PHILADELPHIA — We always tend to learn something when the Browns practice against the Eagles. When Philadelphia visited Cleveland in 2022, it was a concerning couple of days. The Browns struggled to match Philadelphia’s physicality and it ended up being a sign of things to come.
The Browns went to Philadelphia in 2023 and responded with a strong two days. The Eagles, fresh off a Super Bowl appearance, came back for a strong second day but the Browns showed up ready to compete. They ended up rolling out one of the best defenses in football that season and made the playoffs.
Two years ago, we wondered if we were watching two potential Super Bowl teams, at least over the coming seasons. Neither team came particularly close that year. Philadelphia lost five of their final six games and bowed out in the wild card round. The Browns made an improbable run to the postseason but got blown out by Houston in their opening-round game.
This year, there’s a dose of reality for Browns fans. The Eagles went back to and won the Super Bowl in 2024 and have similar aspirations in 2025. The Browns went 3-14 and are in transition. A playoff season would be a minor miracle.
There’s still something to be learned here though, right?
Let’s start with the most obvious thing:
The Browns are who we thought they were
This is a good and bad thing.
Let’s start with the good: the defense looks like it can hang.
They created pressure, collected sacks and forced turnovers.
The first two plays of 7-on-7: a pass breakup by cornerback and an interception by linebacker Devin Bush.
Maybe the most fun play came in the final team period when rookie defensive tackle Mason Graham recorded what would have likely been a sack and then, when Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense kept the play going, safety Ronnie Hickman intercepted Hurts.
The Browns were in the backfield all morning and they were making it hard for Hurts and Co. to run their offense — most of the time.
The secondary had some issues behind Denzel Ward and there’s some concern this defense might be too reliant on creating pressure and not much else, but it’s easy to feel good about the reconfigured defensive front after this first practice.
Now the bad: The offense struggled.
Let’s give a little credit to wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who rallied from a tough start to make a few catches from quarterback Joe Flacco. You don’t need to worry about Jeudy, even if he didn’t start the way he wanted to on Wednesday.
Overall, however, this was not a day that inspired much confidence in who the Browns are offensively.
Early in practice, the Eagles defensive backs were simply more physical: they ripped the ball out of receivers’ hands on multiple occasions, including during an early 1-on-1 period when Eagles cornerback Adoree’ Jackson wrestled the ball away from Cedric Tillman. Tillman had another drop, too, during one-on-ones.
That was one of the more frustrating parts: the Browns struggled to hang onto the ball.
Wide receiver Jamari Thrash, Jeudy, running back Pierre Strong Jr. and tight end Sal Cannella all had drops throughout various team periods.
The concerns in the passing game go beyond drops. There is a general lack of explosiveness and an overreliance on relative unknowns. Even if you take Tillman out of the mix — and he is an unknown to some degree — there are a lot of footballs going toward the likes of Thrash, Diontae Johnson, Gage Larvadain and Kaden Davis with mixed results. Larvadain has probably been the best of that group this summer.
A more involved David Njoku will help and Harold Fannin Jr. has been reliable. We’ll see a heavy dose of tight end screens this season and the quarterbacks will hunt their tight ends down field.
But when the Browns go hunting for explosive plays downfield from a wide receiver, it’s Jeudy and then it’s not exactly clear where else it will come from.
So what did we learn?
It’s August and we’re hanging on every practice rep like it’s a playoff game.
This did feel like one team with designs of playing deep into January and beyond and another who might kind of know who its starting quarterback is going to be but isn’t quite ready to commit to that idea.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Eagles looked better on Wednesday.
The lesson from this practice feels simple: However many game the Browns win, they’ll win with a formula of playing good to great defense — they have to sort out that secondary first — and an offense that can complement it.
Protect the football. Run it. Try to be efficient in the passing game. Take advantage of short fields if the defense can create turnovers.
That’s not an easy way to consistently win games, but it shouldn’t be surprising that’s how they will have to win if you’ve been paying attention.
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