For the second time in four seasons, the Cleveland Browns made the playoffs — an unprecedented level of success for one of the bigger doormats of the NFL in recent years.
Coming off another playoff season, expectations in the Dawg Pound are high entering the 2024 season. With training camp set to begin, there are still plenty of questions the team needs to answer in the coming weeks.
Today, we break those questions down.
Unanswered Questions Ahead of Cleveland Browns Training Camp
Cleveland opens its fifth training camp under Kevin Stefanski on July 22 when rookies report. Veterans are due in the following day.
As the Browns prepare to try and reach the playoffs for the second straight year (something no two Browns teams have been able to do since the late 1980s), they still have several matters to resolve.
From contract disputes to injured players returning to action, there are plenty of questions Cleveland needs to answer going into camp.
How Will Deshaun Watson Look Coming Back From His Shoulder Injury?
At the height of his career, Deshaun Watson was considered to be one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL — especially after leading Houston to the Divisional Round of the playoffs in 2019.
Suspensions and injuries have kept him off the field for a significant portion of the last three years.
Now, as Watson prepares to hit the field for the 2024 season, the latest injury he’s recovering from just happens to be a shoulder problem he struggled with throughout the 2023 campaign.
How Watson handles his recovery could go a long way to determining how good the Browns will end up being during the upcoming season.
How Will Nick Chubb Look Coming Back From His Season-Ending Knee Injury?
Watson isn’t the only offensive star that is recovering from season-ending surgery. Nick Chubb, the Browns’ All-Pro and Pro Bowl runner out of Georgia, is coming off a knee injury that cost him 15 games last year.
While most players take about two full years to get back to 100% from serious knee injuries, Chubb has shown in workout videos that he already appears to be ready for the upcoming season, making him a potential exception to the rule.
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How Chubb looks early in camp will be very telling. It will help the team know if it will need another running back or whether they can trust their Pro Bowler to have another dominant year.
Will Amari Cooper Show Up to Training Camp?
Injuries are certainly a focus for the Browns during this training camp session. Amari Cooper’s contract status is the other major concern.
Cooper is in the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed in 2020 with the Dallas Cowboys and sat out of Browns minicamp and offseason workouts in hopes of acquiring a new deal.
Would Cooper sit out the start of training camp after a career year in receiving yards (1,250)? His status in camp, and his overall contract, remain a major question overall.
How Will Jerry Jeudy Fit Into the Offense?
Elsewhere in the team’s wide receiver room, the Browns added a veteran to help out the All-Pro, acquiring Jerry Jeudy in a trade with the Denver Broncos.
Jeudy caught 211 passes for over 3,000 yards, and 11 touchdowns in his four-year run with the Broncos, but he never really matched the level of expectation that came from being a top receiver prospect from the 2020 NFL Draft.
Jeudy’s fit in Cleveland’s offense will be fascinating. Cooper has put up Pro Bowl numbers in the last two years, but will those numbers decrease with Jeudy on the roster?
Jeudy’s fit in the offense will be a fascinating case study throughout the 2024 season, especially in training camp.
What Will a Defensive Encore Look Like Under Jim Schwartz?
Jim Schwartz joined the Browns as defensive coordinator in 2023 and quickly turned the unit into one of the best in the NFL last season.
While their playoff loss to Houston may have been a disappointing end to their season, Schwartz still has the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett, at his disposal to continue his run of dominance.
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Can the Browns continue their excellence on defense after finishing first against the pass and overall last season?
While a natural regression could be coming, Cleveland has its group healthy again, and it makes the Browns’ defensive unit among the most interesting in the league heading into the season.