The NFL schedule will be released on Wednesday night and while the Cleveland Browns know who they will play in Week 1, they're still waiting to find out when they will face the remainder of their opponents.
On Monday, it was announced that Cleveland would open up the regular season at home against the Dallas Cowboys. This will also be the first game Tom Brady calls as an announcer, with FOX breaking the news that he will be on the mic.
As we await the rest of the schedule, we can look at which teams will be on the slate and identify the four toughest defenses the Browns will have to go up against.
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
As frustrating as the Pittsburgh Steelers can be, it's hard to ignore how good they are on defense. This past season, they weren't at their best as they surrendered 5,816 yards, landing 21st in the league. Much of that had to do with their offense being awful and failing to keep their defense off the field.
Despite being out there constantly, and surrendering a ton of yards, the Pittsburgh defense stood up when it mattered. They finished the year sixth in scoring, giving up just 324 points on the year — they still finished 9-8 thanks to the 28th-ranked scoring offense that finished with 304 points.
Led by T.J. Watt and his 19 sacks, the Steelers finished with 47 sacks and had 16 interceptions. Watt isn't as good as Myles Garrett — even though he thinks he is — but he's still a menace and the defense as a whole is rather deep, especially after signing Patrick Queen. Cleveland will have to face them twice and will need to be ready for a fight to pull off a win in either contest.
3. Dallas Cowboys
In Week 1, the Browns will have quite the test. The Dallas Cowboys are easy to make fun of since Jerry Jones does some off-the-wall stuff — like doodling on a notepad to emphasize his commitment to winning and his belief in Dak Prescott while doing all he can to avoid paying his star quarterback and signing no free agents.
I'm not sure what will take me longer to process, Jerry Jones returning to whether Cowboys are "all in" more than a dozen times in an hour of conversation today, or the fact he used four different notebook pages to draw lines and circles to emphasize his point pic.twitter.com/cegrm93gGY
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) March 25, 2024
Even with Jones doing all he can to turn the franchise into a sideshow, they're a very good team that has won 12 games three years in a row. Much of the attention goes to Prescott and the offense but the defense has been the catalyst as of late.
After hiring Dan Quinn as the defensive coordinator in 2021, the Cowboys finished seventh, fifth, and fifth in points surrendered. They still gave up a lot of yardage in 2021 (finished 19th) and were outside the top 10 in 2022 (12th) but last year, they were fifth in yardage as well.
It might be tempting to assume they'll take a step back this year since Quinn left to take the head coaching job with the Washington Commanders. He even took a couple of key defenders as they Commanders signed Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, Jr.
Counting them out, however, would be a mistake. Dallas did a terrible job in searching for a new D-coordinator, failing to even cast a net. That's the same thing they did when they hired Mike McCarthy but he's led them to a record of 42-25 with a winning percentage of 62.7. He also gets a bad rap but in his career, he's now 167-102-2 (62 percent) which is almost identical to Sean Payton (160-98, 62 percent) and he has a mroe recent Super Bowl than Payton — proof that narrative matters more than facts in the NFL.
Having said that, Dallas might have lucked out with Mike Zimmer. It wasn't a conventional hire but he knows defense and has had a lot of success in his career. He also still has Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, and DaRon Bland — so this defense can still be great.
2. Baltimore Ravens
Another divisional rival means another top defense will be on the schedule twice for the Browns. The Baltimore Ravens were an incredibly balanced team in 2024, finishing sixth in yardage on both offense and defense. Offensively, league MVP Lamar Jackson led them to 6,296 yards (370.4 per game) and they were fourth with 483 points.
Defensively, they were stingy with 5,123 yards surrendered (301.4 per game) and finished first in points given up. In 17 games, the Ravens allowed just 280 points, which is an average of 16.5 per game (while they scored 483 points for an average of 28.4).
The good news for Cleveland is that they know this defense well and while they managed just three points in Week with Dorian Thompson-Robinson as the starter, they put up 33 in Week 10 when Deshaun Watson had his best game in the orange and brown.
That was the most points they surrendered in a single game last year and just one of two contests where the opponent topped 30 — the other was in Week 14 when the Ravens beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-31.
Jadevevon Clowney was one of their top defenders in 2023 with 9.5 sacks but even with him leaving, this defense is still a problem. Justin Madubuike (56 tackles and 13 sacks) is one of the best interior defenders in the NFL and Kyle Hamilton is an elite safety. They did lose Patrick Queen in free agency but added Nate Wiggins, Adisa Isaac, and Trenton Simpson in the draft. They still boast an impressive defense and will be the toughest one the Browns face this year.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback in the NFL right now. He's going to be 29 when the regular season starts and already has two NFL MVPs, three Lombardi Trophies, and three Super Bowl MVPs. He's now eyeing a third title in a row and if the Kansas City Chiefs pull that off, they will be the first team in league history to win three straight Super Bowls. That could catapult Mahomes from the greatest in the game right now to the greatest ever.
As good as Mahomes is, he likely wouldn't have won the title this year if not for the defense.
Kansas City decided to trade Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in 2022 and they focused on building an insane defense while asking Mahomes to elevate the players around him. That was a problem in 2023 since there were no wideouts he could consistently depend on and the offense finished 15th in points scored. Their inconsistent play led to an 11-6 record, with Mahomes leading them to 10 wins which was a career-low for him since taking over in 2018.
The reason they still won it all despite the lack of weapons was thanks to Chris Jones, George Karlaftis, Nick Bolton, and Trent McDuffie leading the way as they became the No. 2 defense in points surrendered (294) and yardage (4,926). They proved their worth all year as they never gave up 30 points in a game and held the high-flying Dolphins to seven points in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. They then held Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to 10 in the AFC Championship Game.
Cleveland will face some tough defenses in 2024 and while Mahomes and the Kansas City offense will get the praise leading up to the game, their defense will case the Browns just as many problems.