The Cleveland Browns had their annual very bad road trip to Pittsburgh on Sunday as they dropped another game to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The offense was horrible, the defense couldn’t get anything going, and it resulted in the 23rd consecutive regular-season road loss for the Browns in Pittsburgh.
If you are looking for bright spots, they are hard to find, but there was at least one in tight end Harold Fannin Jr.
After a stellar rookie season, Fannin’s second year has been a bit of a slow build as he
entered Sunday’s game without a 100-yard receiving game to his name. There were also some questions about how he caught just two passes for 13 yards combined in the games against the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens.
Fannin said he was not worried about his production because the Browns were winning and he knew his time would come soon enough.
Things started to turn around last week against the Tennessee Titans when Fannin had six receptions for 91 yards. That solid day was overshadowed by wide receiver KC Concepcion going off for 129 yards, one of the 10 best days by a rookie in franchise history.
But there was no overshadowing Fannin’s performance on Sunday as he finished with a game-high 10 receptions and 154 yards, making him the first Cleveland tight end to surpass 150 receiving yards in a game since Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome had 191 yards on 14 receptions against the New York Jets in 1984.
Those 154 yards and 10 receptions are career highs for Fannin, surpassing the 114 receiving yards and eight receptions he had against the Titans in 2025.
For the season, Fannin now has 35 receptions for 411 yards, which puts him on pace to surpass his rookie numbers.
It may not be much in the wake of another embarrassing performance by the Browns in Pittsburgh, but at least there was one bright spot to come out of the day.
