Carson Schwesinger

58 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 11 TFLs as a rookie — top-3 among all 2025 rookies in tackles.

Cleveland took Schwesinger in Round 2 of the 2025 draft out of UCLA, and he's delivered immediate production. The 58 tackles rank him 3rd among all 2025 rookies, and 11 TFLs from an off-ball LB is elite rate-of-disruption work for a first-year player. 2.5 sacks plus 9 QB hits stamps him as a real blitzing threat, not just a downhill thumper.

Top-3 rookie tackler in 2025 — behind only Emmanwori and Woodson.

Among 2025 rookies, only two safeties (Emmanwori, Woodson) have more tackles. Among rookie linebackers specifically, Schwesinger leads or trails only Demetrius Knight Jr. by a single tackle — and Knight Jr. has 0.5 more sacks.

The Browns drafted him as a coverage LB, but the production line says he's playing the run at a comparable level too.

11 TFLs as a rookie — a top-15 mark in the entire league at LB.

11 TFLs from an LB is genuinely rare for a rookie. The number drops further when you realize he was getting most of his snaps next to veteran NFL LBs (Cleveland's defense is built around Garrett, with the LB room as a younger group around him).

For context, league-wide 15+ TFL seasons from an off-ball LB are typically the markers of a Pro-Bowl-tier player. Schwesinger is on a per-game TFL rate that projects to 14-15 over a full healthy 17 games — without any of the snap volume of a Day 1 starter.

2.5 sacks + 11 TFLs — the kind of Year-1 rate of disruption that hits Pro-Bowl-track LBs do.

The disruption profile — 2.5 sacks, 9 QB hits, 11 TFLs — adds up to 22.5 "behind-the-line" events in a rookie season where Schwesinger wasn't even guaranteed to be an every-down player.

The Browns' defensive coordinator has rotated him in coverage, on the blitz, and as a downhill run-fitter. The 3 PDs also indicate he's not a liability when he drops — a multi-tool rookie LB built for modern defenses.

Just one season in the books — and it's the kind of rookie line you build a defense around.

Cleveland's recent draft hits at LB have been inconsistent at best — the franchise hadn't drafted an impact LB in the first two rounds since the early-2000s. The Schwesinger pick was a swing on a UCLA prospect with elite testing and instincts but limited NFL-tape production.

Through one season, the call is paying off: 58 tackles, 11 TFLs, 2.5 sacks with an obvious 3-down profile. The arc to watch in Year 2 is whether he becomes the defensive captain the Browns have been building toward, alongside Garrett.