The Cleveland Browns, widely expected to be among the worst teams in the NFL in 2025, almost got their season started with a win in Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals. Their defense held the potent Bengals offense to just 141 total yards, and 40-year-old Joe Flacco had a solid 290 passing yards. But Cleveland’s running back corps was incompetent on the ground: Dylan Sampson turned his 12 carries into just 29 yards, and Jerome Ford had six carries for eight yards. Sampson did catch all eight of his targets for 64 yards.
Thankfully, the Browns might get a reinforcement headed into their Week 2 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens. Cleveland drafted Quinshon Judkins with the 36th overall pick, but didn’t sign him until last Saturday while he remains under league investigation for domestic battery allegations stemming from a July incident. Judkins is expected to practice with the team for the first time in months tomorrow, and after Friday’s walk-through, the team will determine his availability for Sunday’s contest. The last time the 21-year-old took the field, he was lifting a national championship trophy with Ohio State, culminating a spectacular junior season in which he took 216 total touches for 1,221 yards and 18 scores.
It would be unfair to expect Judkins to immediately translate his college track record into NFL success. Even the Las Vegas Raiders’ Ashton Jeanty, a far more polished prospect, managed just 19 carries for 38 yards in his debut. Judkins was an inconsistent game-to-game player with the Buckeyes, relied more on physicality than finesse, and doesn’t have the ideal speed to outrace pro defenders. He’ll also be sharing a backfield with Ford, who was excellent in limited snaps in 2024, and Sampson, a fourth-round selection. In the long term, Judkins has a good shot at earning the bell cow role, but expecting him to develop chemistry with Flacco and the offensive line in one full practice is unrealistic.
If he suits up, Baltimore would represent an extremely difficult first opponent. Last season, the Ravens allowed just 1,085 rushing yards to running backs — by far the fewest in the league — as well as just eight rushing scores. Baltimore was slightly more exploitable through the air, allowing the fourth-most receiving yards to the position, but that’s more Sampson’s role than Judkins’. James Cook did total 102 yards in the Ravens’ Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills, but 51 of those yards came on a single screen pass, and he was extremely inefficient otherwise.
Judkins will get his opportunities; in Week 3, the Browns will face the Green Bay Packers’ mediocre rush defense. I’d pass on him this week against Baltimore and see what he does before re-assessing next week.
