BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns are coming off a 3-14 season and most national prognosticators are predicting a long and unsuccessful season in 2025. The Greetham Angle thinks the odds are against the Browns of having a winning record and competing for a chance to return to the playoffs.
However, every NFL team starts the season fresh and hope springs eternal and that is true for the Browns, as well.
The Browns have a very difficult schedule in 2025, especially the first six games when the Browns face five playoffs teams from the 2024 season. That stretch could very well make or break the season as they play teams that combined for a 71-31 records in 2024.
For the Browns to have a successful season, here are the things that need to happen:
Defense Needs to Lead, Again
For the Browns to turn things around from 2024, the defense needs to return to the level of play the Browns defense played at for most of the 2023 season when the defense finished as the No. 1 ranked defense in the NFL.
In 2024, the defense dropped to 19th, overall.
A big area of improvement needs to come on third down and in takeaways.
The Browns had just 12 takeaways in 2024 (8 fumble recoveries, 4 interceptions). In 2023, the Browns offense turned the ball over 37 times, even more than they did in 2024, when the Browns offense turned the ball over 34 times. In 2023, the defense negated those miscues by taking the ball away 28 times during that season.
#Browns DC Jim Schwartz on why he thinks the defensive line is much improved from the 2024 season. pic.twitter.com/yJfPpW0M6Z
— Fred Greetham (@FredGreetham9) September 4, 2025
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz talked about the two biggest areas the Browns need to improve on defense in order to get back to having a top-end defense.
"I think a couple things to go with were just things that end drives," Schwartz said during minicamp in June. "Third down percentage had dropped from number one from the year before and then takeaways, both of those things obviously, end drives. We're trying to get off the field with no points allowed and those are the things that we're putting a big emphasis on this year. We emphasized them last year, but those areas that we have to improve."