The Cleveland Browns made seven draft picks this year, and it would have been tough to predict that the team would select two quarterbacks and two running backs without adding an offensive lineman.
Of the seven rookies, five have pretty clear starting points on the team’s fluid depth chart. The quarterbacks will try to progress and improve over the summer, and the folks in charge will continue to look for veteran help at several spots, most notably wide receiver, safety and along the offensive line.
The following depth chart is too early to have many absolutes, but in the wake of the draft, it’s a useful exercise for guessing future moves and gauging the importance of multiple young players being ready for training camp. The Browns will hold full spring practices in late May and early June, but those are usually just instruction-based sessions.
They won’t make their undrafted free-agent signings official until the start of next weekend’s rookie minicamp, so those players aren’t listed on this initial depth chart. There’s a chance one or two undrafted rookies will have an opportunity to make the team, but those storylines won’t really develop until August.
Below is how a loose depth chart might look before the arrival of any rookies for the team’s May 9-11 rookie minicamp. Drafted players are designated with (R).
Quarterback
Joe Flacco
Kenny Pickett
Dillon Gabriel (R)
Shedeur Sanders (R)
An open competition for the starting quarterback job isn’t what any team would consider ideal, but such situations are fairly common. A competition with at least four semi-legitimate candidates to win the job and many different August-December outcomes is something only the Browns can produce. Will it be a bridge to future success or another laughably forgettable piece of franchise history? Stay tuned.
Flacco and Pickett are signed only for 2025. Gabriel was drafted in the third round last Friday night, then the Browns traded up in the fifth to select Sanders. Almost universally, Gabriel had late-round grades and Sanders had early-round grades through the pre-draft process. We’ll see how things unfold this summer.
Running back
Jerome Ford
Quinshon Judkins (R)
Pierre Strong Jr.
Dylan Sampson (R)
Troy Hairston (fullback)
Drafting two running backs was further confirmation that Nick Chubb is not presently in the team’s plans. Could it also mean that Ford won’t be in the plans, either? Ford has been a reliable and occasionally explosive backup, and he heads to the final year of his rookie contract as first in line but probably only temporarily.
Strong has mostly been a special teams player, so he’s guaranteed nothing if Judkins and Sampson stay healthy. Expect Judkins to become the team’s primary short-yardage back right away, and anything else depends on how the rest of the offense eventually takes shape and how quickly the rookies prove they’re ready for significant work.
Wide receiver
Jerry Jeudy
Cedric Tillman
Diontae Johnson
David Bell
Jamari Thrash
Michael Woods II
DeAndre Carter
Kaden Davis
Jeudy is the clear No. 1, and Tillman was good in the back half of 2024. The Browns think they made smart bets in acquiring and extending Jeudy last year, and he certainly should be kept busy regardless of how the quarterback situation shakes out.
The same group that thought last year’s Kadarius Toney reclamation project was worth seeing through now brings you Johnson’s fifth different team since last spring. Johnson has been productive in the past, and he could stick given the lack of proven receivers on the rest of the depth chart.
Woods has shown some signs but mostly has been on the practice squad. Maybe the Browns not drafting a wide receiver was at least a tepid endorsement of Woods, Thrash and Bell. Carter is a veteran whose ticket to a roster spot will be the return game.
Jerry Jeudy is coming off a career year in which he had 90 receptions for 1,229 yards and four touchdowns, earning his first Pro Bowl nod. (Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
Tight end
David Njoku
Harold Fannin Jr. (R)
Blake Whiteheart
Brenden Bates
Tre’ McKitty
Fannin is obviously in the long-term plans. But for now, it’s Njoku as the No. 1, and there’s no real answer as to how secondary roles or an early depth chart will develop. Bates is a traditional blocking tight end who was added to the practice squad last year, while McKitty and Whiteheart each have some previous experience.
The Browns are banking on Njoku being healthy, motivated and explosive in the final year of his current contract. If they get anything close to the Njoku they got in December 2023 with Flacco at quarterback, the offense will benefit.
Offensive line
Jack Conklin, RT
Wyatt Teller, RG
Ethan Pocic, C
Joel Bitonio, LG
Dawand Jones, LT
Cornelius Lucas, T
Zak Zinter, G
Teven Jenkins, G/T
Luke Wypler, C
Javion Cohen, G
Lorenzo Thompson, T
Julian Pearl, T
Roy Mbaeteka (International Pathway Player), T
The Browns have four longtime starters back, but three of them — Bitonio, Teller and Pocic — are only signed through 2025. Conklin restructured his contract to ensure a return, and the Browns are counting on him to again be the kind of high-level player he’s been when healthy. Jones is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery but is expected to be ready for training camp. It appears the Browns are counting on Jones to be their starting left tackle, though the addition of Lucas, 33, gives them additional experience.
