The Cleveland Browns will begin the 2025 NFL season without two of their top three target-getters at wide receiver from the 2024 campaign. While the position group looks extremely thin after Jerry Jeudy, third-year man Cedric Tillman was beginning to figure things out at the pro level before suffering a season-ending concussion in Week 12. He's been targeted only 87 times through two seasons, so counting on a player with such a small sample size is risky, but Tillman appears to be up to the challenge, and if he can stay healthy, he should be a key contributor in 2025.
Coming out of Tennessee, Tillman was seen as a raw prospect despite appearing in games over five collegiate campaigns. He averaged 16.9 yards per reception and hauled in 12 touchdowns as a junior, but an injury limited him to only 417 yards as a senior. He had good size and a large catch radius, but Tennessee's simplistic offensive scheme meant he was quite raw as a route-runner. The Browns selected him in the third round, and he played a very limited role as a rookie. 2024 began in much the same way, as he collected just four targets over the first six games of the season, including zero in the three games following his fourth-down drop against the New York Giants that ended Cleveland's comeback attempt.
Things began to change very quickly starting in Week 7 once Amari Cooper was traded. Tillman caught eight of his 11 targets for 81 yards, which was the start of a very solid four-game stretch. The next week against Baltimore, he totaled 99 yards on seven grabs, two of which were touchdowns, including a deep score with under a minute remaining to win the game for the Browns.
Tillman's solid size and explosive combined with his long arms and big hands have earned him a reputation as a possession receiver/contested catch guy, and those are things that he can certainly do well.