Browns GM Andrew Berry got it right with 2025 rookie class. Will it save his job?
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Zac Jackson
While Berry hasn't had much success with previous draft classes, Cleveland's rookies stood out this season despite the team's struggles.
Harold Fannin Jr. might not be healthy enough to play in Sunday’s season finale, but the Cleveland Browns’ rookie tight end has had an outstanding year by any measure.
An internal expectation that Fannin might tally 50 receptions in his rookie season turned into him becoming the team’s best pass catcher — and too often the only reliable one. Fannin lined up all over the formation and showed off strong after-the-catch ability on his way to setting a rookie franchise record with 72 receptions.
The Browns will finish in fourth place in the AFC North, again, but they’re going to be strongly represented at the year-end NFL awards show by shoo-in Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and likely by rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger, who went on a run of seven straight games posting at least 10 tackles and has become the Defensive Rookie of the Year favorite.
Cleveland got Schwesinger atop the second round in April, and drafted Fannin in the third round at No. 67.
A Browns team that entered this season facing an awkward transition, given the nature of its salary-cap situation and past roster-building failures, needed a strong rookie class in 2025, and it has one. They started their draft in April by trading down to acquire extra picks, including Jacksonville’s 2026 first-rounder, in a move that signaled an admission of a necessary rebuild and a likely eventual move to secure a long-term answer at quarterback.
Before strangely selecting two quarterbacks, Cleveland started its 2025 draft with a trade down three spots and the selection of defensive tackle Mason Graham at pick No. 5. Schwesinger and gifted running back Quinshon Judkins were selected within the first five picks of the second round (Judkins via another pick acquired in the Graham-Jaguars trade), then Fannin was added early in the third as a high-upside, developmental player who turned out to be NFL-ready.
The Browns then overdrafted quarterback Dillon Gabriel at No. 94, curiously chose a second running back over other needs with the addition of Dylan Sampson in the fourth round, then bailed on previous plans to avoid drafting Shedeur Sanders when they traded up 22 spots and selected him at No. 144.
Sanders is set to make his seventh start in the season finale. Though it would be a stretch to say he’s done enough to entrench himself as the starter, Sanders has been the pilot for two wins and shown glimpses of starter-quality touch and accuracy. He seems at least worth further development and might get a chance to lock down the starting job to begin 2026.
Another new year looms after another miserable season wraps up. But with the Browns using this season to inch forward from the disastrous fallout from the 2022 Deshaun Watson trade and with the team’s first four draft picks all looking like keepers, the final week of the 2025 calendar is the right time to ask a few important questions:
Can this rookie class save general manager Andrew Berry’s job? Did Berry and his staff secure enough long-term building blocks to deserve the opportunity to oversee another crucial offseason? Did the Browns really launch a rebuilding project with their acquisitions over the past nine months? Were at least some realistic expectations met in 2025, even as the offense cratered again and the quarterback carousel continued?
Perhaps most importantly, can any general manager with a quarterback resume of Watson and Gabriel atop a list that includes Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Joe Flacco, Sanders, Jacoby Brissett, Jameis Winston, Bailey Zappe and the equivalent of a long weekend campout by Kenny Pickett be trusted to make the quarterback call going forward?
The answer to that one should be no. But if this rookie class can be as good in the coming years as it was in its first, and eventually team up with other talented young players to form a new core, the Browns will be on their way back to respectability. If the long-term answer at quarterback can be either Sanders or a player found with an upcoming draft pick, team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam might hesitate to move on from Berry after six seasons.
Any case for Berry to stay would start with the current defense and the 2025 rookie class. Judkins suffered a season-ending leg injury two weeks ago, but assuming he returns to health as expected, he’ll be the No. 1 running back in 2026 and presumably beyond. Fannin will be a full-time contributor and weapon regardless of how the Browns build the offense around him, and Graham and Schwesinger will continue as starters and foundational pieces for a defense that still has a chance to be one of the league’s most headache-inducing next season.
Carson Schwesinger and Mason Graham immediately made impacts on a defense that has ranked among the league’s best this season. (Scott Galvin / Imagn Images)
By necessity, the Browns kept their seven drafted rookies and (for most of the season) had seven undrafted rookies, too. Wide receiver Isaiah Bond was signed in August after having a sexual assault charge no-billed, and immediately got playing time. Undrafted defensive tackle Adin Huntington cracked the rotation and contributed in all three phases. The Browns landed Raheim Sanders via waivers in late August, and he could fill out the running back rotation next year.
