The Browns have all the pieces in place to have one of the league’s top defenses during the 2025 season. The additions of Mason Graham and Carson Schwesigner should only make the unit better, but for the Browns to get back to the level we saw them play at during the 2023 season, they’ll need a few veterans to step up and play the best football of their careers.
One such player is Denzel Ward, the four-time Pro Bowl cornerback from Ohio State. After dealing with several different injuries from 2022 and 2023, Ward played 16 games during the 2024 season, leading the league in pass deflections (19).
Denzel Ward is the key to a strong defense in 2025
In a recent article by John Kosko of Pro Football Focus, he ranked the top 32 cornerbacks in the league heading into the 2025 season. Ward came in at No. 10, but he is much more talented than several of the defensive backs listed ahead of him. Here is what the site had to say about the former Buckeye defender:
"Ward is another player who has struggled to stay healthy but, when at full strength, is one of the best in the NFL. In 2024, Ward was on a torrid forced-incompletion-rate pace until he faded at the end of the season. He still led the NFL with 17 forced incompletions, and his 80.4 PFF coverage grade in man and zone-match coverage was tops in the NFL."John Kosko, Pro Football Focus
Ward has played at least 12 games in every season since being drafted in 2018, but he’s missed at least one start every year. In fact, last season was just the first time in his career that he’s played 16 games, and he’s never reached 900 total snaps in a season, according to Pro Football Reference. Just staying on the field alone might be enough for Ward to become an All-Pro player this season.
For the Browns to have a dominant defense again in 2025, they'll need Ward to play at a high level, and as long as he stays on the field, that shouldn't be an issue. The only question is if he can raise his game to another level at the age of 28. It's not hard to envision that happening, given some of the significant improvements the defense has made over the offseason and the fact that they've added more impactful players to the defensive line.
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All they need is Ward to play at a high level, and this defense should be dominant enough to keep them in every single game moving forward. Look for the rest of the secondary to take a step up this season, and that should allow Ward to play the best football of his career in 2025.