The Browns have been winning games, but they’ve also become the NFL’s biggest flag magnet.
Through four weeks, Cleveland has been penalized 51 times, the most in the league. Six of those flags were declined and two were offsetting, but that still leaves 43 accepted penalties - also the most in football. The breakdown is messy across the board: 19 on offense, 16 on defense and eight on special teams.
That kind of number usually points straight at coaching and execution. But there is at least one wrinkle here, thanks to NFL analytics expert Warren Sharp: the league as a whole is throwing an unusual amount of laundry.
Sharp Football Analysis dug into the officiating numbers through Week 4 and found that NFL offenses are being flagged at the highest recorded rate since 2000. He also noted 17 nullified touchdowns. Through the first four games of 2025, only five touchdowns had been wiped out by penalties, compared with four at this point in 2024.
“Offenses are getting flagged at the highest per-snap rate in any Weeks 1 through 4 stretch since 2000 - 6.18 penalties on offense per 100 snaps," Sharp said. "We have also seen the No. 1 most penalties called on third or fourth down in the second half of games that I have on record since 2000.
When we talk about what changes the outcome of games. In the second half, third or fourth down, we’re seeing the most that we’ve ever seen in 2026.”
Sharp also posted that there have been 17 touchdowns nullified in less than four full weeks, along with the most offensive penalties per snap, the most penalties on third- or fourth-down plays in the second half, and the most red-zone penalties against offenses since at least 2000.
Still, Cleveland’s own numbers don’t let the officials off the hook entirely.
Todd Monken is in his first season as an NFL head coach while also calling the offense. Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg and special teams coordinator Byron Storer are also in their first year in their current roles.
And on offense, the Browns’ problems are overwhelmingly self-inflicted: 74% of their 19 offensive penalties have been presnap fouls, with just five outside that category. That means false starts, delay of game, illegal motion and illegal formation - the kind of mistakes that are supposed to get cleaned up long before they become a weekly habit.
The defense has its own issue, too. Rutenberg’s unit leads the NFL with seven presnap penalties.
So while the league-wide environment may be making things noisier, Cleveland’s penalty problem is not something that can be pinned entirely on officiating. The Browns are 3-1 and one of the early stories of the season, but if they want to keep that going, the controllable stuff has to get a lot cleaner.
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