Browns Clips
The Browns may . . . or may not have their franchise quarterback on their roster.
New coach Todd Monken acknowledged the day he was hired that he is “intrigued” by three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson. But Monken also said he is as excited to work with Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and any other quarterback the team acquires.
Watson, 30, and Monken have communicated and are “eager” to work together once the offseason program begins in April, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports.
Watson began working with his private trainer in South Florida on Monday and will start his throwing program on Wednesday with private quarterbacks coach Quincy Avery, per Cabot. Some of the Browns’ receivers could join him.
Doctors fully cleared Watson for football activity in November, and he will have no restrictions this offseason.
Watson has an $80 million cap hit for 2026 in the final year of his five-year, fully guaranteed contract.
He spent the entire 2025 season rehabbing a twice-torn Achilles at the team facility. Watson has not played more than seven games in any of his four seasons and has played a total of 19 games, throwing 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Monken told Nathan Zegura of the team website that the Browns will explore all options for their franchise quarterback.
“I’m excited to get started with the guys that we have in the room now, and then looking to add to that possibly,” Monken told Zegura. “You’ve got to have a quarterback to give yourself a chance to win in this league. We know that. You also have to have good players around them to really get it going. So I’m excited about Shedeur, Deshaun, Dillon and who else we might add to that in terms of competition to really have this offense take off.”
The Browns are retaining running backs coach Duce Staley, Tony Grossi of TheLandonDemand.com reports.
Staley joined the Browns in 2024, coaching the running backs the past two seasons.
He began his coaching career with the Eagles in 2011.
Staley coached several different positions under multiple staffs with the Eagles, including running backs coach from 2013-20. He added the title of assistant head coach in 2018.
He joined the Lions’ coaching staff as the assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2021 but left in 2023 to join the Panthers with the same titles. Carolina fired him during Staley’s only season there.
The Browns have added two more candidates to the list of possible defensive coordinators on Todd Monken’s coaching staff.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that they have requested interviews with Panthers passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley and Falcons passing game coordinator Mike Rutenberg.
Cooley has spent the last three years on Dave Canales’s staff in Carolina and the last two seasons in his current role. He spent three seasons with the Rams and made several stops on the college circuit before moving into the NFL.
Rutenberg was a candidate in Tennessee before the Titans hired Gus Bradley as their coordinator. Rutenberg joined the Falcons after spending four years with the Jets.
Browns tight end David Njoku is headed toward free agency, and he confirmed Monday that he will not return to Cleveland.
“Cleveland, first off, I love you,” Njoku wrote on Instagram. “These nine years have been a beautiful journey. I’m so grateful for all the memories we shared together. Thank you to the Haslams, Andrew Berry and the whole Browns organization for everything!! All my teammates I shared the battle with, I’m so grateful for you guys. The time for me to find a new home has come, and all I can think of is just the gratefulness in my heart. The City of Cleveland will forever be home.”
Njoku’s contract voids on March 12, and the Browns will be charged a dead cap hit of $24 million for 2026 unless they use one of their two post-June 1 cuts to split the cap over the next two years.
The Browns used the 29th overall pick on Njoku in 2017, and he leaves ranking second in team history among tight ends with 384 receptions and 34 touchdowns. Only Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome has more.
Rookie Harold Fannin Jr., though, emerged as the team’s top tight end in 2025 with 72 receptions for 731 yards and six touchdowns.
Njoku has missed 11 games with injuries the past two seasons.
Nearly five years after the first civil lawsuit against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was filed, all of them have been resolved.
Via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today, the last two of 27 lawsuits against Watson have been dismissed. They were due to go to trial in February and March 2026. The cases were dismissed with prejudice on January 6, an indication that the lawsuits were settled.
The plaintiffs accused Watson of misconduct during massage-therapy sessions.
One of the last remaining plaintiffs was one of the first. Lauren Baxley had previously refused to settle her claim.
Baxley’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, confirmed that the case is over.
“Case is settled,” Buzbee said Monday, via Schrotenboer. “That’s all I can say about it. That’s the last case, so that ends my involvement with Deshaun Watson litigation.”
Buzbee handled 26 of the 27 lawsuits. The situation began when Watson’s lawyers refused to engage in settlement discussions as to the first claim. That led to an avalanche of cases, resulting in a 10-game suspension for Watson in 2022.
Watson has yet to rediscover the form that had made him one of the best quarterbacks in the league. His last solid season came in 2020, when he threw for 4,823 yards with the Texans. He didn’t play in 2021 while awaiting a trade, and then he missed the first 10 games of the 2022 season. Along the way, the Browns gave Watson a five-year, $230 million contract, with every penny of it fully guaranteed.
He remains under contract through 2026. The Browns intend to keep him on the roster.
Rams assistant head coach and passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant might have a new job before this hiring cycle ends.
