The first half of the 2025 NFL season has gone about as expected for the Cleveland Browns.
That is to say, it has been like far too many seasons before it.
A combination of a tough schedule, an ineffective offense, and a defense that has a knack for coming up short at just the wrong time has the Browns sitting at 2-6.
The schedule eases up a bit in the second half of the season, starting with the one-win New York Jets in the first game following the bye week. Of course, everyone on the schedule is looking
at the Browns and thinking the same thing, so there are no “easy games” for this squad.
While everyone takes a much-needed break this week, let’s run through a few “thumbs up/thumbs down” on the Browns after eight games.
Thumbs up: Myles Garrett
There is not much left to say about Garrett, who continues on his journey to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has 10 sacks, which ties him with Brian Burns of the New York Giants for the most in the league. Garrett now has 112.5 career sacks, which surpasses Reggie White for the most sacks by a player before he turns 30. He is also one of just three players, along with White and John Randle, as the only players in league history with 10-plus sacks in at least eight seasons.
Thumbs down: The quarterback play
Cleveland opened the season with veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, and it was bad. In four games with Flacco, the Browns averaged 14 points a game, while Flacco completed just 58.1 percent of his passes, averaged 4.55 yards per dropback, threw just two touchdowns, turned the ball over eight times (six interceptions and two fumbles), and posted a total QBR of 26.5.
After a 1-3 start with Flacco, the Browns turned to rookie Dillon Gabriel, and the situation has not improved. In four games with Gabriel, the Browns are averaging 17.5 points a game, and Gabriel is completing 59.4 percent of his passes, averaging 4.22 yards per dropback, has four touchdown passes and two interceptions, and has a total QBR of 25.9.
Flacco was bad. Gabriel has been just as bad. At some point, the Browns will decide to “see what they have” with rookie Shedeur Sanders, but there is little reason to believe it will make any difference.
Thumbs up: Quinshon Judkins
Rookie running back Quinshon Judkins’ season got off to a slow start as he did not make his debut until Week 2, and that day, he rushed for just 19 yards. But since then, he has posted four games with more than 80 rushing yards, including his first 100-yard game. Judkins also has five rushing touchdowns, which is only one less than the Browns totaled in all of 2024.
Judkins has 486 rushing yards, ranking 14th in the NFL, and is tied for seventh in rushing touchdowns.
Thumbs down: An aging and injured offensive line
Once one of the best in the league, Cleveland’s offensive line is a long way from its glory days. Guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller, and center Ethan Pocic, are aging, while tackles Jack Conklin and Dawand Jones cannot stay healthy.
Replacement tackles Cam Robinson (75th out of 77 graded tackles by Pro Football Focus), KT Leveston (73rd), and Cornelius Lucas (74th) have provided no help, although they are all slightly better than Jones (77th) before his latest season-ending injury.
There are several problems with the offense, but an offensive line that is among the league’s worst makes it difficult to get anything going, no matter how many changes the coaching staff makes at quarterback.
Thumbs up: The rest of the defensive line
With opposing offenses focusing on Myles Garrett, the rest of the defensive line has been able to eat.
Defensive end Alex Wright (PFF grade of 87.3 and ranked No. 9 out of 119 defensive ends) is working hard at earning a new contract, defensive tackles Maliek Collins (PFF grade of 86.5 and ranked No. 4 out of 128 defensive tackles) and Shelby Harris (29th among defensive tackles) have been stout, and Mason Graham is PFF’s third-highest ranked rookie defensive tackle.
After years of trying to build a complementary group around Garrett, the Browns appear to have finally discovered the right mix of players.
Thumbs down: Can’t anyone catch the ball?
The Browns built a wide receiver group based on hope. Hope that Jerry Jeudy’s 2024 season (90 receptions for 1,229 yards) was not a fluke. Hope that Cedric Tillman could stay healthy. Hope that unproven players Isaiah Bond, Gage Larvadain, Malachi Corley, and Jamari Thrash could collectively be somewhat decent.
But, as they say, hope is not a strategy.
Jeudy is second in the league with eight drops and has a 40.7 percent drop rate, according to FOX Sports. Tillman has been out since Week 4 with a hamstring injury, and while there have been brief flashes from the young guys, not much has gone right as they have combined for just 25 receptions, 269 yards, and no touchdowns.
