BEREA — Andrew Berry needed a new phrase.
After spending the beginning of the offseason talking about having perhaps the youngest roster in the NFL in 2026, the Browns general manager would defend the construction by saying “young doesn’t necessarily equal bad.” Knowing he’d be asked the youth question again Thursday, he came to the news conference with a statistic and a better line.
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“I was looking at the seven teams that were the youngest last year, including Green Bay, who’s always young, Philadelphia, who won their division, Seattle, who won the Super Bowl, and it included Baltimore,” Berry said before the second practice of training camp. “So I don’t think that has to be a cop-out for expectation or performance.”
But with a rookie draft class of 10 and the potential for 15 second-year players to make the 53-man regular-season roster, Berry isn’t making any bold predictions.
“Our goal going into the season is to be a tough and competitive team that develops and plays its best football towards the end,” he said. “If we can focus on the narrow set of things within our control — how we prepare every day, how we organize, things of that nature — then we believe we’re gonna be happy with what the end of the year looks like.”
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The Browns went 3-14 in 2024 and 5-12 last season, after which coach Kevin Stefanski was fired and Berry was given more power. Todd Monken was hired as coach, and the internal expectation is the team is on the upswing.
“We’re really excited about this core,” Berry said. “We’ve got a group of young players we’ve invested in, that we anticipate growing and developing over the course of the year, with the veteran infrastructure.
“I feel really good about the coaching staff we have in place and certainly see their vision for how they want to play the roster, and now we’ve got to go out and do it.”
The backdrop to training camp, the season and every move Berry makes is the blockbuster June 1 trade of NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Rams. He’s the best defensive player in franchise history and set the NFL season sack record with 23 last season.
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The trade of a player of that magnitude, coupled with the concerted effort to get younger, usually signals a total rebuild. The Browns got replacement defensive end Jared Verse in the Garrett trade, but the rest of the package was a first-round draft pick in 2027, a second-rounder in ’28 and a third-rounder in ’29. At least one eye was squarely on the future.
Then Berry opened camp by signing cornerback Denzel Ward (two years, $62.2 million, $52.3 million guaranteed) and safety Grant Delpit (three years, $48 million, $35 million guaranteed) to contract extensions. Ward had two years left on his deal and Delpit one.
Browns GM Andrew Berry on extensions for Denzel Ward and Grant Delpit. pic.twitter.com/ANqRk99aNy
— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) July 30, 2026
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Berry explained why he didn’t go with a complete teardown.
“The big thing, going back to the Myles decision, is that wasn’t Plan A going into the offseason,” he said. “I’d categorize that as ‘hey, this is a unique opportunity that we didn’t necessarily anticipate doing or being available to us.’ So making that trade didn’t fundamentally alter our approach to team building from that point forward.
“Denzel and Grant are in the primes of their careers — they’re high-level players, they’re high-level people. Those are the types we want to continually make investments in.”
Ward, Delpit and Monken took the extensions as evidence the Browns are trying to win in the present and future.
“We’re in the business of having good football players, that’s just the way it is,” Monken said. “Those guys are still really good players, playing at a high level, and the money isn’t for what they’ve done, it’s for what we anticipate.
“Older players you don’t believe in get one-year contracts year after year. Guys you really believe in who are still playing at a high level get multiyear deals.”
Delpit will turn 28 in September, and Ward turned 29 in April. Berry repeatedly emphasized that’s not old, even if it is by comparison on the Browns roster.
“When you have Denzel and Grant, who are top-level players and top-level people, they end up being kind of like tentpoles within your organization and within your roster,” Berry said. “So it’s a luxury and incredibly valuable to have when you construct the team. And both of those guys are homegrown, too.”
Delpit used LeBron James’ family to describe the dynamic on the Browns.
“We got a lot of Bronnies on the team. A lot of Bronnies. We the Brons, I feel like,” he said of him and Ward. “It’s a young team, man. And I feel like I’m not old. I just been here for a little while.
“So just them young guys, they have so much energy and we’re going to use that in a positive way. So it’s like just trying to show them the path, guide them on the right way, but at the same time, still be who they are, because that’s why you’re here.”
Ward added the acquisition of Verse proved the Browns aren’t trying to tank and are “still competing to win.”
“Myles Garrett is obviously Myles Garrett. He’s going to be who he is, but we still a talented team and got talented players,” Ward said. “We just got to go show that and play together.”
Berry acknowledged the “difficult decisions” made the last two offseasons in an attempt to set up the franchise for “sustained success.” He expects to see the pain become progress.
“We can’t wait to get ramped up and go. Part of the reason we’re really excited is because we expect this to be a very competitive camp from top to bottom on the roster,” he said. “But we’re really excited about the young core that we have in place on both sides of the ball and are looking forward to seeing them grow and develop over the next several weeks.”
Browns GM Andrew Berry expects a highly competitive camp and is excited about it. pic.twitter.com/cMhaUCWdBi
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