The Cleveland Browns are 2-1 following a 21-18 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 3, and the home opener delivered exactly what fans wanted to see: a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter to move above .500 on the year. 

Three games into the 2026 season, we have a pretty good idea of what this Browns team wants to look like. The offense is building around its young playmakers, and the results are making one veteran’s role impossible to justify.

Cleveland’s young core is the future

Even if quarterback Deshaun Watson isn’t necessarily the quarterback of the future, the Browns have a plethora of playmakers under 25 years old who are going to be around for the foreseeable future.

Wide receivers Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion, tight end Harold Fannin Jr., and running back Quinshon Judkins are the future of this Cleveland offense. The Browns revamped their wide receiver room in the offseason in a major way with Boston and Concepcion brought in to be the top two playmakers at the position, and Fannin Jr. is also a top-3 pass catcher on this team at tight end.

That leaves wide receiver Jerry Jeudy as the odd man out.

Jerry Jeudy’s production has fallen off a cliff

Jeudy has been targeted just once in the past two weeks and didn’t have a single target against Carolina despite being on the field for 30 pass-play snaps. He is the team’s third receiver at this point, and the Browns could take either Isaiah Bond or Tylan Wallace, fit them into that role, and lose nothing.

Jeudy is 27 years old, and his production in Cleveland has cratered. After a down year in 2025 where he had 602 receiving yards, Jeudy has just two catches for 26 yards so far this season and is on pace for his worst season as a pro. In 2024, Jeudy was a Pro Bowl-level player in a career year with 1,229 receiving yards and four touchdowns, but he hasn’t seen that kind of production since. It can’t be blamed on quarterback play when other players are making plays around him.

Jeudy is making $17.5 million a season and is signed with the Browns through the 2027 season. If Cleveland can find a trade partner for the veteran wide receiver, it makes all the sense in the world to move him now. He’s making a lot of money to have no production.

The timing matters. You probably don’t want to make this move on a short week and change things up heading into an AFC North game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. The Browns should make this move after the Steelers game during their mini bye week before they come back out in Week 5 and play the New York Jets on the road.

Cleveland has positioned itself to make Jeudy expendable, and he doesn’t look like he’s going to be much of a factor for the Browns this season. If they can get anything at all for him, it would be a win. It’s a move that needs to be made by general manager Andrew Berry.