The Cleveland Browns find themselves in the midst of another lost season. As they prepare to host the Buffalo Bills, they’re firmly in evaluation mode, having already been eliminated from postseason play.
Cleveland may not have the victories, but they do have a strong defense, one that can give any team problems on any given Sunday.
The Bills have laid a few eggs on the road this season, as three of their four losses so far have come away from Highmark Stadium. Buffalo lost to the Houston Texans, who were starting a backup quarterback, as well as the playoff-eliminated Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons. All three of those games came on the road.
Can the Browns pull off the upset this week? If they’re going to do it, they’ll need a big week from their top performers. Here are five Browns to watch this week against Buffalo.
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QB Shedeur Sanders
The most famous backup quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft is now starting, and he’s definitely shown some flashes early on in his career. He led the Browns to victory in his first career start against the Las Vegas Raiders, and he threw for 364 yards and three scores in a close loss to the Tennessee Titans just two weeks ago. However, he threw three interceptions and took five sacks last week against the Chicago Bears in a 31-3 loss.
Sanders is known as someone who holds the ball, scrambles, and tries to extend plays. We watch someone who does that every week. Sometimes, though, when Josh Allen was a rookie, he needed to be okay losing a battle if it kept him on track to win the war. He really didn’t figure out how to do that until his third season.
Sanders is making just his fifth start against a defensive staff that generally makes life miserable for rookie quarterbacks. I expect the Bills to give Sanders plenty of odd looks. The goal for the Bills is to make nothing look pre-snap how it is going to be post-snap. If they can do that, they’ll force Sanders into sacks and turnovers. That’s a recipe for success this weekend.
RB Quinshon Judkins
I’m still mad at myself for dropping him in fantasy football earlier this season. Judkins was drafted No. 36 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, but he’s another rookie on this young Cleveland club gaining valuable experience this season.
He leads the Browns in carries (222), rushing yards (805), and rushing touchdowns (7) this season. While that amounts to just 3.6 yards per carry, let’s remember that Buffalo’s run defense has allowed 5.4 yards per rush this season, which is the second-highest total in the league, and a putrid 23 rushing touchdowns, which is the worst total in the league.
Buffalo has had some success defending the run of late against teams whose passing games they don’t respect. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Buffalo sell out on the run early, hoping that they can create a negative game script via some early stops on defense and early scores on offense. Keeping Judkins to short gains will lead to third-and-long situations, and that’s where the Bills can really make their mark on this game.
TE Harold Fanin
Three rookies on offense to watch this week. This might be a record! I love wideout Jerry Jeudy—I think he’d look great in red, white, and royal next year—but I don’t think he’s going to be the big target for Sanders. Rookie quarterbacks often love to use their tight ends as a safety blanket, and Sanders has used Fanin in that way over the last month. In the last two games alone, Fanin has 25 targets, 15 catches, 162 receiving yards, and a touchdown. With veteran David Njoku dealing with an injury, that means even more snaps for Cleveland’s third-round pick this year. Buffalo has allowed fewer catches to tight ends than any team in the league this year, holding opposing tight ends to just 38 catches for 459 yards and two touchdowns, but that’s going to be tested this weekend. If they force Sanders to throw it outside the numbers to the receivers, they’ll likely be in good shape, especially if the ball is coming out late.
DE Myles Garrett
The best pass-rusher in the league is on record-watch, as he currently leads the NFL with 21.5 sacks. He needs just one sack to tie the record, and 1.5 sacks to break it. Not only does Garrett lead the league in sacks, but he also has 32 tackles for loss. For context, Buffalo’s leader in that category is Joey Bosa. He has eight. Garrett is really unblockable. At some point, he’s going to make a play. The key for the Bills is to make sure that, as has been the case 11 times this year, Garrett is making plays in a loss. They’ll need to give the offensive tackles help, utilizing chips like they did against the Pittsburgh Steelers and T.J. Watt. Dion Dawkins has been sick this week, so his status for the game could be a bit of a question mark. If there’s a backup left tackle in the game, things could be dicey for the Bills. They’ll need to commit plenty of resources to keeping Garrett away from Josh Allen this week.
LB Carson Schwesinger
The rookie middle linebacker continues a trend here—Cleveland’s strong rookie class—but also is an example of a phenomenal athlete who could cause problems for Buffalo’s offense. Schwesinger is likely to match up against Buffalo’s tight ends at some point, but he also is going to need to sift through the mud and find the Bills’ stud running back James Cook III. Perhaps most importantly, he’ll also end up spying quarterback Josh Allen at points, mirroring the best dual-threat player in the league. It’s going to be a lot for a rookie, but he’s shown himself to be more than capable this year. He leads the Browns with 133 tackles, and he even has two interceptions on the year. I could see Allen trying to jam a pass into an impossible window and Schwesinger coming from nowhere to intercept it. I could also see offensive coordinator Joe Brady dialing up a play—likely out of the mesh concept—that puts Schwesinger in an impossible position over the middle. The Bills can, and should, try to manipulate the rookie to their benefit on Sunday. Play-action passing should be a given.
