BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns took their first big step last week to reshape an offense that backfired woefully in 2024. The team promoted tight ends coach and pass game specialist Tommy Rees to offensive coordinator, replacing Ken Dorsey, who was fired after one season.
Cleveland interviewed five known candidates but ultimately stayed in-house, tapping the 32-year-old Rees to work with head coach Kevin Stefanski and revamp a scheme that was built last offseason around quarterback Deshaun Watson but never took off. Watson posted the lowest Total QBR in the NFL before tearing his right Achilles tendon in Week 7. Cleveland’s offense shuffled through four quarterbacks during the season and ranked 28th in total offense and 32nd in scoring. The expectation is that the Browns will return to the scheme that Stefanski operated in his first four seasons in Cleveland — a variation of the West Coast offense — as opposed to the spread, RPO-based scheme he hired Dorsey to help build.
Stefanski, in a statement, called Rees an “incredible mind.” He’s viewed as a rising star after having spent time as the offensive coordinator for his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Alabama before joining Cleveland last year.
But the efforts to fix the Browns’ offense have just started. A long offseason awaits with multiple areas of concern, including finding a solution at quarterback — and assembling a proper supporting cast around that player.
“I don’t know that there was a cure-all decision regardless of quarterback or any other position that would have changed the fortunes of the offense,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said during his end-of-season news conference. “It was a collective failure for us there.”
Here are three remaining areas of need for the Browns’ offense.
Find a solution at QB
While Berry, Stefanski and players insist that the issues on offense were multi-faceted, it’s difficult to parse their struggles without starting at the quarterback position. Watson, the player who the Browns envisioned would lift their roster to contention, never looked comfortable in a scheme configured to accentuate his skills before his season ended because of injury for the second consecutive year. Watson also missed the final nine games of the 2023 season, including Cleveland’s wild-card round game, after undergoing surgery to his throwing shoulder.
Jameis Winston provided a brief spark after Watson’s injury but was ultimately benched after throwing eight interceptions in a span of three games. His 55.7 Total QBR ranked 19th out of 32 qualifying quarterbacks. Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw six interceptions and zero touchdowns in two starts before being benched for Bailey Zappe in the season finale. Collectively, Browns quarterbacks struggled with decision-making. Their 23 interceptions were the most in the NFL.
“I think it probably goes without saying that to reach that level of consistency, we have to have consistent availability and consistent performance at the QB position as well,” Berry said. “That’s something that’s been elusive for us over the past couple of seasons and that’s something that we have to be able to fix and remedy.”
With Thompson-Robinson, a 2023 fifth-round pick who has struggled in his brief action, the only player under contract for the 2025 season, finding an answer at the quarterback position is the Browns’ top priority this offseason. The free agent class of quarterbacks doesn’t have elite names but includes starting options such as Sam Darnold, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Winston, who is also an unrestricted free agent, expressed an openness to returning during the season.
The free agent class could also include Kirk Cousins, who was benched by the Atlanta Falcons late in the season. Cousins, whose $27.5 million base salary in 2025 is guaranteed, has a $10 million roster bonus if he remains on the roster by March 17. Cousins had one of his best seasons in Minnesota when Stefanski was the Vikings’ offensive coordinator and the Browns have been linked as a possible landing spot for the 36-year-old if he is released.
With the No. 2 pick, the Browns will, barring a trade to draft later, have their pick of one of the top quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders.
Berry said that he has already done a “fair amount” of scouting on the quarterbacks during the fall, a process that will pick up when college all-star events take place later in the month and the NFL scouting combine is held in Indianapolis in late February.
The Browns are expected to consider their options both in free agency and the draft for a quarterback room that Berry acknowledged will look much different in 2025. And his messaging about the position during his news conference underscored its significance to the offense — and team — getting back on track in 2025.
“We understand how important the quarterback position is and that’s obviously going to be a primary goal as we enter the offseason,” Berry said.
Rebuild the offensive line
While the Browns’ quarterback situation was unstable all season, the offensive line, typically a strength, regressed. Cleveland struggled to run the ball, ranking 29th in rushing yards per game (94.6) and 22nd in yards before contact per rush (2.43). And the Browns allowed the second-most sacks in the NFL (66), although blame doesn’t solely lie with the offensive line.
“We didn’t play as consistently up front as we’re accustomed to doing,” Berry said.
The Browns have the majority of their starting offensive line under contract for the 2025 season but could be in position to rebuild the unit. Left guard Joel Bitonio, a six-time Pro Bowler, said he will ponder retirement this offseason after 11 seasons. Left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. struggled to stay healthy for a second straight season and his contract is set to void, making him a free agent. Dawand Jones, a 2023 fourth-round pick who showed promise filling in for Wills, fractured his left leg in November, and his first two seasons in the NFL have ended to injury.
Center Ethan Pocic, right guard Wyatt Teller and right tackle Jack Conklin all have no guaranteed money remaining on their deals. The nature of multiple starters’ contracts gives Cleveland room to pivot if it believes upgrades are needed. The Browns have already made one move to improve the offensive line, hiring former University of Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren to replace the fired Andy Dickerson and be the team’s new OL coach. And in end-of-season interviews, Bitnoio and Conklin both advocated for the team to return to the outside zone running scheme the offensive line had success with in previous seasons.
Get more dynamic at the skill positions
While struggles up front and at the quarterback position bogged down the production of many of the Browns’ skill position players, they’ll have to make upgrades to assist whomever is under center in 2025. Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy had a breakout year as he recorded his first 1,000-yard season and was named to the Pro Bowl. Tight end David Njoku, who battled multiple injuries and missed six games, has shown he can be a Pro Bowl-caliber player when healthy. But Cleveland has few accomplished players in the wide receiver and running back room outside of those two.
Running back Nick Chubb didn’t resemble his previous Pro Bowl form in his return from a serious knee injury that cost him all but two games in the 2023 season and the first six games of the 2024 season. Chubb recorded career lows in yards per carry (3.3), yards after contact per rush (1.85) and percentage of carries that gained at least 10 yards (4.9%) before a broken foot in Week 15 ended his season. He’s now set to hit unrestricted free agency. Running back Jerome Ford has filled in the past two seasons amid Chubb’s injuries and has shown an ability to break off long runs but he remains inconsistent on a down-to-down basis. His 5.4-yard average would have ranked sixth among qualifying running backs, but his success rate (39.8%) ranked 26th out of 46 running backs with at least 100 carries.
“We love Nick. He’s going to be a ring of honor player for us, and we know that,” Berry said of Chubb. “In terms of the short term, that’s something that quite honestly, we just have to work through over the next several weeks.”
At wide receiver, Elijah Moore, who ranked second on the team in catches (61) and third in receiving yards (538), is an unrestricted free agent. But even if the team were to bring back Moore, who came to Cleveland in a trade with the New York Jets before the 2023 season, the Browns need to find more speed on the outside. Moore averaged a career-low 8.8 yards per reception in 2024. Outside of Jeudy, the Browns’ most accomplished receiver under contract is Cedric Tillman, a 2023 third-round pick who has 563 career receiving yards.
The Browns have been opportunistic in finding veteran wide receivers, executing trades for Jeudy, Moore and Amari Cooper in each of the last three years. Whoever is starting at quarterback for the Browns’ next season will require a more proven receiving corps to be successful.