Zinter is a bit of a mystery after a difficult rookie season, and Wypler will push to win a roster spot after missing all of 2024 with a training camp injury. Jenkins can play guard or tackle, and he’s played well at times but has dealt with injuries. He was a surprise addition in the second wave of free agency, and maybe an important one now that the team did not add a lineman in the draft.
Keeping Mbaeteka as the designated International Pathway Player gives the Browns a 91st player for an evolving offseason roster and a developmental tackle to log summer snaps. Thompson, who spent all of last season on the practice squad, will play plenty of left tackle this spring.
Defensive tackle
Maliek Collins
Mason Graham (R)
Shelby Harris
Mike Hall Jr. (injured)
Jowon Briggs
Ralph Holley
Graham and Collins are the key additions and likely starters. The Browns hope Collins, 30, can still be an impact player after the San Francisco 49ers cut him for financial reasons. Though the Browns traded out of the No. 2 pick and got Graham at No. 5, they do not view him as any kind of consolation prize.
Hall’s availability is to be determined after he suffered a knee injury in the 2024 season finale, and Briggs showed some promise after getting a late-season promotion to the active roster. Harris, 33, has provided energy and leadership over the last two seasons, but his future with the team is unclear.
Edge
Myles Garrett
Alex Wright
Ogbo Okoronkwo
Joe Tryon-Shoyinka
Isaiah McGuire
Sam Kamara
Julian Okwara
Cameron Thomas
Elerson G. Smith
Garrett is obviously the best of this group and arguably the best defensive player on the planet. The Browns wouldn’t entertain his trade demand and plan to continue to have Garrett wreck opposing offenses.
The team made further additions in Tryon-Shoyinka and Okwara on one-year contracts and hopes to see more progress from McGuire and Wright. Okoronkwo, 30, could end up being the odd man out, but the Browns still have salary commitments to him. If Wright returns to health in the final year of his rookie contract, he’s one to watch. He was playing well last season and has a chance to either play his way into the team’s long-term thinking or potentially out of Cleveland’s price range.
Linebacker
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (injured)
Jordan Hicks
Carson Schwesinger (R)
Jerome Baker
Mohamoud Diabate
Devin Bush
Winston Reid
Nathaniel Watson
Marcus Haynes
Picking Schwesinger atop the second round is a strong sign that Owusu-Koramoah won’t be able to play in 2025. He suffered a neck injury in October, and the team has shared little detail about the injury or the exact prognosis. Hicks figures to be the defensive signal caller unless Schwesinger immediately proves ready for that role.
Baker has been a starter in the past and joins his hometown team. There should be good competition for roster spots, special teams playing time and roles in certain packages, but Hicks and Schwesinger may be the top two on the depth chart.
Cornerback
Denzel Ward
Martin Emerson Jr.
Greg Newsome II
Cameron Mitchell
Nik Needham
Myles Harden
Tony Brown II
Anthony Kendall
Emerson and Newsome are only signed through 2025, and Newsome looms as a trade candidate given that the Browns would incur no dead money if they found a taker. They’d probably have to pay a large chunk of Newsome’s fully guaranteed $13 million salary to be able to trade him before October.
On the field, Ward is the No. 1 and Emerson is next. Emerson had a down 2024 after starting his career with two promising seasons. Needham signed a one-year deal in April and brings experience, though it’s too early to know if he can compete for the slot cornerback job. With no secondary players added during the draft, Mitchell will get chances to show he’s capable. He will start behind Newsome and maybe behind Needham, too. We’ll see how the Browns divvy up the snaps this summer.
Safety
Grant Delpit
Ronnie Hickman
Christopher Edmonds
Trey Dean III
The Browns have two players who have started games, and then two who have mostly been on practice squads. Delpit is viewed as a locker room leader and is paid like a top-tier safety. Another veteran addition is almost certainly coming over the next few weeks.
Specialists
Corey Bojorquez, P
Dustin Hopkins, K
Rex Sunahara, LS
Andre Szmyt, K
The Browns are expected to add an undrafted rookie to compete with Sunahara for the long-snapping job. Szmyt is more of an offseason kicker and long-term tryout than direct competition for Hopkins, but we’ll see how things go after Hopkins followed an outstanding 2023 season with a clunker in 2024. Bojorquez has been good and is entering the final year of his current deal.
(Top photo of Quinshon Judkins: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)