Cleveland Browns
It became obvious in April when the Browns drafted two running backs that Nick Chubb would not be returning to Cleveland. Six weeks later, the four-time Pro Bowler remains a free agent.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Chubb and the Texans have mutual interest.
The Texans have Joe Mixon, Dameon Pierce, Woody Marks and Dare Ogunbowale at the top of their depth chart at the position. Both Mixon and Pierce missed time with injuries last season.
Chubb, 29, has played only 10 games the past two seasons. A horrific knee injury in Week 2 of the 2023 season kept him out until Week 7 of the 2024 season. Chubb played eight games last season before breaking his foot.
The Browns made Chubb a second-round pick in 2018 and he had 996 rushing yards as a rookie followed by four consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry and 84.5 yards per game in his first five seasons and 3.9 yards per carry and 50.2 yards per game the past two seasons.
The Browns thought highly enough of Mason Graham to make the defensive lineman the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, but they still think there’s more room for him to grow as a pro player.
Graham spent a lot of time at Michigan occupying blockers and opening doors for his teammates to come up with sacks, tackles for loss and other things that make an impression on the box score. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said this week that he thinks Graham can do more at the point of attack while he’s in Cleveland.
“I do think there’s a lot of meat on the bone as far as his production, and we can see better production from him than even we saw, and he had outstanding production and college,” Schwartz said, via Ashley Bastock of Cleveland.com. “But I think there’s some meat on the bone that he can even have a chance to make more plays here.”
Playing with Myles Garrett shouldn’t hurt Graham’s chances of proving Schwartz right. If he can take advantage of the attention the veteran gets from opposing offenses, the Browns front line will be a bear this fall.
The Browns announced linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will not play in 2025 after suffering a neck injury midway through the 2024 season.
But the franchise will still have him around during the coming season, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told reporters this week.
“JOK was on his way to [an] All-Pro season last year,” Schwartz said on Wednesday, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “He had really reached that level. We had talked this time last year about the biggest jump between being a starter and then being a Pro Bowl player. There’s even a bigger jump to being an All-Pro player.
“It’s disappointing to lose a player like that, but we support JOK and everything that he does,” Schwartz added. “He’ll still have a big impact on our team this year. It’s not going to be playing, but he’ll still have a big presence.”
Owusu-Koramoah, a second-round pick in 2021, was a Pro Bowler in 2023 after registering 101 total tackles with 20 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and two interceptions. He recorded 61 total tackles with 10 for loss, 3.0 sacks, and an interception in eight games last season before suffering his injury.
The Browns have four primary candidates for the starting quarterback job. According to the man in charge of all of the offense, any of them — Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders — can win it.
“You can see them all winning the job, I think, right?” Tommy Rees told reporters on Wednesday. “And so in terms of the competition, we’re so early in the process. We’re so early in evaluating that. Yeah, I think, you know, we have a good group of guys that continue to push one another, and by the time September rolls around, we’ll be ready to go.”
It’s hard to imagine all four still being in the running when training camp opens. The last guy on the depth chart will have a hard time getting enough quality reps. And the more quality reps that go to someone other than the eventual starter will make it harder for the eventual starter to be ready.
Ideally, they’ll trim the competition to three before training camp opens, with one of the quartet being traded. We still think Pickett will be the odd man out, but that’s just a hunch.
Joe Flacco has the experience and the affection of the fan base. Gabriel and Sanders each could become the long-term answer. It would be foolish to prematurely give up on either one.
For now, the Browns have a mandatory minicamp next week. That’s the last chance they’ll have to evaluate the four quarterbacks before training camp.
“It’s going to be fluid,” Rees said regarding next week’s practice plan for the four quarterbacks. “We’re going to continue to work with all the guys we have. We’re going to develop all four of them and, you know, we’re going to push the reps. We’re going to find ways to be creative to make sure that they all have opportunities to develop and put their best foot forward. And, you know, when the time comes, we’ll continue to push guys forward as they are.”
