2025 NFL Draft Grades: Cleveland Browns

Best Pick: Second-round linebacker Carson Schwesinger is a good pick. They need help there and he is a playmaker. Browns fans will come to love him.

Worst Pick: Trading away the No. 2 pick to Jacksonville will be a decision that is dissected for years. They passed on a chance to take Travis Hunter, the best player in the draft, to move down. They did add a first-round pick next year, which means they have the arsenal to get a quarterback next year if either of the two they picked this year don't work out.

The Skinny: They clearly have an eye on the 2026 draft with the trade they made. They can get their quarterback then, even if they took Dillon Gabriel in the third and Sheduer Sanders in the fifth this year. First-round pick Mason Graham is a good player who will be an immediate starter. Fourth-round running back Dylan Sampson has a chance to be a good runner and compete with second-round back Quinshon Judkins. The focus will be on Sanders, but it shouldn't be.

Top needs entering the draft: Quarterback, wide receiver, edge rusher and running back

The Browns made a splash return to the first round after sitting out Day 1 for three straight years. That, of course, aligns with the Deshaun Watson era. The Browns traded their 2022, 2023 and 2024 first-rounders to Houston in March 2022 to sign Watson to an enormous $230 million fully guaranteed deal and subsequently got 19 touchdown passes out of him over 19 games. Watson is currently injured, too, after retearing his Achilles. So all eyes were on Cleveland at No. 2. Everyone expected Travis Hunter to be the pick.

Instead, we got a shocker. Cleveland traded back to No. 5 in a deal with the Jaguars. Hunter is the clear best player in the class in my eyes, but defensive tackle Mason Graham was third on my board. He's strong and moves really well, and he will rush the passer from the interior. Maliek Collins, Shelby Harris and Graham form a good defensive tackle rotation. But the Browns also added a lot of draft capital here, including a 2026 first-rounder. This is a massive part of why they earned my top grade. Jacksonville isn't exactly a playoff lock, so that could be a high pick next April.

The other main reason I gave the Browns an A+ shouldn't be a surprise. They got quarterback Shedeur Sanders at No. 144 to finish their seven-pick draft. He was my No. 5 overall prospect in the class and clear QB1. He brings excellent accuracy, completing 74% of his throws last season. He brings toughness in the pocket. I think he will be an outstanding pro QB, and I believe we will look back on this pick in a few years and question what the rest of the NFL was doing.

Cleveland also took Dillon Gabriel, though. I like him as a sleeper, though I was skeptical when the Browns made the pick. Going with 40-year-old Joe Flacco, twice-traded Kenny Pickett and Gabriel isn't in anyone's best interest. But pairing Sanders and Gabriel gives the Browns options as they try to sort through the post-Watson era. Gabriel throws with terrific ball placement and makes quick, smart decisions with the football.

Beyond the quarterback dealings, the Browns added some really good players. One of the other picks coming to Cleveland in the Jaguars trade was No. 36, which meant it kicked off Day 2 with a pair of quick selections. Carson Schwesinger was getting legitimate Round 1 buzz, and he will factor into the pass coverage, run defense and even the pass rush. He had 115 tackles, two interceptions and four sacks last season. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is dealing with a neck injury, so Schwesinger was a smart addition after Cleveland also signed Jordan Hicks and re-signed Devin Bush.

Then, Quinshon Judkins -- who stays in-state from Ohio State -- will power the Browns' ground game to another level. He has a nose for the end zone with 50 scrimmage TDs since 2022. They got Dylan Sampson in Round 4, too. When he finds daylight, he's gone. The Browns averaged 94.6 rush yards per game last season (fourth fewest in the NFL), so they had to address this. They got two good running backs. Tight end/H-back Harold Fannin Jr. was the other Cleveland pick -- he led the nation with 117 catches last season, and the pairing of Fannin and David Njoku is intriguing.

Okay, so there's a lot going on with this Browns draft. I guess we'll start from the beginning: After trading out of the no. 2 spot with the Jaguars, the Browns grabbed a disruptive, chaos-creator for their interior defensive line in Michigan's Mason Graham at no. 5. The former Wolverine will pair well with Myles Garrett in making life difficult for opposing quarterbacks. Cleveland then turned around on Day 2 and bolstered their linebackers group with UCLA playmaker Carson Schwesinger, giving the team another instinctive, run-and-chase tone-setter at the second level. The Browns looked to the running backs group twice this weekend, grabbing Ohio State's Quinshon Judkins and Tennessee's Dylan Sampson—an overhaul that gives the team a nice thunder-and-lightning element in the backfield. And I liked the selection of Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin Jr., who brings the skill set to create mismatches.

Now let's talk about the Browns' decision-making at the quarterback position: When Cleveland grabbed Oregon signal caller Dillon Gabriel in the third round, it seemed to close the door on any potential Shedeur Sanders connection. But then the team traded back up in the fifth round to grab Sanders, too—a peculiar choice at that point in the draft, raising questions about who was really making the decisions in the draft room. In any case, with Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, and an injured Deshaun Watson already on the roster, the Browns' quarterback competition is going to be very interesting this offseason.

All in all, the Browns picked up some good talent in this draft. They got better and much more competitive at the quarterback position, and they acquired an additional 2026 first-round pick from Jacksonville. That's solid! But, for better or worse, they'll also be remembered as the team that passed on the chance to draft a once-in-a-generation player in Travis Hunter—and it's easy to imagine that decision aging poorly for the Browns.

