The Browns missed on Za’Darius Smith, and that forces a quick rethink at edge rusher.
For a moment, it looked like Cleveland had its answer. Instead, Smith landed elsewhere, leaving the Browns back in the market after a swing that would have helped a group still looking for more punch off the edge. The timing stings, too, because the Browns already moved on from all-world edge rusher Myles Garrett and could use another veteran who can get after the quarterback in a rotational role.
Right now, Cleveland is leaning on Jared Verse and Alex Wright, with Isaiah McGuire and Julian Okwara filling out the depth chart. That’s a workable group on paper, but not one that screams finished product. The Browns still have to decide what kind of 2026 they’re aiming for before they make their next move.
If the goal is to stay in the playoff conversation for as long as possible, even if that only lasts into the middle of the season, then Joey Bosa has to be on the radar. That path may be tough to navigate, though, and if Bosa plays this year, it sounds more likely he’d do it with the 49ers. Even so, Cleveland should at least check in.
There’s also Haason Reddick, who has bounced between three teams over the last three years and might be open to playing without a postseason carrot dangling in front of him. Reddick is 31 and started 12 games for the Buccaneers last season, but the production wasn’t there.
He finished with 2.5 sacks, and his 57.2 Pro Football Focus overall grade ranked No. 95 among 115 qualified edge rushers. That number was dragged down in part because he was one of the bottom 10 run defenders in the NFL at the position.
The most intriguing fit might be Kyle Van Noy. He’s a 12-year veteran, and he’s only two years removed from a 12.5-sack season and his first Pro Bowl. Van Noy spent the last three seasons with the Ravens, so he already knows the division.
He also carries a personal story he shared in The Players’ Tribune, tied to being put up for adoption in the early 1990s.
“There will always be a part of me that feels like I don’t belong, if that makes sense,” Van Noy said. “Like I do and I don’t, as weird as that sounds. So even in that supportive setting I grew up in, with a family that loves me, there’s still this feeling of abandonment, of something being missing for me, of not fully belonging.
“I feel like that’s always around for me. And it always has been.
Now, mind you, it’s in the background. It’s not something that I think about every day, or all the time.
It just pops into my mind every once in a while.”
For Cleveland, Van Noy looks like the kind of veteran who could help stabilize the edge room right now.
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