Nearly two months to the day after the Browns surprised everyone by trading defensive end Myles Garrett to the Rams, Btowns owner Jimmy Haslam addressed the move in a Friday press conference.
“That was Andrew’s decision,” Haslam told reporters, referring to G.M. Andrew Berry. “I don’t know what Andrew shared with you yesterday or in the past, that’s something that — the conversations we’ve had for about a while before it was announced, and the Rams were a good partner there and kept it quiet. But, a decision like that, ownership is going to be involved, but it’s Andrew’s decision, Andrew’s recommendation — in this case, ownership left it there.”
Haslam was asked why he accepted Berry’s recommendation.
“Well, one, I think we got a really good player back, and I think you saw him today — a really good player who’s 25 years old and still on his rookie contract, so that’s the biggest reason,” Haslam said. “And then we picked up a one, a two and a three, and I think we all realize the three years we didn’t have number one picks due to the Deshaun [Watson] trade — one of those years I don’t think we even had a second — and the value of those picks, as we’ve proved the last two years, are tremendous. Myles [Garrett] is an unbelievable player. I was thinking the other night — Jim Brown, Joe Thomas, Myles Garrett — they’re all first-ballot Hall of Famers, world-class people, and so it was not an easy decision, but we’ve made it, we’re moving on and excited about Jared [Verse] and excited about those three draft picks.”
It was a surprising change of position by Haslam and the Browns after the 2025 season, one in which Garrett set the single-season sack record and was named the NFL’s defensive player of the year.
But, really, what did it do for the Browns? They won five games.
Adding draft picks is a plus, given the draft picks that were squandered in the Watson trade. Those picks become cheap, young players who can (if drafted and developed properly) become key, long-term contributors.
It was still a stunning shift by the organization. In 2025, Haslam said the team never gave the possibility of trading Garrett a “serious thought,” even though he demanded a trade publicly in early February and wanted to meet with Haslam in early March. (Haslam declined to do so.)
A year later, the Browns did much more than give it a serious thought. They arguably could have gotten even more for him in 2025, without having to sign him to a new, market-setting deal that made Garrett decide to stick around.
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The Browns are interested in bringing back veteran defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
Fellow edge rusher Jared Verse would be a big fan of the move if it happens.
“Clowney’s obviously one of the best rushers I’ve ever watched,” Verse said Thursday, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “Watching his film from college and everything like that, that’s one of the biggest reasons I even ever played D-end. So, having that dude in the room would be monumental for me. But I will say having that vet presence is probably even bigger than just my personal honor of him.
“Having that vet presence, someone that’s been around the game, someone that can teach you things like that. That’s why I went to the Sack Summit to be around Von Miller, Maxx Crosby, all these high-end rushers because you can learn so much from them.”
Verse added that Clowney can “100 percent” help him expand his set of pass-rushing moves.
“I mean, obviously we’re signing him to help on the field and to help the team develop as a whole,” Verse said. “But I think me personally, selfishly, I think it would be very helpful to have that vet presence around.”
Verse, who has finished his first two seasons with 4.5 and 7.5 sacks, wants to start converting more of his pressures into sacks, and feels Clowney can help him do that.
“When you look at the numbers and everything like that, I’m never a big stat guy, big number guy, but to be [transparent] with it and to talk about the statistics over there, I’m one of the highest pressure rates,” Verse said. “But pressures don’t mean anything if you can’t finish. Getting to the quarterback means nothing if you can’t finish. Yeah, it throws him off a little bit and messes with his head, but sacks are what puts them back a little bit. Finishing is just my biggest part.”
The Browns are alternating Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson at quarterback with the first-team offense to start training camp, which is largely the same process as the team employed during the offseason program.
Head coach Todd Monken said earlier this week that he’s not putting a timetable on when he’d like to declare a winner. That’s a stance General Manager Andrew Berry reiterated in his Thursday press conference.
“I think it’s important to have the starting quarterback named before Week 1,” Berry said.
The Browns appear committed to letting the competition play out. But there’s an argument to be made in favor of Sanders simply given that he’s younger and ostensibly has a higher ceiling to potentially become Cleveland’s quarterback of the future.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out in terms of the whole quarterback of the future discussion,” Berry said. “Ultimately, we’re going to play the player who is the most productive on the field. ... I think Deshaun’s only 30. So, there’s no need to make any decisions about the future right now. And we’ll let it play out and figure it out as we go.”
Deion Sanders expressed interest in meeting with Browns head coach Todd Monken this offseason and the two men were able to make it happen at Browns training camp on Thursday.
Sanders said he want to have the meeting to talk about coaching his son Shedeur because Sanders “can tell him a few things about how to get him going” after their time together at Colorado. Monken said he was interested in having that conversation this spring and said on Thursday that it was “awesome” to get it done.
Monken said he and Sanders spent much of their time telling stories about their football careers, but that Sanders “gave me a little bit of insight” into how his son processes things as a quarterback. Monken added “we’ve been able to see” most of what Sanders was talking about and that he got to tell Sanders “what a great job Shedeur has done.”
“It was good. Part-coach, part-father, which is what it should be,” Monken said.
Shedeur Sanders is competing with Deshaun Watson for the starting quarterback job in Cleveland. It doesn’t sound like anything that happened on Thursday will give him a leg up in that race, but the more insight the better for one of Monken’s first big decisions in his new job.
When Jadeveon Clowney left the Browns after the 2022 season, the two parties were not on the best terms.
But all of that now seems to be water under the bridge, as Clowney visited with Cleveland on Wednesday and appears to be getting closer to signing with the club.
Browns General Manger Andrew Berry told reporters on Thursday that he has no qualms about re-signing Clowney after a “really good visit.”