The Browns are either the smartest team in the NFL or, more likely, a ship without a rudder. Early and late, their choices were confounding. First off, while Cleveland got a very good player in Mason Graham at No. 5 overall and convinced the Jaguars to give up their 2026 first-round selection to move up just three spots, I don't like trading away the opportunity to land a true blue-chip talent like Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter.

Now, to be fair, Graham is as safe as this class gets, and he certainly adds beef and tenacity to a defensive line boasting arguably the league's most dynamic defensive end in Myles Garrett. However, he isn't the "special" talent normally associated with a top-five selection. While similarly safe, Carson Schwesinger at No. 33 overall was also a case of paying a premium price for a good (but not great) player at a position that wasn't of dire need.

And then, of course, was the double-dipping at quarterback (and running back). Obviously, if either Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders wind up being Cleveland's long-term solution at quarterback, then GM Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski deserve praise. But is Cleveland's plan to keep five quarterbacks on the roster? Neither Gabriel nor Sanders appear likely to be realistic options to start in the season opener, and the Browns brought in Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett in the offseason with Deshaun Watson still on the books.

In a vacuum, I like the prospects brought in by Cleveland, including both runners Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, as well as tight end Harold Fannin Jr. I'm just not convinced that this seven-man class will help the Browns win more games in 2025.

Here's why: An eventful weekend for the Browns. They started the draft by trading back to No. 5 overall, picking up some extra picks (including the Jaguars' first-rounder next year) and then took Mason Graham to start off their class. Graham will thrive in Jim Schwartz's scheme that has its linemen pin their ears back and go. Carson Schwesinger is an excellent coverage player with speed to keep up with receivers. He will benefit with the Browns' defensive line keeping him clean in the run game. Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson are running backs I like and both are effective runners between the tackles. They should help the Browns out in a post-Nick Chubb world. If we stopped right there, I would probably have the Browns graded higher. But Cleveland ended up taking two QBs in Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Gabriel in Round 3 was a major reach and Sanders ended up going later than expected. I thought the Browns might wait one more season and use that new first-rounder to get a QB, but they end up with an even murkier room.

Most interesting pick: Harold Fannin Jr., TE, Bowling Green

The Browns' entire haul could be labeled as interesting. I'm going to go with Fannin, a unique and highly productive prospect. Fannin will likely have to be used in specific ways to unlock his skills, but he has great catching range and can pick up yards with the ball in his hands with his contact balance. He should pair nicely with David Njoku, who is able to do more of the traditional things at the position.

Think this assessment is a copout? Fine. But there's no legitimate way to know what to make of this until the bigger picture comes into focus — at least a year from now. It's tough to even know where to begin.

But let's start with Thursday, when the Browns stunningly vacated the No. 2 spot and opportunity to take Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner quite possibly a generational prospect — not to mention one who seemingly would have fit well onto this roster and was glowingly praised by GM Andrew Berry the week before the draft. But Berry punched out and wound up with DT Mason Graham (No. 5 pick) and battering ram RB Quinshon Judkins (No. 36 pick) as part of the compensation — both very good football players and doubtless Week 1 starters. Second-round LB Carson Schwesinger should also be instantly productive, while electric fourth-round RB Dylan Sampson could be a fantastic foil to Judkins, who paired so well with Henderson at Ohio State.

But what to make of the quarterback situation, which was the scintillating tandem of Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett a week ago? By obtaining Jacksonville's 2026 first-rounder, the Browns seemed well positioned to draft a passer next year, which is expected to have far better options as it pertains to the slingers likely inbound from NIL land. Taking former college star Dillon Gabriel, most recently of Oregon, in Round 3 added intrigue to the mix — which, sure, fine.

But by taking Sanders in the fifth round, the quarterback situation is now as muddled as ever (and this is a team that's been paying Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million to be horrible), the body language of Berry and HC Kevin Stefanski after taking Sanders leading many to wonder if owner Jimmy Haslam had mandated the pick. Put such speculation aside, and Berry and Stefanski tried to downplay it afterward. Stefanski is a two-time Coach of the Year who's gotten a ton out of this roster — when Watson isn't on the field, and he won't be in 2025 after multiple Achilles surgeries. Yet the worse the Browns are next season — and, just maybe, the worse Sanders is (and after all the NFL has already put him through) — the better the shot Cleveland will have to get a 2026 rookie quarterback who could quite reasonably be clearly better than anyone currently on this depth chart.

So, yeah ... get back to me in a year.

The Browns were a constant story line in the draft, ranging from trading out of the Travis Hunter pick to selecting Sanders in the fifth round. Cleveland got a pair of intriguing backs in Sampson and Judkins, while also taking multiple swings at quarterback in Sanders and Gabriel. The Browns still have a load of questions at receiver and along the offensive line, but they found good value throughout, highlighted by Sanders, who will have a chance to fight for the starting job in 2025.

I loved what the Browns did for 1.99 rounds of the draft, and then they couldn't help themselves and did questionabl Browns type of things by taking both Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. However, Mason Graham, Quinshon Judkins, and Harold Fannin are all picks I love. If not for the quarterback shenanigans, they would have gotten an A.