Pleasant is interviewing for a defensive coordinator job with both the Cardinals and Browns today, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Pleasant was a candidate for the Chargers’ defensive coordinator job.
He has spent the past three seasons with the Rams, on the staff with new Cardinals’ head coach Mike LaFleur.
Pleasant has coached in the NFL for the past 13 seasons, also spending time in Washington, Cleveland, Detroit and Green Bay.
Charlie Bullen served as the Giants’ interim defensive coordinator last season, and new head coach John Harbaugh is believed to want him back on the staff in some capacity. But Bullen has options.
The Browns have requested an interview with Bullen to be their defensive coordinator, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.
Cleveland needs a new defensive coordinator because Jim Schwartz says he doesn’t want to be back in Cleveland after he was passed over as head coach. Schwartz says he doesn’t plan to coach in 2026, although it may not turn out that way.
Bullen could be a good candidate for the Browns job, and he is also a candidate to be the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator. And if he doesn’t get one of those jobs, he’s likely to be back with the Giants.
The Browns and former defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz stared each other down, until Schwartz blinked.
On Thursday, Schwartz resigned with the “expectation” that he won’t coach in 2026.
But “expectations” change all the time. Which means that the game of chicken that began when the Browns passed over Schwartz for Todd Monken as the team’s new head coach may not be over.
Schwartz, who is very smart (as some would say, “just ask him”), likely didn’t fold the tents completely on coaching in 2026. Technically, however, that’s the situation. He quit. He can’t take another job. He’s under contract with the Browns through 2026. And the Browns hold an option on his contract for 2027.
If there was no negotiated separation agreement between the Browns and Schwartz (and there absolutely should have been), what is Schwartz’s play? As one source puts it, “He doesn’t have a play.”
Head coaches can be traded. Assistant coaches cannot be. This means that, for instance, if incoming (supposedly) Raiders coach Klint Kubiak wants to hire Schwartz as the new Las Vegas defensive coordinator, the Raiders can’t call the Browns and offer a draft pick.
Or can they? It’s possible that the Raiders and Browns could informally work out some other tentative trade involving players and/or draft picks, to be effective when the league year begins on March 11. Extra compensation for Schwartz could be buried into that transaction. Then, the Browns — in an apparent display of magnanimity — would release Schwartz from his remaining contractual obligations.
So it’s over. Unless it isn’t. And things could get interesting if/when Kubiak becomes the new head coach of the Raiders and if/when the Raiders try to find a way to get Schwartz to Las Vegas.
As expected, Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is moving on.
NFL Network reports that Schwartz is resigning.
But here’s the kicker. Per the report, he’s exiting with the expectation that he won’t coach in 2026.
The outcome speaks to the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war in which the Browns and Schwartz were engaged. The Browns claimed they wanted him to stay. Because Schwartz was under contract through 2026, he couldn’t simply leave and take a job elsewhere. (Most recently, we’d heard that he was firmly in play to join the Raiders, as the new defensive coordinator.)
Our guess is that the Browns will pay most if not all of his salary for 2026. Why else would Schwartz relinquish his ability to work?
The Browns seemed to be slow-playing the situation, as the various other teams that were looking for defensive coordinators made hires. Soon, there would have been no seats left.
The specific language of the agreement (and it would be foolish for the Browns and Schwartz not to have one) will be critical. Could he work for a team in a non-coaching capacity? Could he, for example, serve as an offensive consultant, helping a team hone its attack and spot its tendencies by having Schwartz demonstrate to the offensive coaches any and all vulnerabilities?
Beyond the question of whether the written terms of separation include any legal loopholes, the broader point is whether the Browns would spend time and effort policing whether Schwartz is unofficially assisting one or more teams during the 2026 season.
Regardless, Schwartz won’t be the Browns’ defensive coordinator. And he apparently won’t be anyone else’s, either, until 2027 at the earliest.
Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger won Defensive Rookie of the Year, announced Thursday night at NFL Honors.
He received 40 of the 50 first-place votes, beating out Seahawks defensive back Nick Emmanwori (199 points, seven first-place votes), Falcons defensive end James Pearce Jr. (173, two), Falcons safety Xavier Watts (102, one) and Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter (72) for the award.
Schweisinger is the first Browns player to win the award since Chip Banks in 1982.
A second-round pick, Schwesinger is only the fifth non-first rounder in the past 40 seasons to win the award. Shaq Leonard, DeMeco Ryans, Kendrell Bell, Erik McMillan and Vernon Maxwell were the others.
Schwesinger played an integral role in the success of the Cleveland defense. He wore the green dot for the Browns throughout the season, acting as the signal caller for the defense.
He finished the 2025 season with a team-high 146 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, nine quarterback hits, two interceptions and three passes defensed. Schwesinger led all rookies in total tackles and tackles for loss and was tied for second in interceptions.
He recorded double-digit tackles in seven games, including a stretch of six consecutive games — the longest such streak in the NFL this season.
