July 30: Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said that Emerson has beeen diagnosed with a torn Achilles, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The injury is all but certain to sideline the fourth-year cornerback for the entire 2025 season, which will tank his free agency stock next spring.
July 29: Martin Emerson did not finish practice for the Browns on Tuesday, being carted off, and it does not look like the young cornerback will be ready to return anytime soon.
An MRI will be conducted to determine the damage of an Achilles injury Emerson sustained, but NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport report the tests are expected to reveal a significant tear. This would threaten to sideline Emerson for the season, with ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler indicating the team is not optimistic here. As Emerson was carted off, Garafolo adds Jimmy Haslam received a seemingly negative update from Browns trainers.
This was to be an important season for Emerson; his rookie contract expires at year’s end. The Browns have used the former third-round pick mostly as an outside corner. This injury stands to impact Emerson’s free agency value while hurting a Cleveland defense that needs to prop up an offense carrying major questions. From 2022-24, Emerson had missed one game.
Emerson had usurped Greg Newsome as the Browns’ No. 2 corner, outsnapping the older cover man in 2023 and ’24. The Browns have not conducted known extension talks with Emerson, who turns 25 later this year, but he naturally would have drawn such interest even with Denzel Ward‘s big-ticket deal on the payroll. In light of Tuesday’s setback, Newsome figures to go from trade chip to back in the team’s good graces.
Newsome trade buzz circulated last year and resurfaced around the draft. Cleveland having Emerson contracted would have helped the team stomach trading its third CB regular, as Newsome is attached to a higher salary ($13.38MM) due to being on a fifth-year option. Suddenly, Newsome figures to be a far more important player on Jim Schwartz‘s latest Browns defense. The Newsome trade buzz also emerged before it was known the Browns were not, in fact, taking WR/CB Travis Hunter second overall. Though, a summer report also indicated a trade could remain in play. Newsome now looks set to play out his rookie contract in Cleveland.
Pro Football Focus did not have a high opinion of Emerson’s 2024 work. The advanced metrics site graded him as a bottom-10 corner last year; Newsome, though, checked in only five spots higher (106th). PFF had a higher opinion of Emerson’s work in 2023 (67th) and 2022 (23rd). Nik Needham, Tony Brown and 2023 fifth-round pick Cameron Mitchell reside as backup options for the Browns. A former Dolphins regular, Needham has extensive slot and boundary experience.
If the Browns want to shop for a new third option, Rasul Douglas and Asante Samuel Jr. remain available. As does Stephon Gilmore, who is looking to play a 14th season. Low expectations for this Browns edition may deter Gilmore, but a vacancy now exists. Kendall Fuller, who has slot and perimeter experience, is also a free agent. The Dolphins took Jack Jones and Mike Hilton off the market last weekend.
Sometimes you just want to feel sorry for the Browns.
Sometimes.
Not very often, mind you.
Or maybe just feel sorry for their fans (60 years myself), who stay loyal but keep getting put through this crap.
The Browns organization and fans went out of their way to “disrespect” Art Modell when he passed away. No matter what his failings were as an owner you have to be scum to behave in that manner. The Browns fans suffering is karma in action.
I think I’ve kinda soured on what exactly is disrespecting these days.
I feel like that word is used a thousand times more than it once was.
Im not even sure that there is anywhere near a consensus on what it means anymore.
Are you for real???? Browns fans have always faithfully supported the team, regardless of how bad they are, and consistently supported and sold out games before Modell pulled the team out of Cleveland, due to his own exceptionally poor business acumen. Browns fans consistently showed “respect” with their hard-earned dollars year after year after year when Modell owned the team, before he broke our hearts and ran for the biggest bag of money he could in Baltimore. He insisted on his son David eventually owning the team, instead of selling the team to Al Lerner and keeping the franchise in Cleveland. Browns fans rightfully have disdain for Modell. He doesn’t deserve your undying love because he won a Super Bowl in the 8 years of his Ravens ownership, as compared to 35 years in Cleveland that Browns fans endured with him. Your take demonstrates complete ignorance about the subject on which you comment.
When I’m ignorant on a subject I can still look at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t do that if I was a lowlife scumbag who dances on people’s graves while the family of the deceased is still in mourning.
Absolutely never lol. They deserve the worst as an organization. The fans should’ve changed their loyalty decades ago.
This is kind of an unnecessarily crappy way to frame this story. Though it’s factually true, there was probably a more humane message available than:
“Young player to face months of painful rehab, career and potential future earnings likely to plunge.”
There are a lot of guys getting season ending injuries at a pace i don’t remember before. They all seem to be non contact.