Each day until the kickoff of the 2026 NFL season, TeamFB7 will dive into a team with analysis, critiques, breakout player picks and overall predictions. We’re working backwards from our early preseason power rankings with a couple of updates/tweaks. The Cleveland Browns were No. 27 on the list back in May, but that was before trading away Myles Garrett. We’re moving them back to No. 30.
Has a fan base ever had a more complicated relationship — to put it diplomatically — with its starting quarterback than the present situation in Cleveland?
The absurd-even-in-the-moment trade (three first-round, one third-round and two fourth-round draft picks) with the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson and then the unheard of and immediately panned fully guaranteed five-year, $230-million contract for the scandalized quarterback has decimated the Browns the last four years.
It is arguably the worst trade in NFL history when considering all the ramifications.
– First and foremost, one would wonder how the Texans could possibly have had enough leverage to command such a rich haul of draft picks. Watson’s formal request for a trade became a public standoff between the team and QB, who was then held out the entire 2021 season while facing 27 civil lawsuits from women alleging sexual assault/misconduct during massage therapy sessions that would lead to a six-game suspension from the NFL for the 2022 season.
The Browns weren’t the only team interested in Watson, but to pay that price just to make a suspended QB with a 0 Q-rating the face of the franchise … seemed egregious as it happened.
– It led the Browns to give up on and ship out a much better, more durable and less controversial quarterback in former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield, who has since rejuvenated his career in Tampa Bay. (The Browns got only a fifth-round pick from the Carolina Panthers for Mayfield.)
– The draft capital sent to Houston helped the Texans build a contender while leaving the Browns hamstrung on resources on the way to yet another rebuild, especially because their highest-paid player has rarely ever played for them …
– Watson has played just 19 games in four years for Cleveland, due to the suspension in 2022, a broken bone in his throwing shoulder in 2023, a torn Achilles tendon in 2024 and a re-tear of the Achilles in January of 2025, holding him out all of last season.
– And even when he has played, he’s been downright terrible. The version of Watson that led the NFL in passing yards (4,823) in 2020 for Houston has yet to show itself in Cleveland. With the Browns, he has passed for 3,365 yards (177.1 per game), 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in those 19 games with a 9-10 record.
In the last season he played, 2024, he didn’t top 200 passing yards in any of his seven starts and passed for 1 or 0 touchdowns in six of them.
– Because of the resulting futility at the quarterback position, as it’s not like Cleveland could sign a top-tier replacement while paying Watson or draft one without a first-round pick for three straight years, all the momentum from the start of the Kevin Stefanski era died.
After leading the Browns to two 11-win seasons (their most since returning to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999) and their only two playoff appearances of the last 23 years, earning two NFL Coach of the Year awards in the process, Stefanski was fired after going 3-14 and 5-12 the last two seasons.
He immediately became one of the most coveted coaches available, choosing to take the Atlanta Falcons job. The Browns, meanwhile, struggled to even get interview targets to meet with them and settled on 60-year-old well-traveled offensive coordinator Todd Monken as head coach.
And yet after all of that, there seems to be an increasingly likely chance Watson is the Browns’ starting quarterback this season (the final year of his contract) after splitting first-team reps in training camp with second-year QB Shedeur Sanders.
Watson was named the starter for Cleveland’s first preseason game Saturday with Sanders set to start the next one, while Monken continues to hold off a decision for Week 1 of the season.
The Browns aren’t built to contend for anything this year, especially after trading away two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams this summer. And they wouldn’t dare think of re-signing Watson after this year, right? (Right?!)
So it would make logical sense to roll with the younger quarterback and evaluate him during a rebuilding season, except the younger quarterback is Sanders, a fifth-round pick a year ago who didn’t show much during his seven starts as a rookie with 7 TDs, 10 INTs and a 56.6% completion rate.
NFL coaches and general managers just anonymously rated Sanders dead last out of 35 QBs included in a survey conducted by The Athletic’s Mike Sando (albeit only four spots behind Watson).
Sando quoted one unnamed NFL team executive saying: “He’s inaccurate at all three levels. I can’t tell if he is going to get better, but there’s a huge gap between him and competent QB play.”
The irony here is that the collateral damage done by the regrettable trade for Watson is the very reason Watson may win the starting job this year.
No matter what the fans may think …
Already Covered In Our “32 Teams In 32 Days” Series: No. 32 Miami Dolphins | No. 31 Las Vegas Raiders
Cleveland Browns Reset
2025 Finish: 5-12
Head Coach: Todd Monken, first season with Browns (first as NFL HC)
Hot Seat Meter (0-10): 0
Offensive Coordinator: Travis Switzer, first season (first as NFL OC)
Defensive Coordinator: Mike Rutenberg, first season (first as NFL DC)
Best Offseason Move: Cleveland prioritized upgrading its offensive line and pulled off a near-thorough overhaul between free agency, the trade market and the draft.
