The Cleveland Browns continued reshaping their defensive front this week, adding another body to the pass rush room just as the regular season gets underway. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Browns agreed to sign free agent pass rusher Sam Williams to the active roster, a move that flew somewhat under the radar amid a busy stretch of transactions for the organization. Cleveland also waived cornerback Michael Coats Jr. and placed defensive tackle Kalia Davis on injured reserve with a quad injury on the same day, underscoring just how much roster churn is happening around the edges of the depth chart right now. Williams himself brings an interesting profile to Cleveland, one built on a strong early career before injury derailed his tenure in Dallas.
ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi dug into the numbers behind the signing and showed why this move could pay off for the Browns.
“And in 2022 and 2023, before the 2024 knee injury in training camp that cost him a season, Williams was ninth in pass rush win rate as an edge defender (22.1%). Certainly a steal for Cleveland if the defense can get Williams’ pre-injury form,” Oyefusi posted.
And in 2022 and 2023, before the 2024 knee injury in training camp that cost him a season, Williams was ninth in pass rush win rate as an edge defender (22.1%).
Certainly a steal for Cleveland if the defense can get Williams’ pre-injury form. https://t.co/jfFMHx6PQj
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) September 1, 2026
Williams entered the league as a second-round pick out of Mississippi in the 2022 NFL Draft, selected 56th overall by the Dallas Cowboys. He wasted little time making an impact, finishing among the top 10 edge defenders in the league in pass rush win rate during both his rookie and second seasons, numbers that even generated a share of Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year votes early in his career. That trajectory came to a halt in 2024, when a training camp knee injury wiped out his entire season and forced him to rebuild from scratch heading into 2025.
The numbers from last season show a player still working his way back. Williams appeared in 17 games for Dallas but posted just 1 sack and a diminished pass rush win rate of 12.8 percent, a figure that ranked 23rd among 53 qualifying edge defenders league-wide.
If Williams can return anywhere close to his 2022 and 2023 form, when he ranked ninth league-wide in pass rush win rate, the Browns may have found real value on what amounts to a low-cost flier. Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg is building out his first unit in Cleveland this season, and adding a pass rusher with genuine top-10 upside, even on a prove-it basis, gives him another option to rotate alongside Jared Verse and the rest of the front 7.
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