The Cleveland Browns defense served notice last season that it would no longer be the NFL’s punching bag.
Gone were the days of teams running the ball at will, or 66-yard touchdown passes moving a sure win into a shocking defeat.
In their place were dominant performances where the defense limited opposing offenses to numbers not seen in a long time, such as 94 yards of total offense, 17 total passing yards, 4-of-18 on third downs, and 77 total passing yards.
Of course, those numbers were against offenses led by quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill of the Tennessee Titans, Clayton Tune of the Arizona Cardinals, Justin Fields of the Chicago Bears, and Kenny Pickett of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not exactly a group that strikes fear in the hearts of defenses across the league.
The 2024 season presents a major upgrade for Cleveland’s defense, with a schedule that includes Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, and two meetings with Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. (We would include Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, but the Browns completely own the Bengals, so that would be wrong.)
The step up in class is not lost on the Browns, as reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett when asked about the competition during training camp on Friday (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“It’s a slaughterhouse over in the AFC. Guys who come out of it are usually the top dogs in the NFL. So we look forward to it, especially in our division. We know that it’s going to be gritty, grimy, it’s going to be tough every AFC North game. We are excited every time we get to share the field with those guys and compete against those guys.
“Those kinds of matchups don’t lie in the back of my mind, we look forward to those every single time. Whether it’s the (Miami) Dolphins, (Kansas City) Chiefs, (Buffalo) Bills, (Baltimore) Ravens, all of them. We look forward to those guys and we look forward to making a statement every time we step on the field with great teams like that.”
The Browns took a major step forward on defense last season under first-year defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. And while it may not have always come against the best competition, the defense deserves credit for taking care of business more often than not.
This season presents new opportunities and challenges for the defense to make a statement and show the rest of the league that they can dominate no matter who they are playing against.
2024-07-26T21:09:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd