The Cleveland Browns brought in a stellar 2025 NFL Draft class, which was their first in a while. It was much-needed on the heels of years of not having a first-round pick due to the Deshaun Watson trade, and the success of that class makes it easier for GM Andrew Berry to approach a critical 2026 class with a clear mind and obvious needs to address.
One of the potential pillars that emerged from the ’25 class was running back Quinshon Judkins, who had quite the solid rookie campaign before breaking his leg in the last game of the season. He ran for 827 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games behind a banged-up offensive line, and Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot recently touched on how the Browns might envision his role in the team’s future.
During a recent article, Cabot wrote about how Berry is always a candidate to throw the fans a curveball with his draft decisions. One curveball that has been rumored of late is the possibility of drafting Notre Dame star running back Jeremiyah Love at sixth overall, but Cabot pushed back on that a bit by giving Judkins a vote of confidence.
“If they think Quinshon [Judkins] can be that guy, I’m thinking that they’re going to want to make sure that they give him every opportunity to sort of be the next Nick Chubb for them,” Cabot said.
The one knock on Judkins was the fact that he ran for 3.6 yards per carry, but a lot of the blame for that could be pointed at the situation he was in. With improved offensive line play and better quarterback play, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see him go over 4.0 in 2026.
The broken leg is certainly an issue, but it’s better than torn knee ligaments and shouldn’t keep him out of action to begin the season. It certainly shouldn’t be a big enough issue to push the Browns to look past their other major needs and draft another running back, regardless of how enticing of a prospect Love is.
Drafting a running back sixth overall after spending a second and a fourth-rounder on two running backs the previous year wouldn’t be the best allocation of resources. The obvious path would be to draft a tackle and a receiver in the first round, and bringing in Love would only create more questions for a franchise that is desperate for some answers.
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