Bond should benefit from a full offseason and has enough speed to compete for playing time alongside Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman. Jeudy’s 2025 season has been a nightmare, but the Browns still have more than $21 million in salary-cap commitments to him, so Jeudy will almost assuredly be back.
With Jeudy presumably in and multiple veteran offensive linemen exiting with no clear replacements, this poorly constructed offense is far from fixed. But Judkins was the lead running back the team needed, and Fannin can be viewed as the No. 1 tight end going forward. The 2024 Browns only had eight rushing touchdowns. Judkins had seven this season. Fannin had seven total touchdowns, too — six receiving and one rushing.
The Browns face crucial offseason decisions at quarterback, offensive line and wide receiver. The team had poor results in all three of those areas in 2024 and 2025, and the decision not to draft an offensive lineman in April always seemed risky.
Of the five starting offensive linemen at the start of this season, only one (Dawand Jones) is signed past 2025. After neither Jones nor Cornelius Lucas succeeded at left tackle, the Browns were forced to trade for Cam Robinson, who’s also only signed for this season and has struggled mightily in recent weeks.
That 2024 third-round pick Zak Zinter didn’t enter the season as one of the top eight linemen on the depth chart is also a problem. Cleveland’s 2024 draft has not produced any full-time starters. Second-round defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. started his career on the reserve-suspended list, then missed much of the first two months of this season while recovering from a knee injury. Zinter was a healthy scratch for most of this year before veteran center Ethan Pocic was lost to a season-ending injury. Seventh-rounder Myles Harden has been the team’s primary slot cornerback for much of this season.
Before 2025, only two of Berry’s previous five draft classes yielded three players who could be considered full-time starters. In 2020, the Browns drafted left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. in the first round, safety Grant Delpit in the second and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott in the third. Elliott started two seasons in Cleveland and now starts for San Francisco. Wills never took the next step in his progression and was limited by injury over his final two-plus seasons in Cleveland. He’s out of football this year while dealing with a lingering knee injury. Delpit has become a leader and playmaker for the Browns and is a Pro Bowl alternate this season.
The 2023 class produced three players who have been at least part-time starters and regular contributors when healthy: Tillman (third round) and a pair of fourth-rounders, defensive end Isaiah McGuire and Jones. McGuire has been a full-time player in the defensive line rotations in 2025. Jones has started games in all three of his seasons but has finished them all on injured reserve. Tillman has been a starter when healthy.
Luke Wypler, a 2023 sixth-round pick, is the starting center for the rest of this season and potentially next season. Jones might be slotted as the starting right tackle for 2026, depending on the team’s draft plans. Ronnie Hickman, a 2023 undrafted free agent, is starting at safety.
Before this season, the best two draft picks in the Berry era were linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (2021, second round) and cornerback Martin Emerson (2022, third round). Owusu-Koramoah signed an extension before the 2024 season but missed this year with a significant neck injury, and his football future is uncertain. Emerson missed all of 2025 after tearing his Achilles and is eligible for free agency in March.
Andrew Berry (right) hasn’t had a ton of success with previous draft classes, but the play of the 2025 rookies was a bright spot amid another down season for Cleveland. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
Of the 44 players drafted in the Berry regime, only Owusu-Koramoah has been voted to a Pro Bowl. Schwesinger and Fannin are alternates this year. The Browns gave up three first-round picks in the Watson trade, picks that were sorely missed. Berry has only made three first-round picks: Wills, cornerback Greg Newsome II and Graham. The Browns traded Newsome to Jacksonville in October for Tyson Campbell, who has played well in Cleveland.
Under Berry, the Browns have made some good trades. They’ve made some bad ones and just OK ones, too. And they made one really nightmarish one in March 2022.
The Watson deal isn’t done haunting a franchise that still has around $135 million in salary-cap commitments to the quarterback, and the miss on Watson is the biggest reason the Browns face this current uncertainty. They continually pushed money forward to keep their offensive line together, and the explosive 2023 pass-game combo of Amari Cooper and David Njoku never replicated that season’s results. The Browns traded Cooper away and used the pick they acquired on Gabriel.
Undoubtedly, Graham and Schwesinger fit the current defensive scheme employed by coordinator Jim Schwartz. Both have been productive players and fit the mold of long-term locker room leaders. But many holes and questions linger on the offensive side, making it hard to project just how close the Browns are to actually building a competitive offense, let alone a consistently explosive one.
Certainly, the 2025 rookie class can be viewed as interesting, necessary and potentially as a big part of a turnaround. Is it enough to keep Berry as general manager for a seventh season and potentially beyond? Next week, we’ll find out what the folks in charge think.
