NFL offseason power rankings: No. 29 Cleveland Browns start over again after trading Myles Garrett

Regardless of whether you think the Cleveland Browns did well with the Myles Garrett trade, it should’ve been a moment of self-reflection for the franchise. And that look in the mirror couldn’t have been reassuring.

The Browns drafted one of the best defensive players in NFL history when they took Garrett first overall in 2017. He has surpassed his peers and should be compared to players such as Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Bruce Smith and others at that historic level. Garrett’s record-setting, 23-sack season put him in that echelon.

And the Browns had practically no team success with him in nine seasons: two playoff appearances, one postseason victory, no division titles. They went 54-79-1 in games Garrett played. He overlapped one season with Joe Thomas, a Hall of Fame offensive tackle who never made the playoffs in 11 Browns seasons.

Resetting and rebuilding are always tough, but at least they usually lead somewhere. Not in Cleveland.

The latest version of starting over now includes one of the biggest trades in NFL history. Garrett was sent to the Los Angeles Rams for defensive end and 2025 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, a first-round draft pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2029. That’s a lot in return. But will the Browns take advantage of it? History says no. There’s a reason Garrett made a trade request in 2025.

Maybe this time will be different. There’s a decent foundation being built, though the team’s indefinite quest to find a quarterback looms over everything.

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A strong 2025 NFL Draft haul injected more talent into the roster. Last year’s rookie class got strong contributions from defensive tackle Mason Graham, linebacker and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, running backs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, and tight end Harold Fannin Jr. The Browns also picked up an extra 2026 first-round pick in a trade down with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Will the Browns actually hand Deshaun Watson the starting QB job this season? They certainly seem open to the idea. (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)

Despite all those good vibes and one of the better defenses in the NFL led by one of the all-time great individual seasons in league history, the Browns finished 5-12 and don’t have much hope to be much better this season. We all know why, and it’s a familiar story.

The Browns had a hideous offense last season due to miserable quarterback play. They were 32nd in offensive DVOA, passer rating, passing yards per play, offensive success rate and passing EPA (expected points added) per play, and they were 31st in overall EPA per play. Their passer rating as a team was 69.9, an incredibly low mark in the modern NFL. Only three other teams were below 80, and nobody else was below 75.

And now the Browns seem to believe their best solution might be a veteran whom they already publicly said was a mistake.

In March 2025, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam seemingly threw in the towel on Deshaun Watson, who has the dubious combination of being the centerpiece of the worst trade in NFL history and signing the worst contract in NFL history.

“We took a big swing-and-miss with Deshaun,” Haslam said in 2025. “We thought we had the quarterback. We didn’t, and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole.”

Watson didn’t play a game last season, but late last year, the Browns started pushing the idea of him starting in 2026. That has played out in minicamp, with Watson and Shedeur Sanders battling for QB1 while Dillon Gabriel also lingers in the competition.

Watson has been a stunning bust for the Browns since their huge 2023 trade and his fully guaranteed, $230 million deal; he has been arguably the worst quarterback in the NFL over that time. That the Browns, after saying trading for him was a mistake, would entertain the idea of turning back to him says they are impossibly desperate — or don’t really grasp the concept of a “sunk cost.”

The only logical conclusion from the Browns playing Watson and trading Garrett is that it’s a scheme to land a good pick in the 2027 NFL Draft and take a quarterback. Sanders and Gabriel didn’t impress as rookies, though each had decent moments. Watson hasn’t played well in a long, long time. The Browns were remarkably bad at quarterback last season, and things seem unlikely to be better this season.

It’s also a reminder that the Browns are still in a multiyear rebuild. They hired Todd Monken to be their next head coach and perhaps boost the offense around the quarterback mess. The core of the team is young, now includes the promising Verse and is adding a promising 2026 rookie class. If the Browns nail their quarterback pick in 2027, all of a sudden, they will get very interesting.

But until then, expect more of the same. The defense has talent, even with Garrett departing and Jim Schwartz leaving as coordinator after being passed over for the head coach position. The offensive group has some some good players, too, but it’s young and won’t flourish with a bad quarterback or an offensive line that is a work in progress. There will be a lot of ugly, low-scoring games.

And then, maybe, 2027 will be a time for real optimism. Or, at least, the hope that any star players the Browns acquire won’t be traded in a few years to start a new rebuild.

Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns is sacked in a game against the Titans last season. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

(Diamond Images via Getty Images)

Offseason grade

The Myles Garrett trade was one of the biggest in NFL history, and in the scope of a franchise that is rebuilding again with no hope in the present, the Browns got a nice return. Jared Verse is a good defensive end entering his third season, and extra first-, second- and third-round picks over the next three drafts will help. It’s just tough to give up a generational player such as Garrett.

A team in rebuild mode needs to nail the draft, and everyone loved the Browns’ 2026 class. A year after hitting on multiple picks, the Browns’ draft got the highest consensus grade among analysts, with a grade-point average of 3.83. The Browns did well to trade down and still got tackle Spencer Fano, the top offensive lineman in the draft, at No. 9. Then they double-dipped at receiver with KC Concepcion later in the first and Denzel Boston early in the second. Safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren was a good second-round pick, and offensive lineman Austin Barber in the third could help right away.

Free agency was mostly concentrated on the offensive line because the Browns were in the rare position of potentially having to replace all five starters. They signed guards Zion Johnson and Teven Jenkins, as well as center Elgton Jenkins, and they traded for tackle Tytus Howard. Linebacker Quincy Williams was signed from the Jets when Devin Bush left. In a perfect world, that haul would’ve included a better answer at quarterback, but it’s also reasonable to look ahead to a deep 2027 draft class for a long-term solution at the position — especially with the Browns having an extra first-round pick if they can work a trade up.

Grade: B+

Quarterback report

The Browns’ decision to lay the tracks for Deshaun Watson to start this season is embarrassing for the franchise and also absolutely confounding. It started Dec. 6, when NFL Media reported that Watson could be the starter in 2026; that was strange timing for a story about a quarterback who wouldn’t play during that season. It continued through the offseason, and then in late April, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported that Watson had emerged as the favorite to start over Shedeur Sanders. That was confusing, too, considering nothing had really happened to that point in the competition. But the team wanted to get the message out there.

There was also the mind-blowing proclamation that Watson has “no ill will” toward Cleveland as part of a long ESPN piece detailing why he was getting another shot. It’s dubious to think the Browns are pumping up his trade value because nobody is trading for Watson and his $45 million cap number based on some positive reports that are likely coming from the team. But the media blitz is very real. Browns fans deserve better than whatever public relations strategy is being pushed on them.

It will be very unpopular if Watson actually wins the Browns’ starting job, considering his off-field past and how badly he has played in Cleveland since the Browns traded three first-round picks and more to the Texans for him (“I know that there are people that probably won’t be supportive, but they should need to be supportive as much as they can,” J.W. Johnson, managing partner of the Haslam Sports Group, said in another mind-bending comment to ESPN).

The decision would bring extra attention because it would mean Watson starting over Sanders, who draws headlines no matter what he does and actually had some intriguing moments as a rookie. It would seem prudent for the Browns to see if there’s another level for Sanders, rather than turning back to Watson, who will be 31 years old, is coming off tearing his Achilles tendon in October 2024 and again in January 2025, and hasn’t had a decent season since 2020. (He quit on the Texans the next season, sitting out while pushing for a trade.)

There’s some reason the Browns are preparing everyone for the possibility of Watson starting this season. Whatever that reason is, it’s bizarre.

Odds breakdown

From Yahoo’s Ben Fawkes: “The good news for the Browns is that an elite defense is returning, and the consensus is that Cleveland had a great draft. The bad news is that defense no longer includes future Hall of Famer Myles Garrett, whom the Browns shipped off to the Rams for Jared Verse and some draft picks. With a win total of 5.5, the Browns are currently favored in only two games and are at least 4.5-point underdogs in nine games. Deshaun Watson — who hasn’t played in an NFL game since 2024 and last played a full season in 2020 — or Shedeur Sanders is likely to be the starting QB, which is a big reason for those big spreads.

“The Browns should be improved and are gathering more young talent, but unless Watson can regain his early-career form or Sanders takes a massive leap forward, there probably aren’t going to be a ton of wins for Cleveland this season.”

Yahoo’s fantasy take

From Yahoo’s Scott Pianowski: “Harold Fannin Jr. has a Yahoo ADP in the mid-60s, and it makes sense. He finished as the TE6 last year, and fellow tight end David Njoku was not retained. But Cleveland significantly improved its receiver group this year (widening the passing tree), and the quarterback collection is still suspect. So much of fantasy success is tied to environment, and I’m worried the über-talented Fannin will have a difficult time overcoming his context this fall. The talent leaps off the screen, but he’s not a cheap pick like he was last year.”

