Over the past five NFL seasons, success for the Cleveland Browns has been relative. Yes, the quarterback play and offense as a whole has been mostly painful. The special teams, somehow, have been even worse.
The one saving grace over that stretch was a defense, led by Myles Garrett, that routinely ranked among the league’s best. Heck, the Browns even had the NFL’s best rookie defender last season in Carson Schwesinger.
But while the majority of the Browns’ roster turnover this offseason has come on offense, especially at the offensive line and wide receiver positions, the challenges this team will be facing on defense have been easy to overlook.
The end of Garrett’s near decade-long run in Cleveland was made less devastating by the addition of a premium young talent like Jared Verse. He’s not yet the kind of human cheat code that keeps opposing offensive coordinators up at night, though, and that’s where the Browns could feel the loss of their best player most — when quarterbacks aren’t as sped up, and linemen aren’t forced to commit so much extra attention to where and how Garrett is aligned.
With Garrett and linebackers Devin Bush and Mohamoud Diabate alone, the Browns lost the equivalent of 234 total tackles, 25 sacks, and 43 tackles for loss this offseason. The additions of Verse and free-agent linebacker Quincy Williams should help fill some of that void, but there’s only one Garrett, and as Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport wrote on Monday, the ripple effect of Cleveland’s June 1 trade with the Los Angeles Rams could take away the one thing fans have been able to trust over the years: a dependable defense.
“Given the franchise's recent volatility, a defensive freefall can't be ruled out,” Davenport wrote. “Verse is a fine young edge-rusher, but he has 12 sacks over two NFL seasons, compared to the 23 Garrett posted last year. If Cleveland's pass rush tails off, Ward and the rest of the secondary will be under far more pressure than in the past. Combined with an adjustment to a new scheme, a defense that effectively carried the team in 2025 could slip back toward mediocrity.”
The Browns can't ignore the potential for defensive regression
While Davenport makes a fine point, the Browns’ starting lineup on defense, led by Verse, Schwesinger, cornerback Denzel Ward, safety Grant Delpit, and more, should still rival any team in football entering the 2026 season.
What the Browns lost this offseason was depth across the board. With the extremely durable Garrett now in Los Angeles, the Browns will enter training camp one or two injuries away from a major problem.
The Browns better hope that Verse catches on quickly in defensive coordinator Mike Runtenberg’s scheme, because as a third-year player, he’s essentially being asked to fill Garrett’s role this year. Cleveland has two capable edge rushers behind him in Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire, and then a whole lot of youth and uncertainty that will be sorted out in August.
The defensive back group is in a similar boat. Ward and running mate Tyson Campbell form one of the best starting cornerback duos in football, but both players have struggled to stay on the field throughout their careers. Campbell played in 17 combined games between Jacksonville and Cleveland last season, but prior to that he was limited to 11 games in 2023 and 12 games in 2024 due to soft tissue issues.
Ward has been one of the NFL’s true shutdown corners throughout his career, with five Pro Bowl berths in eight seasons. One of his stated goals, however, was to finish a full NFL regular season. He has missed at least one game due to injury every year and has averaged under 14 games over the balance of his Browns tenure.
An injury to Campbell or Ward would be catastrophic in 2026. The Browns currently don’t have a clear-cut No. 3 cornerback to play nickel (a job that might have to be handled by rookie safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren) and would be down to players like D’Angelo Ross, Dom Jones, and Myles Bryant on the outside if one of their two starters misses extended time.
On an unofficial depth chart, the Browns’ defense looks about as good as it gets for a team coming off a pair of double-digit loss seasons. It’s a unit that’s held together by tape instead of glue right now, though, and as soon as injuries inevitably hit, things could indeed start unraveling at an uncomfortable rate.
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