While the 2024 Cleveland Browns left a lot to be desired, anyone who watched the team knows that there were a few diamonds in the rough to watch each week. Whether those were already established stars like Myles Garrett or up and coming players like Cedric Tillman, Cleveland finished up the year with some players to look forward to seeing in 2025.
Among the roster, there were four players that really stood out from the pack as true sleepers from the season. These were players that didn't necessarily have flashy moments on the field or as consistently as someone like Garrett tends to have, but still had an impact for the team in losses.
Here are three sleepers from this past season for the Browns that seem primed to have an even better year in 2025.
3 sleepers for Browns from 2024 season
Isaiah McGuire
When thinking of the Browns defensive line, you'll always think of Garrett first. But, the rest of the line that was one of the best in the NFL at pass rushing in 2024 deserves their flowers, and McGuire specifically earned praised for his performance this year.
McGuire, who was also named PFF's Most Improved Player for the Browns, became one of Cleveland's best run stuffers. His 86.1 run defense grade provided by PFF shows just how great he was at forcing teams off the ground. He also managed two fumbles.
The sophomore lineman really came into his own after the team traded Za'Darius Smith, and that's a great thing for a defense that could mess around and draft a phenom to slot alongside him and Garrett in 2025 and beyond.
Cedric Tillman
Tillman's season was unfortunately cut short by a lingering concussion that held him out of play from Week 12. But, we all saw him steadily rise in the rankings of wide receivers for the Browns, becoming the WR2 for Jameis Winston for the four games they managed to play with one another. In those four games (Week 8 through Week 12), Tillman had 249 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
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Had he kept that pace all season with Winston and not been hurt, instead of 339 total receiving yards on the year, he would have finished with just over 1,000 receiving yards. That's how Jerry Jeudy ended up finishing the season, and he also benefitted greatly from a quarterback change.
Tillman showed a ton of promise as a WR2 for next season despite his audition being so short in 2024. With the right system and signal caller, he and Jeudy can become a very strong duo.
Jordan Akins
The tight end room for the Browns was actually solid in 2024. While David Njoku had some injury woes, he had a good year with 505 receiving yards and five touchdowns. But, one of the other tight ends that stood out for Cleveland was Jordan Akins. Akins, a former third round pick by the Houston Texans, finished 2024 with 390 yards and two touchdowns.
But, Akins had a really strong finish to the season with Njoku mostly out. 161 of his 390 yards came in the final five games of the season, and he showed the ability to be just as physical of a receiver as Njoku can be.
He's a free agent entering 2025, but hopefully, Cleveland is able to keep him on the roster as he seemed to be a favorite of the Browns and new OC Tommy Rees's on offense to finish the year.