Browns 2025 Season in Review

53 sacks. Cleveland's defense got home 53 times this year — top three in the league, 90-fourth percentile — and that's the headline for a team that finished 30-first in offensive expected points added. We're walking through how the defense smashed, how the quarterback room got muffed, and what Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin actually built in a lost year. Five and 12. No playoffs. Sixth among the AFC's non-playoff teams. The defense gave Cleveland an identity. The offense gave them December.

Start with the team by the numbers, because the split is wild. On defense — and remember, a big negative number is elite — Cleveland's expected points added allowed finished at −95.3. Fifth in the league, 80-eighth percentile. On offense? −195.5. 30-first. Sixth percentile. One of the widest unit-to-unit gaps in football. Third downs tell the same story — 34.5 percent, 20-ninth in the league. And the variance was real: a 31 to six smashing of the Dolphins in Week 7, a three to 31 no-show against the Bears in Week 15. Boom-or-bust offense, week to week. The defense kept them in games. The offense decided which ones.

Now let's talk about the passing offense, because this is where Cleveland got muffed. Total passing expected points added landed at −175.1 on 611 attempts — −0.29 per dropback, dead last in the league. Add 51 sacks allowed on 641 dropbacks — an eight percent sack rate — and you've got a passing game that couldn't stay on schedule or push the ball downfield. Shedeur Sanders started eight games and threw for 1400 yards, seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, with a completion percentage 3.6 points below expectation — meaning he completed 3.6 percent fewer passes than an average quarterback would have in the same spots. Steady floor of struggle, low ceiling. The unit's leading receiver was a tight end — Harold Fannin caught 72 balls for 731 yards and six scores. When your top target is a rookie tight end, you've got a wide receiver problem.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense, because this one was quietly below average. Cleveland ran for 97.1 yards a game on 3.9 a carry — 20-seventh in the league, nineteenth percentile. Total rushing expected points added landed at −22.1 on 423 attempts. Not catastrophic. Just not enough to bail out the passing game. Quinshon Judkins carried the load — 230 carries, 827 yards, seven touchdowns, with rush yards over expected of +68.7. That's a back creating yards his blocking didn't give him. The 46 yard touchdown against the Dolphins in Week 7 — direct snap, right guard, gone — was the ceiling. The 3.6 a carry was the floor. Cleveland never found the in-between.

Next up, the pass defense, and this is where Cleveland actually smashed. 53 sacks, third in the league. Passing expected points added allowed came in at −71.0. 80-fourth percentile pass defense, 80-fourth percentile in quarterback hits, 80-first percentile third-down stop rate. The takeaway number — 18 total, 11 interceptions, seven fumble recoveries — was the soft spot at 20-second in the league, but when they took the ball away, they took it in style. Week 1 against the Bengals, Devin Bush picked off Joe Burrow at the goal line and took it 97 yards the other way — a swing of more than 12 expected points on a single snap. That was the identity all year. Get home, get off the field, occasionally take it to the house.

And the run defense matched it. Cleveland allowed 117.5 rushing yards a game, but the efficiency number is what matters — −0.05 expected points added allowed per carry, 80-fourth percentile. A front that didn't get gashed, steady all year — there wasn't a week the run defense was the reason they lost. When the offense gave them anything at all, this group held up. There just weren't enough of those nights.