Dawgs By Nature
Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry had a list. Well, more so a manual. It contained jots and notes and basically everything that went wrong with the 2025 season. The issues arose because in the past two seasons, the Browns lost 26 combined games.
Losing 26 out of 34 games ain’t good. That alone can get folks fired from their jobs, and in fact, head coach Kevin Stefanski was canned. And when the head coach is let go, all of his assistants are also released. Talk about an upheaval. Yes, the incoming head coach can retain any of the assistants, but the new coaching staff is usually the guys the new boss has brought in because he has worked with them before on other teams.
RELATED: BROWNS TENDER SIX EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS
Berry was on a mission. And with this undertaking, he had to boldly go where the successful GMs in the league went. Good decisions were a must, and there were a lot of decisions to be made.
The roster needed quite a bit of change.
The general description of the offense? Stink, stank, stunk. They ranked #30 overall. The defense was at a premium and only required a tweak here and there. And with special teams? Everybody returned.
There is a glaring player who nobody is talking about regarding special teams.
Rex Sunahara, age 29, is the Browns’ long snapper. It’s not a sexy position, and one that really nobody discusses until something bad happens. It is truly an invisible position while the game is ongoing.
Sunahara came to Cleveland towards the conclusion of the 2024 training camp and competed against long-term veteran Charley Hughlett. Sunahara was waived on the final cutdown and then signed to the practice squad. When Hughlett was injured in October with a severe rib injury, Sunahara was elevated to the main roster.
LINK: CHARLEY HUGHLETT INTERVIEW
Hughlett had signed a four-year, $5.7 million contract extension in 2022. At the time of the announcement, his signing bonus, guarantee, and overall worth became the largest long snapper deal in NFL history.
But after he was cleared of his injury, the Browns decided to go with the cheaper help and released him. Plainly put, Hughlett spent 10 seasons in Cleveland, and it was a shocking decision for the fanbase. Hughlett had handled snapping duties in every game since the start of the 2015 season and was a dependable tackler.
And so, the Sunahara reign began. He played in 12 games in 2024 and then every game this past season.
During this offseason, he inked a one-year, $1.075 million contract. That increased his salary a smidge after he had gotten a two-year deal originally worth $1.755 million, which had paid him $877,500 a season.
Everything in Sunahara’s universe is rosy and sweet.
For the partial showing in 2024, Sunahara was ranked as the league’s #33 long snapper. Hughlett, who had been snatched up quickly by the Philadelphia Eagles, was ranked #9.
But all of that changed in...