The wrinkle in all of this is Deshaun Watson. The Browns have moved on, but he’s still on the team. If/when he’s cleared to practice and play, the Browns will have a decision to make. A decision they may not want to make, especially since the millions in insurance they can recover hinge on him being physically unable to play.
It’s going to make for an interesting August in Cleveland. They first need to figure out the starter, and then they need to prepare him and the rest of the team for a Week 1 visit from the Bengals.
The proprietors of the Factory of Sadness are happy with progress they’re making toward building a new one.
Although the mechanism isn’t clear, the Browns are hoping to get $600 million in state funding for a $2.4 billion venue to be built in Brook Park. Assuming the Art Modell Law doesn’t get in the way.
On Wednesday, the team made Haslam Sports Group executive V.P. and COO Dave Jenkins available to reporters to discuss recent developments.
“We’re very excited that the Senate chose to include $600 million in their version of the budget . . . but not nearly to the finish line yet,” Jenkins said. “So, there’s been three versions of $600 million dollars, starting with the governor, him putting it in first obviously signaled a desire at the state level to enable this project — seconded by the House, their version, and again, three different constructs.”
The state has until June 30 to finalize a budget that will raise the money by increasing taxes on gambling, issuing state bonds, or taking money from the unclaimed property fund.
Jenkins was also asked about criticism arising from the reluctance of ownership to privately fund the stadium.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear from the outset that it takes a public-private partnership to enable this project,” Jenkins said. “And I think there’s a bit of conflating of issues here. So to say that the $600 million going to us is created by pulling from other sources is, I think, a pretty unfair and inaccurate way of presenting it. So we defer to state leadership. Again, all three branches of government have signaled a willingness and a desire to enable this project, and we’ll see what happens on June 30.”
But the $600 million that goes to the Browns necessarily could have gone elsewhere. Balancing a public budget is a zero-sum game. Less that goes to one column is more than can go to another.
The Browns still need to get $600 million in local funding to make it a true 50-50 public-private partnership. The county is out if the Browns insist on going to Brook Park, so they’ll need to find that $600 million elsewhere.
Regardless, the Browns are optimistic that the $600 million from the state will happen.
"[T]here’s three different ideas on the table now,” Jenkins said. “So what happens . . . behind closed doors? I think those three branches of government will work hard — they’ve all said $600 million is OK for the project and they want to do it, and they want to enable the project. So I think they’ll work collaboratively to find a final solution.”
There’s still a lot more that needs to happen before the stadium can be built. Coming up with $1.2 billion in public funding is half the financing battle, and the Browns could be closing in on getting half of that.
The Browns now officially have five quarterbacks under contract.
The team announced that rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel signed his four-year deal on Wednesday. He joins Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Shedeur Sanders as quarterbacks officially in the employment of the franchise.
Gabriel was the 94th overall pick in the 2025 draft. He played at UCF, Oklahoma, and Oregon, starting 63 total games at the college level. He threw for 18,722 yards and went 46-17.
It remains to be seen where he lands on the depth chart for 2025. Assuming Watson doesn’t play (and he could be determined to give it a go), one of the four will be gone before Week 1 — and possibly before training camp. That likely won’t be Gabriel, whose status as a top-100 pick will ensure that he gets a more-than-fair chance to shine.
And he could perform well enough to become the Week 1 starter for a team that has been desperately searching for a year-in and year-out starter ever since the franchise returned to the NFL in 1999.
Katherine Fitzgerald and Daniel Oyefusi were named the 2025 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winners by the Pro Football Writers of America.
Fitzgerald covers the Bills for the Buffalo News, and Oyefusi is the Browns beat writer for ESPN.com.
Fitzgerald and Oyefusi, the fifth and sixth Paylor Award winners, are the first co-recipients of the award since it was introduced in 2021. Fitzgerald is the first person affiliated with the Buffalo News to receive the award, while Oyefusi is the first affiliated with ESPN.com to be honored.
