The Cleveland Browns are not exactly rolling into Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season with the wind in their sails. The team named Deshaun Watson the starting quarterback in a wildly unpopular move, and saw Watson pick a fight with the entirety of the fan base in a regrettable press conference. They stuffed Dillon Gabriel onto the IR, and cut local hero and preseason star Luke Floriea, not even carving out a spot on the practice squad for him. This week, assistant GM Catherine Hickman drew national attention for doing a press conference in a sweatshirt that read “Los Angeles Made Me Do It” and featured what appeared to be stab holes. A non-story, really, but not great optics considering the Browns traded Myles Garrett to the Rams for Jared Verse and draft picks.
Come on, Verse is under enough pressure as it is, but invoking the Garrett-Verse swap–whether intentionally or unintentionally–is an unforced error. Because no matter how many times Verse points out he is not in Cleveland to be Myles Garrett, and no matter how many times Browns types say they want Verse to just be himself, there’s no escaping the fact that Verse will need to fill the shoes of an all-time great.
Browns’ Jared Verse Was Defensive Rookie of the Year
Maybe the Browns need no reminding of that, but ESPN analyst Ben Solak is doing the reminding anyway. On Friday he put out a list for all 32 teams, highlighting the one player who is the X-factor for the upcoming season. There would be plenty of choices for the Browns, it would seem, but Solak went with Verse.
Makes sense. Verse, according to GM Andrew Berry was the only reason the Browns considered a move of Garrett. He may be stretching the truth there–two first-round picks and Garrett’s frustration with the franchise surely played a role. But Verse has star talent on his own, having been a two-time Pro Bowler in his first two seasons, with an AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, too, in 2024.
Browns Need More Sacks
But Verse is different in style from Garrett, and though he has 12 sacks in two seasons, he does more to create pressure than to necessarily finish off sacks. Solak notes that needs to change for the Browns this year.
He writes: “A Browns X factor is about the larger picture — and no player fills a bigger part of that frame than Verse. If the Browns avoid (another) disastrous high-profile trade, they need Verse to look the part of a rising star edge rusher, one worthy of trading away Myles Garrett. …
“The next step for Verse is converting his high pressure rate (15.3% by Next Gen Stats’ model, 10th among all edge rushers over the past two seasons) into sacks. Verse’s pressure-to-sack ratio is only 8.4% — fourth lowest among all edge rushers over the same time frame. The Browns’ defense needs field-flipping plays to create winning environments for their offense, so Verse’s pressures are insufficient.”
Jared Verse: ‘Pressures Don’t Mean Anything if You Can’t Finish’
If there is good news for the Browns and their fans, it’s that the one guy who seems to know that Jared Verse’s pressures need to be converted into sacks is Jared Verse himself. If that is an X-factor, then at least he is aware.
As he said early in training camp: “It’s just finishing. I mean, when you look at the numbers and everything like that, I’m never a big stat guy, big number guy, but to be translucent with it and to talk about the statistics over there, I’m one of the highest pressure rates.
“But pressures don’t mean anything if you can’t finish. Getting to the quarterback means nothing if you can’t finish. Yeah, it throws him off a little bit and messes with his head, but sacks is what puts them back a little bit. Finishing is just my biggest part.”
Browns All-Pro Newcomer Tabbed ‘X-Factor’ With Myles Garrett Absence