Newsletter: The Browns Have a Formula in 2025, but Can They Execute?

Winning on the margins will be the key to everything.

(Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Browns)

We’re here, folks. Training Camp is upon us. We made it. Well, sort of. Instead of zero football we now get the grainy sideline videos and the several hundred “this rookie is going to be electric” tweets. All the beautiful camp nonsense. But, let me tell you, I will gladly take it over the quiet sports scene that is July up to this point. Send all the hype videos, send all the camp stats, whatever.

Your Cleveland Browns are set to embark on what is going to be publicly discussed as one of the toughest, low expectations seasons you will find in the league. Not only will they rank at the bottom of the league from most prognosticators, but they will also have one of the toughest perceived schedules in the league. And that’s not just quality of opponent for the Browns, but also those scheduling quirks that come with a trip overseas early in the football calendar. It won’t be easy.

But when I think about how they get something special done against the odds, I keep going back to one key philosophy: “they have to win on the margins.” The Browns will have to win ugly and that stance begets the question of whether or not they can actually pull off that brand of football.

The details of the philosophy for the year are simple enough.

• Get back to strong defense from two years ago.

• Win the turnover margin.

• Run the ball efficiently.

• Play sound special teams.

• Stop the mental mistakes.

It’s certainly still possible to lose in this league even if the Browns get the pillars above correct, but to have a shot each week they will have to lock in those non-negotiables above. They will have to buy into a core philosophy of an “underdog mentality” and own their deficiencies in order to overcome them. Build through the idea of knowing their identity and playing through it. The problem is they haven’t done enough of this since the 2021 season. So, again, do they have it in them?

First, let us lay out the formula in detail. The first non-negotiable is that the defense has to return to 2023 form — or at least a closer variation. After finishing 2nd in DVOA in 2023, the unit fell to 25th in 2024. They failed to get off the field on 3rd down situations, allowed too many big runs, and were “schemed up” by opposing offenses too often.