Eyes of the Guru IDP Info, Part 14: Cleveland Browns

An Overview of the Cleveland Browns Defense

The 2025 Browns played good defense. They were top ten versus the run in yards per carry, and top ten against the pass in yards per attempt. Cleveland's 53 sacks ranked third, contributing to the pass defense allowing the third fewest yards. They even finished in the top half of the league in points, ranking 13th. The one area that could use some improvement is takeaways. The Browns were not horrible there, being tied for 22nd with 18, but it is a focus of the scheme and an area they want to improve.

Two headline events will impact the status of this unit for 2026. The coaching change and the trade that sent their best defender to Los Angeles. Todd Monken takes the reins as head coach, with Mike Rutenberg landing the defensive coordinator job. Rutenberg has been around a while, coaching under some of the great coordinators in recent history. He has worked with 3-4 and 4-3 schemes but is a disciple of the Jim Schwartz "wide-9" system. When asked what his scheme would look like, he described it as the Schwartz philosophy with a few wrinkles. That's good news to the players, who will not have to learn a new scheme.

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While the coaching change should be a smooth transition, overcoming the loss of a guy who just set the record for sacks in a season will be difficult. Fortunately, the Myles Garrett trade did not leave a huge hole. Getting Jared Verse back was big. In essence, Cleveland traded an elite edge for a very good one and a wad of picks. They saved some money in the process as well.

Other than the trade and swapping out linebacker Devin Bush for Quincy Williams in free agency, the top of the roster remains mostly the same. Cleveland used two of their ten draft picks on defense, selecting Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in the second and linebacker Justin Jefferson in the fifth.

Cleveland Browns Defensive Linemen

Defenses under Schwartz have a reputation for getting after quarterbacks and creating turnovers. His Cleveland teams over the last two years did nothing to tarnish that reputation. Rutenburg intends to pick up right where Schwartz left off. What exactly does that mean for the defensive line?

Verse is a very good player who I believe will flourish in Cleveland. He is not, however, a sackmaster. The 2024 second-round pick had 4 as a rookie and 7.5 last season. Verse is a force against the run. The strength of his game is the ability to be effective on all three downs. I expect he will reach low double-digits in sacks this year and likely hover around that number for much of his career. Combined with 55-65 tackles and 2-4 turnovers a year, he is destined to be a quality ED1 for us, but I will not hold my breath for him to reach elite-level fantasy production.

Many teams would be happy with a 40-sack season. If Verse gives them 10 and the rest of the team contributes 30 again, it would not live up to the standards of a Schwartz or Rutenberg defense. That means someone else has to step up. Unfortunately, no one is poised to do so.

Alex Wright is the team's best hope. He finished last season at 21-16-5.5 with a forced fumble. Those are modest numbers, but we should consider that he missed three games, finishing the season with 468 snaps. In comparison, Garrett logged 868. If Wright were to get 750 and maintain the same per-snap average, his numbers project to be something like 34-26-9. That would make fantasy managers happy, but it is not likely to happen.

One thing that comes with the Schwartz philosophy is a heavy rotation to keep players fresh. Isaiah McGuire and Cameron Thomas combined for 737 plays last season. Thomas picked up many of his during the three games that Wright missed, but Wright and McGuire shared a roughly 60/40 split when everyone was healthy. Until we see something different, there is no reason to expect a change in this approach or a second quality IDP prospect.

The rotation approach could catch up with Verse as well. Garrett was an exception because he is a special talent. Verse played a lot of snaps for the Rams and could be an exception as well. He is the best on the roster now, and the team has no one with a close enough talent gap to poach a big number of snaps from him.

The Browns' interior positions were a mess in 2024, but they came together nicely last season. Fifth overall pick Mason Graham had a productive rookie campaign. He was excellent on the field and decent on the stat sheet. Graham became an immediate starter, seeing 81% of the snaps in week one. The snap counts slipped a bit after that, yet he still ended up seeing better than 70% of the playing time on the season. Graham turned 763 plays into 49 tackles, 4 batted passes, and half a sack. That was enough to land him inside the top 30, in backup range for those starting two tackles.

Graham did not excel as a pass rusher at Michigan either, but he did contribute 3.5 in his final season there. He may never have more than four or five in a season as a pro, but we should start to see some of those show up in year two. I like his chances of working his way up the ladder a few slots and becoming at least a decent second starter for us in 2025.

Shelby Harris and Maliek Collins rounded out the three-man rotation on the inside last year. Collins had the starting role, seeing between 60 and 71% of the snaps in every game before the Week 13 quad injury. He was second on the team with 6.5 sacks. Collins has 21 sacks over the last five seasons and 16 in the last three. While those are intriguing totals for an interior lineman, he tends to fall short in the tackle columns to garner interest as more than a bye-week flier. Collins has reached 40 combined stops once in his ten seasons as a pro.

The Browns picked up Mike Hall Jr. in round two of the 2024 draft. Injuries and a five-game suspension during his rookie season have disrupted his career thus far. Hall is healthy now and no longer in hot water with the league. The organization has high expectations for him. With Harris gone, Hall should move into the rotation and see about 40% of the playing time. In very limited action, he has 25 tackles and two sacks to his credit as a pro. An injury ahead of him could open the door for good fantasy value.

• Edge Jared Verse – Low-end ED1 with upside and a little risk
• Edge Alex Wright – Enough playing time would make him roster-worthy
• Edge Isaiah McGuire – Marginal impact
• Edge Julian Okwara – No impact
• Edge Adin Huntington – Developing youth
• DT Maliek Collins – Bye week option
• DT Mason Graham – Potential DT2, depth at worst
• DT Mike Hall Jr. – Injury sleeper or dynasty prospect
• DT Sam Kamara – No impact
• DT Kalia Davis – No impact

Cleveland Browns Linebackers