With the start of training camps across the NFL now just around the corner, we’ve reached the point of the offseason where the true sleepers to make the 53-man roster start to reveal themselves.
By virtue of their young roster across the board, the Cleveland Browns should have one of the most intriguing camps in the league, from the quarterback battle between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson on down.
Cleveland will have several first- and second-year players competing for roster spots this summer who aren’t yet household names. One lesser-known name Browns fans should be watching, per ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi, is safety Chris Edmonds.
Edmonds has spent the majority of the past two seasons on Cleveland’s practice squad, but he may have made a bigger impact late last season than fans realize. Oyefusi included Edmonds as Cleveland’s fifth safety on his 53-man roster projection for the Browns ahead of camp.
Chris Edmonds made a quiet impact on special teams for the Browns in 2025
The second half of the Browns’ 2025 regular season was a media whirlwind, with Sanders starting his first games as a pro, Myles Garrett hunting the NFL’s single-season sack record, and head coach Kevin Stefanski on the verge of getting fired.
Behind the scenes, Edmonds, one of the Browns’ rookie free agent signings in 2024, was quietly emerging as a potential core special teams player. He began taking on a key role on the punt and kickoff teams in Week 10. The Arizona State product wound up playing 154 total snaps and earned an elite 86.2 special teams grade from Pro Football Focus for the season.
The Browns’ special teams hit rock bottom in 2025, in part leading to the dismissal of Stefanski and ST coordinator Bubba Ventrone. Cleveland made multiple free agent signings to help address that area, led by wide receiver Tylan Wallace, safety Daniel Thomas, and defensive back Myles Bryant.
Cleveland could carry up to 10 defensive backs on its active roster, but there aren’t many “locks” outside of Denzel Ward, Tyson Campbell, Grant Delpit, Ronnie Hickman, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, and Thomas, who was brought over from Jacksonville to be one of the leaders of the special teams unit.
Head coach Todd Monken made special teams a point of emphasis throughout his first spring program, and that could give Edmonds an inside track to steal a roster spot next month.
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