Cleveland Browns 2026 Profile

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Todd Monken
Offensive Coordinator: Travis Switzer
Defensive Coordinator: Mike Rutenberg
Special Teams Coordinator: Byron Storer

2025 Summary (W-L Record: 5-12)

Last season, the Browns tried to re-capture a little 2023 magic by signing Joe Flacco and hoping he could lead them back to the playoffs.

Unfortunately, that dream ended early. The Browns benched Flacco after just 4 games and traded him to the Bengals in Week 6.

Making any noise last season was never realistic to begin with, though. The Browns entered training camp with 4 quarterbacks after trading for Kenny Pickett and then drafting Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Any one of them could have won the starting job in training camp.

When you have 4 quarterbacks, you really have none. The likelihood was always that multiple quarterbacks would get significant snaps throughout the season, which is almost always a recipe for a down year. And that’s exactly what happened. Flacco, Gabriel, and Sanders each got more than 25% of the snaps.

The Browns finished in last place in the AFC North at 5-12. Their stellar defensive play ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome their offensive woes.

The one bright spot for the Browns was Myles Garrett setting the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 sacks. No one else on the team had more than 6.5. Still, Garrett’s pressure and presence was enough to make the entire pass rush a top-5 unit (3rd in the league in sacks, 5th in pressure %).

Here’s a quick look at the impact he can have on protection schemes:

That was from 2023, but it’s pretty representative of what he sees just about every week.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, they traded him away to the Rams in June. The Browns have entered into a full re-build. They fired 2-time coach of the year Kevin Stefanski. They’ve accumulated draft picks and appear to be gearing up for that 2027 QB draft class.

This year likely won’t be much fun in Cleveland. But the good news is that the Browns had a really good offseason and actually appear to have a quality core in place to begin rebuilding this team.

Key Additions

WR KC Concepcion (1st Rd, 24th Overall)
WR Denzel Boston (2nd Rd, 39th Overall)
WR Tylan Wallace
TE Joe Royer (5th Rd, 170th Overall)
TE Jack Stoll
LT Spencer Fano (1st Rd, 9th Overall)
LG Zion Johnson
C Elgton Jenkins
RT Tytus Howard
OT Austin Barber (3rd Rd, 86th Overall)
C Parker Brailsford (5th Rd, 146th Overall)

DL Kalia Davis
EDGE Jared Verse
LB Quincy Williams
LB Justin Jefferson (5th Rd, 149th Overall)
S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (2nd Rd, 58th Overall)
S Myles Bryant
S Daniel Thomas

Key Losses

RB Jerome Ford
TE David Njoku
LT Cam Robinson
LG Joel Bitonio
C Ethan Pocic
RG Wyatt Teller
RT Jack Conklin
OT Cornelius Lucas

DL Shelby Harris
EDGE Myles Garrett
EDGE Cameron Thomas
LB Devin Bush Jr.
LB Mohamoud Diabate
LB Jerome Baker
CB Sam Webb
S Rayshawn Jenkins

Biggest Questions Entering 2026

Who will be the starting QB?
The Browns didn’t make many moves at quarterback this offseason, which means they plan to get their QB of the future in next year’s draft.

I don’t think whoever plays this year matters much in the long haul. That being said, despite how poorly Shedeur Sanders played during his rookie season, and despite the fact that the odds of him being the QB of the future are not great, shouldn’t the Browns try to find out by giving him a shot?

If they do hit on Sanders, they’d be about two years ahead on finding their franchise QB instead of waiting to take one in 2027, living through his growing pains during his rookie season, and then hoping he develops into a great quarterback in 2028 and beyond.

On top of that, we’ve seen plenty of QBs make a jump from year 1 to year 2. They figure out where their deficiencies are and begin to match their play to the speed of the NFL game.

I’d rather see the Browns give Sanders a shot to see what he can be than turn the keys over to an injury-riddled Deshaun Watson, who’s played just 19 games since 2020. There is no chance he’s the future in Cleveland after this season anyway, so what’s the point?

While there is still only a small chance that Sanders is the future, the Browns should seek to find that out for sure. At very least, they can determine if he’d be an effective back-up or possibly build up some trade value in him.

Does the Browns’ re-shaped offense actually have the chance to be good?
Cleveland had a lot of holes on the offensive side of the ball, but I love the way they approached re-building the offense.