The Cleveland Browns spent the majority of the offseason completely revamping an offensive line that, frankly, had aged out. General manager Andrew Berry took a page out of Bears GM Ryan Poles’ playbook, using a mix of trades, free agent signings, and draft picks to replace outgoing mainstays Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, Jack Conklin, and Ethan Pocic.
Fans were right to be skeptical at first, as Berry essentially walked his team right into a dire situation. But based on what became a unique situation, the end results were impressive.
Cleveland’s new-look starting five will be anchored by solid veterans in Tytus Howard, Zion Johnson, and Elgton Jenkins. The left tackle will be No. 9 overall pick Spencer Fano, the first O-lineman taken in the 2026 draft. The right guard spot will most likely be manned by the returning Teven Jenkins, who checks the right boxes for what head coach Todd Monken is looking for. Rookies Parker Brailsford and Austin Barber should provide quality depth along with veterans Dawand Jones and KT Leveston.
But the crew over at Sharp Football Analysis aren’t impressed. In their weighted point system based on votes on a 100-point scale, the Browns came in dead last at No. 32 — with a whopping five points.
“The Browns' offensive line ranked in our top five as recently as 2024, but not a single starter remains on the roster from that unit,” the popular NFL data site reasoned. “Cleveland used eight offensive line combinations for at least 50 snaps last year and will be starting all over again with six additions to the two-deep and likely four new starters.”
ranking the best offensive lines
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 8, 2026
1. Denver Broncos
2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Buffalo Bills
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
5. Los Angeles Rams
6. Chicago Bears
7. San Francisco 49ers
8. Los Angeles Chargers
9. Seattle Seahawks
10. Atlanta Falcons
11. Indianapolis Colts
12. Carolina…
Browns fans may be overly optimistic about this year’s offensive line group
The initial reaction of most diehard fans is to immediately cry foul, but let’s dig a little deeper here.
The Sharp Football staff voters aren’t blindly dumping on the Browns. They’re simply stating that an offensive line potentially featuring five new starters, including at least one rookie, deserves to be at the bottom of the league.
The brutal truth? This might actually be the most real assessment of Cleveland’s offseason we've seen over the past four months.
Berry has received plenty of love over that span, from free agency and the draft to the Myles Garrett trade on June 1. What’s flown under the radar is what put the Browns in this position in the first place. The decision to enter 2025 with four starters — Bitonio, Teller, Conklin, and Pocic — on contracts set to void after the season, with Jones starting at left tackle coming off back-to-back season-ending injuries, deserves its own documentary series.
The solution this March was to let all four of those contracts void out and eat the combined $49 million in dead money on this year’s salary cap. Berry then traded for a 30-year-old veteran in Howard, likely overpaid for Johnson with $32.3 million in guarantees, and signed another 30-year-old vet in Elgton Jenkins, who’s still working his way back from last year’s gruesome leg injury that included a fractured lower leg and ligament damage.
Cleveland then pivoted to the draft and scored some high-upside talent, but how big a factor they can be in Year 1 is debatable.
Fano will be making the switch to left tackle after working exclusively on the right side at Utah opposite Caleb Lomu over the past two seasons. Third-round tackle Austin Barber could be blocked from playing time out of the gate, unless the team decides to kick him inside to guard. Parker Brailsford has an outside shot of winning the Browns’ starting center job, but as a fifth-round pick, that feels like a stretch.
The team’s most likely solution at right guard entering camp is Teven Jenkins, a player who’s bounced around from tackle to guard throughout his NFL career and only played 324 offensive snaps for the Browns last season, per Pro Football Focus.
So, yes, Berry constructed an offensive line that should at least give the Browns some stability and optionality coming off a brutal 2025 season. No one combination could gain traction last year as injury issues began piling up in September and never seemed to let up.
But do the Browns deserve to be higher than No. 32 with a projected starting five that’s never played a snap together entering 2026? Some Browns fans may not love the take, but there’s simply no information available yet to make that argument.
It all traces back to Berry and the team’s long-term planning. The team decided to squeeze another year out of last year’s veteran-laden O-line, knowing early on that the quarterback situation was in peril and its chances of being competitive were minimal. The Browns wound up drafting two running backs, two quarterbacks — and zero offensive linemen in that year’s draft.
The Browns are still chasing their tail for that decision. They could prove to have a much better offensive line than Sharp Football is projecting, but until there’s actual data to analyze, starting at the bottom is as fair as it gets.
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