The Browns drafted Spencer Fano 9th overall out of Utah and Monken has already named him the starting left tackle, beating out veteran incumbent Dawand Jones.
They signed former Chargers left guard Zion Johnson to a three-year, $49.5-million free agent deal to replace longtime starter Joe Bitonio, who retired, and former Packers center Elgton Jenkins to a two-year, $24-million contract.
New right tackle Tytus Howard came over from the Texans for a fifth-round pick (plus a three-year, $63-million extension).
And after performing well last season as a backup/replacement for injured right guard Wyatt Teller (now in Houston), Teven Jenkins re-signed with the Browns on a one-year deal.
The team also drafted Florida offensive tackle Austin Barber in the third round and Alabama center Parker Brailsford in the fifth.
…
Meanwhile, we’d be remiss not to find a place to acknowledge the blockbuster trade that sent Garrett, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year and new single-season sacks record-holder, to Los Angeles.
One could say that even through a rebuild there is good reason to keep the league’s best edge rusher, a wrecking ball on defense who helped the Browns get to even five wins last year with their putrid offense. But Garrett had previously requested a trade last offseason before signing a lucrative extension, and it’s possible his patience with a rebuilding team would have worn thin again. He also turns 31 years old later this season, and the Browns are realistically at least two years away from realistically contending for anything.
Cleveland got a good haul from the Rams in the trade, landing a 2027 first-round pick, 2028 second-rounder, 2029 third-rounder and emerging young edge rusher Jared Verse, the 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year who had 7.5 sacks in his second season.
If they felt they had to move Garrett, then it was a good trade.
Worst Offseason Move: Firing head coach Kevin Stefanski, keeping general manager Andrew Berry and hiring head coach Todd Monken.
So let’s get this straight …
Stefanski, a two-time NFL Coach of the Year winner, who coached Cleveland to its two best seasons since it returned to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999, is to blame for being saddled with overmatched rookie QBs Dillon Grabriel and Sanders last season while still managing to somehow win five games?
Two years after winning 11 games and making the playoffs while needing to use five different starting QBs — and not just any five QBs but this group: Watson, Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker and Jeff Driskel.
That guy is the problem, huh?
And not the general manager who traded for Watson and gave him the unheard of fully guaranteed five-year contract, traded away Flacco early last season and left the roster with the worst QB situation in recently NFL history while having the offense relying on two rookie running backs and the thinnest wide receiver depth chart in the league?
Ultimately, the Browns did Stefanski a favor by freeing him from that situation as he immediately landed in a much better spot in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Cleveland then struggled to find anyone who wanted the job with a handful of targets reportedly declining consideration or backing out of the process.
All leading to the hiring of Monken, who was not interviewed by any other NFL teams with head coach vacancies.
Honestly, it’s not that Monken is a bad hire. That’s impossible to say at this point. He led some potent offenses in Baltimore and has been around the college and NFL ranks for three and a half decades. His wealth of experience may well be ideal for a young, rebuilding team.
But it’s pretty telling that multiple teams pounced once Stefanski was fired and wanted to interview him, while Monken was bound to end up a 60-year-old coordinator somewhere if the Browns didn’t whiff on most every other target.
Cleveland Browns Roster Breakdown
Biggest Strength: The front seven on defense.
Garrett is impossible to replace, but getting Verse — a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first two seasons — back in that trade was huge as he steps right into that spot. On the other edge, Alex Wright had 5.5 sacks in nine games while PFF graded him 19th (78.5) out of 115 edge rushers.
On the interior, Mason Graham (the 5th overall pick in the 2025 draft) got generally good reviews for his rookie season even if the stats don’t show much, and 10-year veteran Maliek Collins had a career-high 6.5 sacks in just 12 games last season. He’s been held out of training camp while continuing to recover from the quad tear that ended his 2025 season, but he should be back early in the season.
And leading the linebacker corps is 2025 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, who had 156 tackles, 11 tackles or loss, 2.5 sacks and 2 interceptions in his debut season, and veteran free agent addition Quincy Williams (83 tackles in 13 games last year for the Jets; a first-team All-Pro in 2023).
Really, though, the whole defense should be solid.
Ronnie Hickman and Grant Delpit return at safety after ranking 28th and 41st, respectively, out of 98 safeties in PFF’s grading, while second-round rookie Emmanuel McNeil-Warren out of Toledo looked like a draft steal at pick No. 58.
