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Coming off the heels of two seasons that were not easy to swallow for the Cleveland Browns, the firing of their former head coach Kevin Stefanski, and the hiring of Todd Monken, it's easy to imagine that the 2026 season will be used more as a building block than as a competitive year.
However, perhaps the Browns are not as far off from competitive football as the general audience might think.
ESPN's Aaron Schatz released an article ranking the 25-and-under talent on every NFL roster, and placed the Browns fourth in the NFL in his list. And this is without mentioning new pass rusher Jared Verse, who has graduated from the criteria as he enters his third season in the NFL at the age of 26.
What ESPN had to say on Browns' youth
ESPN denoted four blue-chip young players on the Browns' roster entering the 2026 season: tight end Harold Fannin Jr., linebacker Carson Schwesinger, offensive tackle Spencer Fano, and defensive tackle Mason Graham. This roster made the leap from 29th on the list of young cores around the NFL into the top five this year, landing at No. 4.
This article praises the young talent on both sides of the ball in Cleveland, highlighting Fannin as an exciting playmaker now joined by wide receivers KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston. On the defensive side of the ball, ESPN's Schatz highlighted not only Graham and Schwesinger, but also the young safeties of Ronnie Hickman and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren.
There is one big hangup from ESPN, however, and it's an obvious one.
ESPN obviously presses pause on Browns' QB room
Despite having three young quarterbacks on their roster, ESPN's Schatz notably excluded any of them from the conversation of young, promising talent on the roster. Here is what Schatz had to say:
"The most important young talent a team can have is a young quarterback, but we're not giving the Browns much credit for their two young quarterbacks. Shedeur Sanders, who is 24, struggled last season with 18.9 Total QBR. Gabriel has already aged off this list, as he will be 26 in December."
Sanders is deadlocked in an upcoming quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson as training camp gets set to begin this week. However, all of the other young talent on the roster begs the question: are the Browns just a quarterback away from competitive football once again after back-to-back horrendous seasons?
This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Browns rebuild may already be just a quarterback away from completion
