DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Myles Garrett Traded

Regarding Campbell... I think as long as we stick to a predominantly man coverage scheme, he shouldn't take significant steps back in terms of his performance within the D. Anytime you lose a player like Garrett, you're going to feel it, but in getting Verse I think we mitigated a lot of that impact. Garrett was #2 in QB hits in 2026, Verse was #6. I used QB hits because we're talking about our DE's impact on our CBs' performance. I do think the CBs are going to have a harder time covering w/o Garrett up front, but I don't think it's going to be a precipitous fall.

There are a lot of moving parts going on with our defense right now. 2nd year players (ex. Graham, Schwesinger) need to continue to develop, the new LB needs to fill Devin Bush's shoes, and we gotta see how well the new coaching staff can pick up where Schwartz left off, and potentially our new rookies getting involved (our new safety, mostly). I expect a small slide, but this team is basically in the same boat as last year because it largely go as far as the defense can carry it.

FWIW: they were not Top 10 last year, they were 14th in Points Allowed - and I feel pretty strongly that is the only stat that matters.


As for the CBs, I suspect you are correct and they will be a liability. We'll know more once the hitting starts.

Agree to disagree on this one.

The offense and special teams greatly influence the points against stat and both of those units were historically bad in 2025. It gave opposing offenses great field position. They were second worst in the nfl in turnover giving up 18 INT and 7 fumbles lost. All of this leads to a worse points given up stat line.

Less turnovers and less 3 and outs(10th worst in the nfl) lead to worse starting field position and better total points scored against for elite defenses.

In the end the numbers are the numbers. One can always seek out mitigating factors but in the end, it is what it is.

Being on the field as much as our D was is going to wear them down. You add a lot of bad field position because of turnovers and the fact we couldn’t move the ball and that’s a recipe for trouble. Our D may take a step back this year because of the Myles trade and JS resigning but if our O can move the ball and our ST play better it may very well make up for the D regressing a bit. And who knows our new DC may be good.

In addition It’s hard to believe that with Todd Monken our offense won’t be anything but better and that goes for our ST’s also. We should see marked improvement with both units.

I agree we should, but there is a long way between should and will. Time will tell. I am hopeful.

And you know, I felt the same way in regards to TOP. It "seemed like" the opponents had the ball much longer than the Browns did. But in reality that just isn't so.

All of the turnovers certainly created a situation where your opponents would score more points but the TOP was much closer than it seemed. At least to me.

The Browns TOP was 29:22 per game. Which means their opponents averaged having the ball 38 seconds more than the Browns.

An actually good defense takes the ball back, forces the 3 & outs themselves or limits those 7's to 3's.