Just as it is difficult to evaluate the state of the quarterback room because of the offensive line, the lack of production from the wide receivers has played a role in the struggles of the offense.
Thumbs up: Throw it to the rookie!
The Browns selected Harold Fannin Jr. in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft with the plan that he would be a nice secondary piece to veteran tight end David Njoku. But he has been so much more through the season’s first eight weeks.
Fannin leads the Browns in receptions (38) and receiving yards (352), and is tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions (2). He is fourth among all tight ends in receptions and seventh in receiving yards.
There are several problems with the offense, but Fannin is not one of them.
Thumbs down: Third-down offense
One way that an offense can find success is by converting on third downs. Not only can it wear down the opposing defense, but it also allows your own defense to get a break, which can help avoid things like letting Carson Wentz march the Minnesota Vikings 80 yards for a game-winning touchdown.
The Browns, however, appear to have no use for converting on third downs.
Things started mostly OK with Flacco as the offense converted 47.1 percent of their third downs the first two weeks of the season. But it went quickly downhill from there, as in Flacco’s last two starts, the Browns were just seven-of-27 (25.9 percent) on third downs.
It has been more of the same with Gabriel at the controls, as in his four starts, the offense is just 15-of-54 (27.7 percent) on third down.
Just another data point for the revisionists who still think the Browns had the 2023 version of Flacco on the field the first month of the season.
Thumbs up: The Green Bay win
Cleveland’s win against the Green Bay Packers in Week 3, currently Green Bay’s only loss on the season, was probably the biggest upset of the first half of the season.
Trailing 10-0 with 3:38 remaining in the game, the Browns followed up a 35-yard field goal from Andre Szmyt with an interception by Grant Delpit that he returned to Green Bay’s four-yard line. From there, running back Quinshon Judkins scored the tying touchdown, and following a blocked field goal by Shelby Harris, the Browns moved into field goal range and Szmyt converted a 55-yarder for the win.
The victory was the first in franchise history where the Browns won a game in which they had zero points and trailed by at least 10 points with four minutes remaining.
Thumbs down: 22 years and counting
The Pittsburgh Steelers may be in first place in the AFC North Division, but they are not a good team. The offense still settles for field goals, and the defense has allowed more than 30 points in four games.
But you would never know that when they host the Browns, who have now lost 22 consecutive regular-season games in Pittsburgh after their defeat in Week 6.
The Browns and the Steelers have the AFC’s oldest rivalry, one that dates back to 1950 and covers 145 games, but every time the Browns play in Pittsburgh, they act as if they are seeing a football for the very first time.
Thumbs down: The Shedeur Sanders experience
By all accounts, rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders is a good teammate, is active in the community, and has been putting in the work required of a fifth-round draft selection who is hopeful for playing time.
But the outside noise from the media and the bootlicks has been absolutely exhausting. From ridiculous conspiracies about Sanders’ fall in the draft to his inability to get on the field, to a complete understanding of how NFL teams operate, everything about the past few months makes it hard to root for him. Which, again, has nothing to do with Sanders.
At some point in the second half of the season, the Browns will likely give Sanders a few starts. And it is easy to see how that will play out. Sanders will make a play here and there, and the fanboys will use that as evidence that the Browns should have been playing him from the first practice of training camp.
But when Sanders struggles, and he will struggle, that will be taken as a sign of Cleveland’s ongoing plot to sabotage Sanders’ career. And the noise will continue to roar.
Thumbs up: The second-half schedule
The Browns open the second half of the season with the New York Jets (1-7), and also have games against the Baltimore Ravens (2-5), Las Vegas Raiders (2-5), and Tennessee Titans (1-7). They also have a home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the Browns have won five of the last six meetings between the teams.
A few more wins before the end of the season would calm everyone down a bit and send the Browns into the offseason on at least a more positive note.
Thumbs down: The second-half schedule
Let’s be real, things rarely ever go right with this franchise. Games that appear to be winnable, or at least present an opportunity to be competitive, go sideways. The Ravens are getting healthy, the schedule still includes the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, and the feisty Chicago Bears in Chicago, where the Browns have not won since 1969.
Going into the offseason on a positive note is just a pleasant fantasy, one that never seems to arrive for the Browns.
What do you think, Browns fans? Who do you believe deserves a thumbs up or a thumbs down through the first eight weeks of the season?
