It’s shocking how rapidly issues can disintegrate. Obviously the Browns haven’t been a top-tier group in a very long time, however we’re not far faraway from them at the very least being related. From 2020 to 2023, the group went a mixed 37-30 with a number of playoff appearances (and a Wild Card win within the 2020 season). The group had the Coach of the Year twice, the Defensive Player of the Year as soon as, and naturally who can overlook Joe Flacco beating out Damar Hamlin for Comeback Player of the Year. That was a mere two seasons in the past. In the 2 since, the Browns have gone 8-26 with two last-place finishes, a head coach firing and a few of the worst quarterbacking we’ve ever seen. They obtained the Defensive Player of the Year once more … however he’s now in Los Angeles. The Browns had been good fairly lately. But proper now it looks like eternally in the past. Can 2026 be the beginning of a rebound?
2026 Sleepers, Busts & Bold Predictions: Cleveland Browns
Sleeper: Denzel Boston, WR
SEATTLE, WA – NOVEMBER 29: Wide receiver Denzel Boston #12 of the Washington Huskies reacts throughout a sport between the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies at Husky Stadium on November 29, 2025, in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Henry Rodenburg/Icon Sportswire)
The Browns drafted KC Concepcion within the first spherical in April after which circled again and took Boston within the second. That ought to inform just about everybody that the Jerry Jeudy experiment is kind of performed in Cleveland — he’ll be on the group subsequent 12 months, however because the WR3 and at greatest the No. 5 weapon. This passing sport will run by Concepcion, Boston and TE Harold Fannin Jr. Well, Concepcion is 5-foot-11, and Fannin solely caught 42.1% of his contested targets final 12 months per FTN Stats & Charting, fourth worst amongst tight ends with at the very least 10 contested targets. The 6-3 Boston was one thing of a contested-catch marvel on the school degree. The Browns don’t promise to supply something like an elite offense in 2026, however each time the group will get shut, anticipate them to look towards Boston for the high-value finish zone targets. For somebody presently going at WR65, that’s a helpful sufficient position.
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Bust: Quinshon Judkins, RB
Judkins was good as a rookie. But “good” was about all he was. He beat expectations, particularly after some off-the-field drama earlier than the season, and that’s led to him being overrated. But he solely had one hundred-yard sport, he had 5 video games of beneath 40 yards, he scored zero receiving touchdowns. And now he’s coming back from a reasonably brutal harm — even with studies that he’s taking part in OTAs and appears good, I’m all the time going to be nervous a few participant in his first 12 months again from that dramatic an harm. Can Judkins, with not a lot receiving upside (he had one sport with greater than 4 targets final 12 months and solely 36 in complete), behind one of many league’s worst offensive strains (we’ve them at 31st in our OL rankings), and with what is probably going the league’s worst QB scenario, return worth on what’s an early RB24 ADP? I can’t see a path.
Bold Prediction: Taylen Green Starts at Least 1 Game in 2026
Jared Verse confirmed up for his first exercises sporting No. 8, which is (was?) Dillon Gabriel’s quantity, and Gabriel’s feedback afterward had been that “I was hoping he would pay me for my number, but then he just started wearing it.” Meanwhile, Todd Monken stated the group has “two starting-level quarterbacks.” Translation: Gabriel ain’t gonna be on this group in Week 1. Then we’ve Shedeur Sanders, possibly the worst beginning quarterback within the league in 2025 apart from Gabriel, and Deshaun Watson, possibly the worst beginning quarterback within the league in 2024. Meanwhile, Green is 6-foot-5 and runs a 4.36 40. All instructed, he’s one of the vital athletic quarterbacks to enter the league shortly, and whereas the truth that he fell to the sixth spherical exhibits that he’s removed from a certain factor — multiple speaking head has speculated on him possibly shifting to huge receiver — Green has expressed no such curiosity, and he did cross for greater than 9,600 yards and 59 touchdowns in school (between Boise State and Arkansas) and ran for two,400 and 35 touchdowns as effectively. Green may by no means turn out to be something within the NFL. But he’s the one quarterback in Cleveland that Monken picked himself, and with the group trying to the longer term and with the chances that neither Watson, nor Sanders, nor (particularly) Gabriel is in that future, it is smart to at the very least give him a glance this 12 months.