Dawgs By Nature
The Cleveland Browns have officially acquired CB Tyson Campbell in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Wednesday night. The Browns traded CB Greg Newsome and a 2026 6th-round pick to the Jaguars for Campbell and a 2026 7th-round pick. Though it’s a tad bittersweet to see Newsome leave, the team believes that Campbell is a much better fit for what Jim Schwartz and Cleveland’s defense does on a down-by-down basis.
Campbell’s top-notch physicality at both the line of scrimmage and at the catch point were two of the biggest factors in why Andrew Berry and Co. pushed for the swap. At 6’1”, 195 pounds, Tyson Campbell has the type of above-average arm length, wingspan, and aggressiveness that the Browns have grown to love over the past few seasons at cornerback.
It’s fairly obvious that they value these types of players over the smaller, twitchier-type of guys like Newsome, who rely on recovery speed and “ball skills” to break up passes downfield.
Campbell is a much, much better schematic fit for the team in comparison to Newsome, and his presence will also allow Denzel Ward to stick to the boundary side of the field (where he’s at his best), as Campbell is a career-field or outside corner.
Tyson Campbell is also one of the best tackling cornerbacks in the league, and he continues to be an asset against the run regardless of where he lines up. Jacksonville even played him in the box quite a bit in obvious run situations. His average tackling grade of 75.4 is top 5 in the league, and his overall run defense grade of 87.7 is second to none as well.
Though Campbell isn’t as position-flexible as Newsome or Ward, he’ll allow the defense to get back to doing what it wants to do with the type of personnel that it wants to do it with in the secondary. The Browns had a tough time dealing with the injury to Martin Emerson Jr. over the first part of the year, and now they’ll be able to feel confident at that spot going forward.
Campbell could also end up being cheaper for the team over the next few seasons, as Newsome was in a contract year, and will most likely want a higher base salary amount than Campbell is currently working with in 2026 and beyond.
Overall, this wasn’t the type of trade that could be subjected to the argument of “If Campbell was so good, then why did Jacksonville get rid of him?”. It’s simply a preferred personnel-type/scheme fit move that could end up coming with the bonus of being less expensive for Cleveland over the course of Campbell’s second contract.
Browns fans should be excited about the fact that pressing at the LOS could be more effective as well with Campbell’s physicality and length when dealing with bigger, AFC North-style wide receivers like Tee Higgins and D.K. Metcalf going forward.
This was an A+ move for Cleveland on paper. Let’s hope it plays out...
