CLEVELAND, Ohio — Through the first 10 weeks of the 2025 season, the Browns’ special teams have been a liability and arguably the team’s worst unit.
Yes, even worse than the offense.
From blown assignments to momentum-swinging breakdowns, nearly every film breakdown tells the same story of missed opportunities and self-inflicted wounds.
In Week 2 at Baltimore, a missed field goal and poor coverage set up short fields for Ravens touchdowns.
Two weeks later in Detroit, the Browns surrendered a 65-yard punt return that flipped the game’s momentum and buried them in a 34-10 loss.
The London trip against Minnesota brought more special teams mistakes, including another failed field goal and the continued absence of any return threat to change field position.
A week later in Pittsburgh, a blocked kick and coverage breakdowns helped the Steelers build and protect a lead.
And in New York, it was rock bottom with a 99-yard kickoff return and a 74-yard punt return touchdown allowed in the same quarter.
These are just a few of the many breakdowns and mistakes that have plagued this unit throughout the year.
The Browns’ defense has been excellent, one of the few bright spots this season, and the offense, while still a work in progress, requires timing, precision, and execution to function at a high level. Special teams demand those same traits, but their foundation is built on alignment, fundamentals, and pure effort. Those are controllable elements, and right now, the Browns are failing in the one phase that should be rooted most in discipline and want-to.
Let’s take a look at what went wrong on the 99-yard kickoff return and the 74-yard punt return against the Jets. Missed fits, poor leverage, spacing, and bad lane integrity turned routine coverage repetitions into game-changing touchdowns. We will break down how I coach it at the high school level to make sure it never happens.
99-yard kickoff return
Kickoff coverage comes down to alignment, lane integrity, and all-out effort. The Browns’ kickoff team plays hard, but the fundamentals are not always consistent. On the Jets’ touchdown return, Cleveland lost lane integrity and it resulted in six points.
At every level of football, kickoff return teams count from the outside in. L5 through L1 on the left side and R5 through R1 on the right. The rule is simple. No player should ever cross the teammate aligned inside. R4 should never pass underneath R3. Lanes stay intact and the group squeezes to the ball with a true outside contain presence to force everything back inside. Everyone else closes space, stays square, maintains lane responsibility, and never passes a teammate on the inside shoulder.
On this play Sunday, L4 (Dom Jones), L3 (Isaiah McGuire), and L2 (Adin Huntington) all get walled toward the sideline. R1 (Cameron Thomas) loses lane integrity and misses the tackle. The Jets double team R1 (Mohamoud Diabate) and open a massive seam that turns a routine kickoff into a 99-yard touchdown for Kene Nwangwu.
Fundamentals on special teams matter. One missed fit becomes a crease. One crease becomes six points.
How I taught it
Below is a look at how kickoff coverage was taught at the high school level. The structure was simple and built on fundamentals that every player could handle.
L5 and R5 were the contain players and nothing was allowed outside of them. They set the edge and forced everything back to the pursuit. Everyone else stayed in their lanes and squeezed to the ball carrier while making sure they never passed the teammate aligned inside of them. That kept the coverage tight and eliminated seams.
The final rule was the most important. Play with your hair on fire. Maximum effort covers for many physical and mental mistakes and turns kickoff coverage into a dependable phase every week.
Here is a diagram of how kickoff coverage is taught at the high school level.
Here is a diagram of how kickoff coverage is taught at the high school level.cleveland.com
When you look at the video below, the Cleveland kickoff team loses its lane integrity almost immediately, stretching the coverage too wide and creating a clean vertical seam for the returner to hit. The leverage is poor on both edges, the inside stack gets washed toward the sideline, and with no one square and squeezing to the ball, the returner gets a runway that turns a routine kick into a big play.
74-yard punt return
Punt coverage follows many of the same core principles as kickoff coverage. It starts with alignment, lane integrity, and all-out effort. On this punt, the outside gunners get blocked and are unable to factor into the tackle. Inside, the Browns lose spacing and lane integrity as five coverage players squeeze within a few yards of each other, creating a clean vertical crease. Grant Delpit is flying and selling out to make the play, but he misses in space and the Jets take another return to the end zone.
How I taught it
Below is a look at how kickoff coverage was taught at the high school level. With limited practice time, a tight punt formation was used to secure protection and eliminate the threat of a block, because teams that give up a blocked punt lose nearly every time.
Once the punt was off, the same principles used in kickoff coverage took over. Alignment, lane integrity, and all-out effort were the foundation, with each player spaced about five yards apart. From there the unit squeezed to the football while never passing the teammate aligned inside. Simple rules built on execution and effort that consistently produced results.
Here is a diagram of how punt coverage is taught at the high school level.
Here is a diagram of how punt coverage is taught at the high school level.cleveland.com
Below is a look at how the punt coverage broke down. The Browns get blocked at the point of attack, lose lane integrity, and compress too tightly inside. The gunners get walled, the spacing disappears, and a missed tackle turns a routine return into another touchdown.
What we learned
Special teams should never be the phase that derails a season. It is built on discipline, alignment, and effort, all of which are controllable. The Browns have the talent to fix it, but the corrections must start now.
Clean, consistent special teams play will give the defense support, help the offense with field position, and keep games from swinging on preventable mistakes.
Lance Reisland is the former coach at Garfield Heights High School, where he spent 18 seasons as an assistant for his father, Chuck, and four as head coach, from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, his team finished 11-1 and appeared in the OHSAA Division II regional semifinals. That team went 10-0 and made history as the first Garfield Heights team in 41 years to have an undefeated regular season along with beating Warren G. Harding for the first playoff win in school history.
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.