“No. 1, reconciliation is possible in life,” Berry said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “And I don’t subscribe to the notion of defining people by really their worst or best moment.
“But in this case, a moment of weakness, he made a mistake. It’s something you talk through. We’ve maintained a good relationship with JD since, really since 2022. And I think the second thing is we had him for two years and it was certainly a lot more positives than negatives despite how it ended. … So we do feel comfortable bringing him back into the organization if it’s the right fit on both sides.”
Clowney’s criticisms about the team had to do with former edge rusher Myles Garrett and how, at the time, Cleveland seemed to be prioritizing Garrett’s sack totals over the broader defensive scheme.
But Garrett is no longer with the team, and neither are the members of that defensive coaching staff.
Clowney recorded 11.0 sacks with the Browns in 26 games over two years from 2021-2022.
In 13 games for Dallas last year, Clowney tallied 8.5 sacks with 12 tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hits.
Browns tight end Harold Fannin Jr. missed all of the offseason program with an undisclosed injury.
Fannin said Wednesday, via Ashley Bastock of cleveland.com, that he required surgery to repair the groin injury he sustained in Week 17. His rehab lasted 6-8 weeks, with doctors clearing him two weeks ago.
Fannin is full go at training camp.
He reported early to try to catch up on learning Todd Monken’s offense.
In 16 games, with 13 starts, in 2025, Fannin caught 72 passes for 731 yards and six touchdowns. He also scored a rushing touchdown.
There might be a reunion in order for a veteran edge rusher and a team in the AFC North.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns are “strongly considering” re-signing Jadeveon Clowney.
Clowney is in town to visit with the team on Wednesday.
Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2014 draft, previously played for Cleveland in 2021 and 2022. He registered 9.0 sacks for the club in 2021. But that number was reduced to 2.0 sacks in 12 games in 2022.
Things ended poorly between Clowney and the organization, as Clowney complained that the Browns were going out of their way to give Myles Garrett favorable matchups to juice his sack totals.
But with the Browns trading Garrett to the Rams, that personal matter is now a non-issue.
Clowney appeared in 13 games with six starts for Dallas last season, finishing with 8.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits.
In his 153 career games for Houston, Seattle, Tennessee, Cleveland, Baltimore, Carolina, and Dallas, Clowney has recorded 66.5 sacks with 120 tackles for loss and 149 QB hits.
The Browns have locked up another member of their secondary.
Safety Grant Delpit has agreed to a three-year extension with Cleveland, according to multiple reports.
The initial numbers indicate Delpit’s contract is worth $48 million with $35 million guaranteed.
Delpit was previously entering the final season of a three-year extension he signed with the club in late 2023.
A second-round pick in 2020, Delpit missed his rookie season due to a torn Achilles suffered at practice in late August. He has since appeared in 78 games with 68 starts for Cleveland, tallying seven career interceptions with 21 passes defensed. He’s also registered 6.5 sacks, 25 tackles for loss, and 17 quarterback hits.
On Tuesday, the Browns also agreed to a two-year extension with cornerback Denzel Ward.
The start of training camp means the Browns’ quarterback competition between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson is about to heat up.
But things are effectively status quo from the offseason program as practices get underway this week.
“Yeah, nothing’s really changed,” head coach Todd Monken said during his Wednesday press conference. “We anticipate alternating. First of all, all four quarterbacks are going to compete. They all won’t get equal reps. Obviously, we will alternate, just like we did in the spring, Deshaun and Shedeur with the ones.”
Aside from Sanders and Watson, second-year QB Dillon Gabriel and rookie Taylen Green are also on the team’s roster. They may not be at the top of the depth chart right now, as Monken mentioned, he’s expecting them to be a factor.
“Obviously, [if] you don’t have as many opportunities, you’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities you get,” Monken said. “But you never know how it’s going to go at any position. Minor injuries are a part of training camp. So, guys go down, their shoulder’s a little sore and Dillon comes in and plays well — or another position.
“Again, we have to divide the reps up according to the depth chart. In a perfect world in camp, me personally, I would prefer the ones get 50 percent, the twos get 33 percent, and the threes get 17 percent, and somewhere the other guys have got to fill in. Can you always count on that? No. So, the more those guys, you start to see them with the ones, you can kind of anticipate they’re our starters.”
Monken said the Browns don’t have to choose who will be the starter until the beginning of the regular season. He’s planning on playing starters in the preseason, beginning with the Aug. 15 matchup with the Bears.
“We’ve got to see what we’ve got, especially at quarterback,” Monken said.
As for that final choice, Monken noted repeatedly that it will be a performance-dictated conclusion.
“Ultimately, I’m not going to decide who the starter is. They decide by their play. Their play decides who the starter is,” Monken said. “I don’t have any preconceived notions of how they’re played in the past or how they’re going to play. I only can, with my eyes, judge. And guys have got to play well around them. I think we’ve shored up some things up front. We’ve added some weapons on the perimeter, so I think that’s going to help.
“But they’ll decide who plays — I don’t decide who plays, the players decide who plays.”
Browns cornerback Denzel Ward made it clear this offseason that he wanted to stay in Cleveland. Now he and the Browns have agreed to a deal to make that happen.
Ward and the Browns have agreed to a two-year contract extension.
Ward’s agents told reporters that it’s a $62.2 million deal with $52.3 million guaranteed and makes Ward the highest-paid defensive back in the NFL.
The 29-year-old Ward is an Ohio native who was drafted by the Browns with the fourth overall pick in 2018 after starring at Ohio State. He has been one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL and now appears set to play out his prime years in Cleveland.
With the Browns in the midst of a rebuild, they could have considered trading Ward, just as they traded Myles Garrett. But while Garrett wanted out, Ward did not. So Ward remains in Cleveland, and will get paid a lot to do so.
