fbpx
Home / frontfantasy / 2024 Fantasy Football Preview: Cleveland Browns
Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns

2024 Fantasy Football Preview: Cleveland Browns


For full player rankings (redraft/dynasty), eight printable cheat sheets, season projections, player analytics, and much more, join Fantasy Consigliere today. And if you find these write-ups helpful, we would recommend purchasing our 2024 fantasy football draft guide on Amazon to get our full thoughts and rankings all in one place—if you are on the fence, check out the free sample before purchasing.

 

Player Outlooks (2024)

 

QB Deshaun Watson: Another lost season for Watson—who we wouldn’t have interest rostering due to the off-field allegations that the NFL wants to pretend never happened—puts him another year removed from the last time he was a full-time, star-caliber quarterback (in 2020). For their part, the Browns are going all in on somehow getting Watson back to the quarterback he was to begin his career, but he frankly needs to play better, stay healthy, and do damage as a runner to get back to the QB1 ranks.

 

QB Jameis Winston: Cleveland has made it a point to invest in the backup quarterback position after they needed Joe Flacco to come off the street to save them in 2023, and aside from Justin Fields, Winston has as much fantasy upside as any No. 2 quarterback in the league. He’d have a solid case for QB2 value if forced to step in for Deshaun Watson.

 

RB Nick Chubb: If there is a player to not bet against coming off a devastating knee injury, it’s Chubb, as he returned from a gruesome, career-threatening injury at Georgia to become arguably the best running back in the NFL—and we’d bet he’s doing everything he can to be ready for Week 1. There is concern about limited workloads following the injury, but Chubb has shown he can still produce as an efficient RB1 option on 12-15 weekly touches; if he looks like himself by late November or early December, Chubb will be one of the summer’s biggest steals.

 

RB Jerome Ford: A delayed recovery for Chubb would boost Ford and the other Cleveland running backs in the rankings, but will it be too much of a committee to trust any of them? After being boosted by five receiving touchdowns last year, Ford feels like he would be more volatile in a possible change-of-pace role alongside D’Onta Foreman if Chubb were to miss time, and he only averaged 4.0 yards per carry last season.

 

RB D’Onta Foreman: Foreman couldn’t hold the lead role last year in Chicago with 3.9 yards per carry, but he had 203 carries for 914 yards (4.5 YPC) and five touchdowns with the Panthers in 2022—so maybe he can bounce back behind a top offensive line with Cleveland. Of course, the Browns will eventually have Nick Chubb entrenched as the lead back (possibly as early as the opener), which would make Foreman a handcuff that would be in a committee.

 

RB Nyheim Hines: The real-life value for Hines will likely come in the return game, but the 27-year-old—who missed all of last season with a torn ACL suffered in a jet ski accident—has a couple of 63-catch campaigns under his belt, so an offensive role is certainly possible. That said, Jerome Ford and D’Onta Foreman would be the clear backfield leaders if Nick Chubb isn’t ready for Week 1.

 

WR Amari Cooper: Cooper hasn’t played with Deshaun Watson for an extended stretch over the past two seasons, but he’s still been very productive since joining Kevin Stefanski’s offense with lines of 78/1,160/9 and 72/1,250/5. The hope for the Browns and those drafting Cooper is that he can combine the touchdown ceiling (eight or nine scores in three of the past five years) with last season’s career-best 17.4 yards per reception, and the production has been there in 11 full games with Watson under center—going for a 17-game pace of 76 receptions, 1,311 yards, and six touchdowns. Assuming his sudden holdout isn’t prolonged, Cooper should be taken as a low-end WR2 with upside.

 

WR Jerry Jeudy: After being acquired in a trade from the Broncos and promptly signing a three-year, $52.5-million extension (which included $41 million guaranteed), Jeudy is clearly someone the Browns value. The downside is that he will be relying on a quarterback that hasn’t played at a high level is four years, and at their best, Cleveland will play through Nick Chubb, Amari Cooper, and David Njoku. Unless the touchdowns suddenly jump (11 scores in 57 career games), Jeudy is tough to rank as anything more than a WR4/WR5.

 

WR Elijah Moore: Moore was an exciting addition for the Browns last offseason, but he didn’t breakout as the No. 2 wideout with a new team as a former second-round pick of the Jets, and he’s now set to be in a rotational-type role behind Amari Cooper and Jerry Jeudy. While the talent makes him a fringe late-round option in fantasy drafts—and Kevin Stefanski notably talked him up at OTAs—Moore will be difficult to trust based on his current outlook.

 

WR Cedric Tillman: Tillman’s rookie campaign ended with a concussion suffered in the season finale that forced him to miss the playoff game, but he had become a bigger and bigger part of the offense down the stretch—playing in over 60% of the team’s offensive snaps in each of the final ten games (including half of them with at least 85% of the snaps played). The path to playing time looks more crowded this year, but Tillman is a bigger possession target that could earn a role with a strong summer.

 

WRs David Bell and Jamari Thrash: Bell was an industry favorite as a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, but he’s caught 38 passes and averaged 6.6 yards per target through 31 games—and now faces stiffer competition to even make the roster. One of the players he will be competing with is Thrash, and the added juice the fifth-round rookie can bring might give him the edge for the No. 5 wideout spot.

 

TE David Njoku: Cleveland will likely have more balance this season with Nick Chubb healthy and Jerry Jeudy joining the team, but Njoku broke out in a big way as the central component of the offense last season—resulting in career-highs across the board, including 123 targets. Njoku really took off once Joe Flacco entered the lineup with a whopping 18.3 fantasy points per game over the final four outings, but his consistency preceded Flacco being under center with at least 7.9 fantasy points in every game from Week 7 through the end of the year. Njoku’s upside will be determined by the play of Deshaun Watson, but he’s a rock-solid TE1.

 

TE Jordan Akins: Akins was signed by the Browns last year as a veteran option that Deshaun Watson had familiarity with from their time together in Houston, and he’s had three seasons with 400+ yards despite never being a full-time starter. The importance of David Njoku to the offense could allow Akins to have success if forced into the starting lineup due to injury, and he had five touchdowns in 2022.

 

Other Notes

 

Best IDP value: LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah

Ogbonnia Okoronkwo—who says he wants double-digit sacks—is another strong value, but Owusu-Koramoah was eventually unleashed last year under Jim Schwartz with 101 tackles and 20 tackles for loss. The addition of Jordan Hicks to play middle linebacker should allow JOK to be even more of a menace by taking advantage of his versatility, so he’s a top target in IDP leagues.

 

Stat to know (via draft guide)

Including playoffs, David Njoku had lines of 6/91/2, 10/104/1, 6/44/1, 6/134, and 7/93 over his final five games last year—all with Joe Flacco under center.