After what felt like the longest week in between games in a long while, the Cleveland Browns came out and dominated the Miami Dolphins at home in Week 7 of the 2025 NFL season. While that victory may not
get HC Kevin Stefanski off the hot seat, given the quality of the opponent, it does get the Browns on the right side of the ledger after a couple of frustrating weeks.
The conversation between Thursday Night Football and kickoff in Cleveland was most about Browns GM Andrew Berry trading QB Joe Flacco to their AFC North and in-state rival, the Cincinnati Bengals. Flacco was lights out against the Pittsburgh Steelers and had many screaming about the trade.
The Flacco trade did lead to the Bengals victory over the Steelers. On Sunday, Berry’s other in-season trade also helped lead to a victory. (Does the GM get credit for two?)
A day after the Flacco deal, Berry traded CB Greg Newsome II for CB Tyson Campbell. While contract details impacted the deal (Cleveland gave up slightly more draft capital in the exchange), both teams lauded the way each cornerback fit with their roster.
On Sunday, Campbell had a stellar game:
- Chased down the lightning-fast RB Devon Achane in the middle of the 1st quarter on a play that would have been a touchdown, forcing the Dolphins to settle for a field goal
- Those are called 4-point effort plays
- Was stride for stride with speedster WR Jaylen Waddle on a ball thrown into the endzone, tipping it away at the last second, which once again ended up leading to a Miami field goal instead of a touchdown
- Not exactly a 4-point play, that is just doing his job, but a big play in a spot where Browns corners have often gotten beat, either due to lack of speed, size, or ability to locate the football late in the play
- Showed great ball tracking to intercept a tipped pass, then great feet to stay in bounds to take the INT back for a touchdown
- That is a 6-point play
If you only look at the box score, Campbell had a good day: 1 tackle, 1 pick-6, 2 pass breakups. The value of all of those plays was so much higher than can be accounted for in counting stats.
If Achane scores that touchdown, does Stefanski feel like he needs to call more pass plays? Same question if Campbell allows the Waddle touchdown, which would have run the score to 17-10.
If Campbell, as Cleveland defenders have done before and did do on Sunday, dropped the deflected pass or ran out of bounds right away, are the Browns able to put the game away, or is there a replay of the Minnesota Vikings game?
Did Campbell single-handedly win the game on Sunday? Obviously not. Can we judge the trade of Newsome for Campbell already (especially if we include that the Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-2 since the deal)? No, just like the Flacco deal cannot be judged based on Thursday Night Football. Is Campbell the “for sure” answer across from CB Denzel Ward? We will need a few more games to be certain.
For now, Berry’s decision to make the cornerback swap deserves the appropriate amount of credit. As I noted on social media, the credit should come at a similar level as the criticism did after TNF:
For now, Cleveland can celebrate with a Victory Monday, where the run game, the defense, and a bad opponent led to a no-doubt level win in Week 7. Just give a little credit to the Browns GM along the way.
