The Jim Schwartz defense was in full effect early and often last night in the Cleveland Browns preseason game vs. the Carolina Panthers. We saw a ton of blitz packages as well as man to man coverage with no safety help. Schwartz has always been an aggressive play caller, and there is no better way to see the talent you have than letting them compete one-on-one.
Jim Schwartz running Cover 0 in the third quarter of a preseason opener is frying me
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) August 9, 2025
Overall, the defense was impressive vs. the Panthers, but I was most impressed with the defensive line. They racked up four sacks along with seven quarterback hits and had all of the Panthers’ quarterbacks scrambling heavily.
Julian Okwara jumped off the stat sheet with two of the team’s four sacks, but I was extremely impressed with the rookie Mason Graham, who ended the night with only one tackle, but held his ground extremely well and got great penetration to help collapse the interior of the pocket, which led to pressure from the outside.
Mason Graham puts O-Lineman on a conveyor belt – I mean this is just beautiful pic.twitter.com/sMfDLSgn0x
— East Coast Gridiron (@ECG_FB) August 8, 2025
Cameron Thomas was also impressive last night. He had one tackle for loss but was very disciplined on multiple plays. On the Nik Needham interception, Thomas stayed home on the play action and quickly applied pressure, which forced Andy Dalton to throw the ball early and allowed Needham to make a play.
For the last few seasons, Garrett has had a guy like Jadaveon Clowney or Za’Darius Smith paired with him, which was a tremendous help to both. I questioned if this roster had a second defensive end on the roster that could truly impact an NFL game, but after watching the game last night there are multiple players with big motors that can have a huge impact along with Garrett.
The defense was always going to be the strength of the Browns for the 2025 season, but we leave Week 1 of the preseason feeling even better about that unit.
