As the 2026 NFL season nears, the Cleveland Browns are trying to add to their defensive end room. The franchise pursued a reunion with Jadeveon Clowney, but he decided to return to the Houston Texans. Cleveland also tried to bring back Za’Darius Smith, but he sided with Kevin Stefanski, joining the Atlanta Falcons.
That left the Browns and their thin edge room still searching, and things got even more dire on Thursday. During Cleveland’s joint practice with the Buffalo Bills, Alex Wright went down with an ankle injury. While the severity of the injury isn’t known yet, the Browns will be in a bad spot if Wright has to miss an extended period of time.
The veteran defender is the starting edge opposite of Jared Verse, and he’s hoping to build on the career-best 5.5 sacks he posted last year. As everyone awaits some good news surrounding his injury, this situation underscores how much Cleveland needs to build depth.
The bad news is there aren’t many options for the Browns. After striking out on Clowney and Smith, there is one more respected veteran Cleveland can’t afford to whiff on. That’s Leonard Floyd.
Browns need to sign Leonard Floyd to address concerning edge room
Floyd, a top-10 pick in the 2016 Draft, is still going. Soon to be 34 years old, 2026 will be the veteran defender’s 11th year in the league, and he’s still producing at a level that Cleveland could use.
Last season, in 15 games with the Falcons, Floyd recorded 3.5 sacks, 19 total tackles, and five tackles for a loss. He played with the San Francisco 49ers the year prior to that, and posted 8.5 sacks in 17 games. Floyd’s last double-digit sack season came just three years ago, when he recorded 10.5 sacks in 17 games for the Buffalo Bills.
In his 10 year career, he has played with five total teams (Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams), recording 70 total sacks. He’s now in position to add another team to his resume, and hopefully, some more sacks. The Browns certainly need him, so they should be aggressively pursuing Leonard Floyd.
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