Three burning questions for 2025 Browns
The Cleveland Browns were the talk of the 2025 NFL Draft after trading the chance to land Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to the Jacksonville Jaguars and selecting Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round.
Looking ahead to the 2025 season, here are the three biggest questions facing the team.
Who will win Cleveland's messy quarterback competition?
The Browns have a true quarterback competition heading into training camp. Deshaun Watson is expected to miss the entire 2025 season after re-injuring his Achilles in January. That leaves four QBs — Sanders, 17-year veteran and 2023 Comeback Player of the Year Joe Flacco, failed Steelers first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett and third-round rookie Dillon Gabriel from Oregon — to battle it out this summer for the starting job.
Flacco is presumably the favorite to start in Week 1, but considering the Browns are expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL once again, fans will be clamoring to get a glimpse of Sanders or Gabriel sooner than later. It will be fascinating to see how head coach Kevin Stefanski handles this busy quarterback room.
Per ESPN, Flacco — who is 4-1 as a regular-season starter for Cleveland — is one of three quarterbacks who has a winning record with Cleveland since its return to the NFL in 1999. The others are Brian Hoyer (10-6) and Case Keenum (2-0).
Sanders will be wearing No. 12, the number of one of his mentors, Tom Brady.
How much (if at all) will Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah play?
Owusu-Koramoah is one of the bigger questions on the roster. The talented linebacker suffered a scary neck injury last season on a collision with Baltimore's Derrick Henry. He was carted off the field and didn't play the rest of the season.
There haven't been many concrete updates on Owusu-Koramoah's health since the injury, but the 25-year-old returned to Cleveland's facility for the start of the offseason program. Still, there's no definitive timetable on JOK's return to the field. The Browns are understandably exercising caution with Owusu-Koramoah's injury, so it's impossible to predict if he'll be able to play in 2025.
"He is progressing, which is a positive," Browns GM Andrew Berry said in late March (h/t: Yahoo). "I'll be honest, it is still a little bit nebulous in terms of what that timeframe looks like. So we really are trying to deal with it week to week and month to month."
Can Cleveland resurrect Diontae Johnson's career?
Last season was bizarre for Johnson. The Carolina Panthers traded for the sure-handed wide receiver in the offseason to give second-year QB Bryce Young a proven target, but he lasted only seven games before being shipped to the Ravens.
Shockingly, he caught only one pass in four games with Baltimore before being suspended and waived for refusing to enter a game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Houston Texans scooped him up after Tank Dell went down with an injury, but Johnson caught only three passes in two games. Houston waived Johnson (33 catches, 67 targets, 375 receiving yards in 2024) after its wild-card win against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Browns are giving Johnson, who had two drops last season, a shot with a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum of $1.17M. Johnson was a Pro Bowler with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021, so this was a smart signing with almost no risk.
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