Denzel Ward enters his ninth season as a starter at cornerback for the Browns while Tyson Campbell, who came over in a trade from the Jaguars last season, is in his seventh year as an NFL starter.
The Browns gave up the fourth-fewest yards in the league last year at 283.6, but losing defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who was passed over for the head coach hire, hurts. New DC Mike Rutenberg is a first-time coordinator after working up the ranks with the Jaguars, 49ers, Jets and Falcons.
Biggest Weakness: Quarterback. There really isn’t much more to say. It’s hard to imagine Watson suddenly looking competent for the first time in five years or Sanders making enough of a leap from last season to be a consistent NFL QB. This position alone dims the Browns’ outlook considerably.
Most Intriguing Rookie: WR Denzel Boston.
Boston, selected in the second round (39th overall) out of Washington, was the second wide receiver the Browns took in this draft to address one of the biggest roster needs. Texas A&M star KC Concepcion was taken 24th overall.
Both should make an immediate impact for a unit that didn’t have much beyond Jerry Jeudy, but the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Boston has generated the most buzz in camp.
Boston had 1,781 receiving yards and 20 TDs combined over the last two seasons at Washington.
ESPN Browns reporter Daniel Oyefusi wrote this week that Boston “is trending to be Cleveland’s No. 1 receiver sooner rather than later.”
Breakout Player: Running back Quinshon Judkins.
Judkins got a late start in his rookie season as the last member of the 2025 draft class to sign, finally agreeing to a contract in September after missing all of training camp as the Browns waited for a resolution to alleged domestic incident involving the player.
The No. 36 overall pick out of Ohio State then averaged just 3.6 yards per carry as a rookie, rushing for 827 yards and 7 TDs in 14 games.
But the hype is building entering his second season.
The offensive line should be better after the offseason moves, and the Browns will clearly want to lean heavily on the ground game and minimize exposing their QB situation.
With fellow second-year back Dylan Sampson (just 65 carries for 175 yards, 2.7 YPC as a rookie) the only real challenger for carries, Judkins should find himself in a high-volume role and every opportunity to prove himself in 2026.
MVP Pick: This is a tough call. We’ll go with Schwesinger. If the Browns are going to exceed expectations, it’s going to take a lot of work from the defense, and the second-year linebacker will be right in the middle of that after his breakout rookie season.
Cleveland Browns 2026 Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Time (ET) |
| Week 1, Sept. 13 | at Jacksonville Jaguars | 1 p.m. |
| Week 2, Sept. 20 | at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 1 p.m. |
| Week 3, Sept. 27 | vs. Carolina Panthers | 1 p.m. |
| Week 4, Oct. 1 (Thursday) | vs. Pittsburgh Steelers | 8:15 p.m. |
| Week 5, Oct. 11 | at New York Jets | 1 p.m. |
| Week 6, Oct. 18 | vs. Baltimore Ravens | 1 p.m. |
| Week 7, Oct. 25 | at Tennessee Titans | 1 p.m. |
| Week 8, Nov. 1 | at Pittsburgh Steelers | 1 p.m. |
| Week 9, Nov. 8 | at New Orleans Saints | 1 p.m. |
| Week 10, Nov. 15 | vs. Houston Texans | 1 p.m. |
| Week 11 | BYE WEEK | |
| Week 12, Nov 29 | vs. Las Vegas Raiders | 1 p.m. |
| Week 13, Dec. 6 | vs. Cincinnati Bengals | 1 p.m. |
| Week 14, Dec. 13 | vs. Atlanta Falcons | 1 p.m. |
| Week 15, Dec. 20 | at New York Giants | 1 p.m. |
| Week 16, Dec. 27 | at Baltimore Ravens | 1 p.m. |
| Week 17, Jan. 3 | vs. Indianapolis Colts | 1 p.m. |
| Week 18, TBD (Flex Game) | at Cincinnati Bengals | TBD |
Cleveland Browns Season Prediction And Parting Thoughts
Season Prediction: 4-13
The Cleveland Browns’ defense should be decent again but not quite the same as last year after losing the NFL sacks leader and a replacing a veteran, proven defensive coordinator with a first-timer.
The offense upgraded along the line and at wide receiver and there is optimism for Judkins to break out at running back in his second season.
But the quarterback situation is just dreadful, as noted. That limits the collective upside massively.
Cleveland is at the very start of its rebuild and will surely want to target a quarterback in a 2027 NFL Draft expected to be loaded at the position. With two first-round picks again next spring, the Browns could really accelerate their roster makeover with this season a stepping stone on the way to better days ahead.
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