The Paylor Award recognizes a young NFL writer who carries on the legacy of Paylor through his or her work ethic, professionalism, dedication to the craft and commitment to improving diversity in NFL media. Paylor, the former Yahoo! Sports and Kansas City Star football writer, died in February 2021 at the age of 37.
Fitzgerald joined the Buffalo News as a Bills beat writer in 2021. She previously was a sports reporter for the Arizona Republic (2018-21) and USA Today (2017). While with the Republic, she covered the Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Suns and other teams and events in the greater Phoenix area.
Oyefusi became the Browns beat reporter for ESPN’s NFL Nation in April 2024. He previously was the Dolphins beat reporter for the Miami Herald.
The other 2025 finalists for the Paylor Award were Ben Arthur (Fox Sports) and Kris Rhim (ESPN.com).
The Browns did some roster shuffling on Wednesday.
They announced the signing of wide receiver Jaelen Gill. Kicker Andre Szmyt was waived in a corresponding move.
Gill signed with the Chargers after going undrafted out of Fresno State last season and remained with the team through the preseason. Gill eventually spent five weeks on the practice squad in Cleveland.
Gill had 49 catches for Fresno State during the 2023 season. He transferred to the school after three years at Boston College and two seasons at Ohio State.
With Syzmt off the roster, the Browns are going with Dustin Hopkins as their only kicker.
The Browns hope to pay for their new stadium in part with state-issued bonds. Senate Republicans have a different idea.
Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the initial budget of the Senate GOP’s initial proposal for the state budget would include “raiding” the unclaimed property fund.
It currently has $4.8 billion. A total of $1.7 billion would be removed, with $600 million going to the Browns and $1.1 billion devoted to other stadium projects — including proposed upgrades to the Bengals’ stadium.
For the Browns, the $600 million would be repaid to the unclaimed property fund with tax revenues.
It’s unclear whether the Ohio House or governor Mike DeWine will support the proposal. The House has endorsed a bond issuance. DeWine wants to increase the taxes on sports books.
Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne, who has been squabbling with the Browns lately, opposes using any state money for a stadium in Brook Park.
“This is a sad day for the state of Ohio and a sad day for the residents of Cuyahoga County,” Ronayne said. He added that the money would cover Medicaid for 50,000 Ohio residents.
“Put your own money in this, Haslams,” Ronayne said.
It’s just another example of the current mood held by many regarding whether NFL teams should pay for their own stadiums, or whether they’re entitled to public funding. And it’s currently playing out for multiple teams — the Browns, Bengals, Chiefs, and Commanders.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has been a first-team All-Pro in four of the last five seasons and was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 2023, but Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz says the best is yet to come from Garrett.
Schwartz said that there’s additional pressure on Garrett after he asked for a trade this offseason and then was convinced to stay in Cleveland by getting a new contract that makes him the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL. And Schwartz said Garrett will rise to the occasion because of that pressure.
“I really think Myles is going to have the best year of his career,” Schwartz said. “Has to, right? I’ve told him before — what’s that Spiderman quote? — with great power comes great responsibility. With the big contract, with the notoriety that came along with that, the process that it took to get him to that point, there’s always pressure in this league, but probably a little more so. And I think that brings out the best in players and I know that will be the case with Myles also.”
Schwartz’s confidence comes even though Garrett has declined to participate in the Browns’ voluntary offseason work, which has raised some eyebrows given the investment of a four-year, $160 million contract the Browns made in him.
The Browns could have granted Garrett’s trade request, acquired a lot of draft picks and saved a lot of salary cap space, and that would have made a lot of sense for a rebuilding team. That the Browns instead doubled down on Garrett shows how much they still believe he can help them build a winner in Cleveland. Now it’s on him to prove them right. Schwartz thinks he will.