judkins in the second round and then took the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, RB Dylan Sampson, in Round 4.
Last year, the defense had a major problem with stopping the run up the middle. The defense allowed the fourth-most TD runs (22) and 108 rushes for first down conversions.
Mo Hurst played well when he was on the field, along with veteran Shelby Harris at the defensive tackle position. The issue with both was the injury bug. While with the San Francisco 49ers, Hurst had two injuries in both seasons. In his tenure with the Browns, he played in just 21 games over his two seasons. Harris has played in 31 games for Cleveland with 20 starts, with 65 tackles and three sacks. But he is on the wrong side of 30 as he will turn 34 in August.
Mike Hall missed a lot of his rookie development time when he had to deal with an arrest and was placed on the commissioner's exempt list to start the 2024 season. In free agency, Berry inked Maliek Collins from the 49ers and signed Ralph Holley, Jr. away from the Toronto Argonauts, the CFL Grey Cup Champions. Holley is also a pass rusher.
In the NFL draft, Mason Graham was considered the second-best defensive player available and should compete for one of the starting positions right away. Like Holley, Graham is an exceptional pass rusher but was selected to plug the middle and attack the run game.
Hopefully, with the talent Berry has acquired at defensive tackle, this group just may be solved.
Another area of the defense that is a concern is the safety position. Veteran Rodney McLeod, who was considered a coach on the field, retired. Juan Thornhill was cut, and D'Anthony Bell signed with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency. That left Grant Delpit and Ronnie Hickman as the only safeties on the roster.
It was assumed that Berry would take care of that issue in free agency and certainly in the NFL draft. Currently, there are 11 cornerbacks listed on the depth chart, while the safety needs help.
After the draft concluded, Berry signed undrafted rookies Chris Edmonds (6'-2", 210 pounds) of Samford, who runs a 4.49 in the 40, and Donovan McMillon (6'-1", 203 pounds) from the University of Pittsburgh.
In early May, two free-agent safeties were signed.
Rayshawn Jenkins (6'-1", 220 pounds) was signed from the Seahawks, while the Browns are his fourth team. An eight-year veteran, Jenkins has 517 career tackles, 5.5 sacks, 20 tackles for loss, 33 batted passes, and 10 interceptions. Damontae Kazee (5'-11, 174 pounds) played the last three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and was drafted in the fifth round in 2017. His career stats include 363 total tackles, three tackles for loss, 24 pass defenses, and 17 picks.
The team usually keeps four safeties, although one season, Stefanski kept five. Despite not being drafted, McMillon had impressive numbers in his final two years with 105 and 115 tackles, respectively. He can deliver the big hit, is good in zone coverage, and is aggressive in run support. The coaching staff has never shied away from keeping an undrafted rookie.
Kazee's Pro Football Focus grade for 2024 was 60.8, while Jenkins was rated at 52.5. One of these two will need to shine in training camp.
Berry has always placed a priority on the cornerback group, being a former college corner himself. But right now, the safety group looks like a problem area, especially if either starter becomes injured.