Stat to remember

Without Garrett, the Browns’ defense will look a lot different. He had 23 of the team’s 53 sacks last season. Remove Garrett’s total, and the team goes from third in the NFL in sacks last season to tied for third-to-last.

That’s not how things actually work, because Verse will get sacks in place of Garrett, but Garrett’s impact is hard to underestimate. Maliek Collins and Alex Wright got 6.5 and 5.5 sacks, respectively, last season, but that was with Garrett being double-teamed on more than 59% of his pass-rush snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, The Browns still have a chance to be a top-10 defense, but Garrett is impossible to fully replace.

Burning question: What will Todd Monken bring as a coach?

Many new head coaches look good right away just by comparison to who preceded them. Antonio Pierce had some buzz in part because of how low Josh McDaniels set the bar for the Raiders. Whoever was after Urban Meyer in Jacksonville was going to look like an NFL Coach of the Year candidate. There are countless examples.

That’s not quite the case in Cleveland. Some Browns fans might’ve grown tired of Kevin Stefanski, but he never had a great roster. The way coach of the year is voted upon across sports is deeply flawed, but Stefanski was named NFL Coach of the Year twice. It’s hard to say he was terrible. He just became the brunt of criticism from Browns fans sick of losing.

Todd Monken will have some of the same limitations Stefanski had, most notably at quarterback. But the first-time head coach has a good track record of offensive football from his time in the NFL and also in college at Georgia. Monken likes to say he caters his scheme to the strengths of the players — Browns GM Andrew Berry said the team’s priority was finding a coach with a “very strong and adaptable offensive plan” — so the pass-heavy approach that he generally prefers might need to wait until a better quarterback arrives. Monken’s adaptability on offense is one reason the Browns hired him, and that will be put to the test in his first season.

“That’s a question I get asked all the time — like, what system do you run? What is that?” Monken told the media when he was introduced as the team’s head coach. “And the way I’ll try to phrase it is to score any way possible. I don’t care what it takes to score, it’s about scoring points. I would hate to put some sort of … any type of connotation as to what system that we are, other than playing to our players’ strengths.”

Best-case scenario

Before Garrett was traded, you could’ve reasonably argued that a good Browns defense could keep the team in playoff contention for a while. The Browns were fourth in EPA allowed per play and success rate allowed on defense last season. But that possibility takes a big hit without Garrett. And Mike Rutenberg, a first-time defensive coordinator, has a lot to live up to as he replaces Jim Schwartz.

Maybe Todd Monken can get the most of the quarterback, whoever it is. It seems like decades ago, but once upon a time, Deshaun Watson was actually a good NFL quarterback. It’s hard to properly summarize what the best-case scenario is for the Browns because it’s probably losing as many games as possible to get a good draft pick and a quarterback in 2027. It’s depressing for Browns fans to be in that position again.

Nightmare scenario

The question for almost every team this low in the rankings is whether a few wins in 2026 are worth missing out on drafting a quarterback of the future high in the 2027 NFL Draft (it’s also why tanking might become a bigger focus than ever late this season). There are six quarterbacks in the top 30 of Nate Tice’s very early big board for next year’s draft, so maybe there will be enough to go around. But a six- or seven-win season for the Browns that leaves them short of drafting a top QB actually feels like the nightmare.

We all know Cleveland’s long and torturous history at quarterback by now, and missing out on a Dante Moore or LaNorris Sellers in the first round next year would leave the Browns in the same desperate situation. The 2027 NFL Draft, particularly the quarterback class, will be a big story as this season goes on. It will be especially important in Cleveland, which seems to be a quarterback away from becoming a consistent playoff contender.

The crystal ball says …

The team’s decision to tell the world (repeatedly and loudly) that it wants to start Deshaun Watson while also trading the great Myles Garrett says a lot. This version of the Browns started in 1999 and has been on a hamster wheel since then. The push to get everyone on board with the idea of Watson starting is beyond humiliating for the franchise, and the fan base should be angry about it.

The 2026 Browns will win some games because the defense shouldn’t plummet with Jared Verse replacing Garrett. Cleveland won five games last season with a passer rating below 70, and that can’t get much worse. Yet the quarterback situation is as bad as you’ll find, and that should doom Cleveland to last place in the AFC North again.

The Browns will likely have multiple starting quarterbacks again this season, and maybe even ultra-athletic rookie Taylen Green will be one of them. Until the quarterback situation improves, their ceiling won’t change, so the good news is they should have a top-five draft pick next year. Garrett went from this mess to landing on the Super Bowl favorites. It’s hard to think of a bigger winner this offseason.

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