A former collegiate walk-on has earned one of the NFL's most prestigious honors.
Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger was named the 2025 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year on Thursday at NFL Honors in San Francisco.
Schwesinger was the second Cleveland defender to earn accolades on Thursday after Myles Garrett was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year. Schwesinger, who received 40 of 50 first-place votes, and Garrett are the first teammates to win both rookie and DPOY since Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis did so for the Ravens in 2003. The Seahawks' Nick Emmanwori earned seven first-place votes with the Falcons' James Pearce Jr. (two) and Xavier Watts (one) receiving the other first-place votes.
The 33rd-overall pick of the 2025 draft, Schwesinger rose from anonymity as a walk-on at UCLA to first-team All-Big Ten in 2024, boosting his stock ahead of his jump to the NFL. Needing a linebacker following Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah's serious neck injury, Cleveland took a swing on Schwesinger with the first pick of the second round, surprising many before watching its investment pay off in his first season.
An athletic linebacker with natural instincts and physical tools to close on ball carriers, Schwesinger quickly earned the appreciation of Browns fans and the respect of those across the league as a rookie, piling up 156 tackles -- good for sixth in the NFL -- including 11 for loss, 2.5 sacks, three passes defensed, two interceptions and a Pro Football Focus grade that ranked him 21st among all linebackers in the NFL in 2025. He also proved himself as an ironman of sorts, playing 97% of Cleveland's total defensive snaps (956) and pushing through a quadriceps injury in his final game of the season, a Week 17 win over the rival Pittsburgh Steelers, before landing on injured reserve for Week 18.
In the first two months of his NFL career, Schwesinger won the hearts of Browns fans who were quick to draw comparisons to another legendary Browns linebacker of a past era, Clay Matthews Jr., a fellow Los Angeles product who joined the Browns as a first-round pick in 1978 after spending his collegiate years at USC.
It's a high bar to reach for any linebacker, but judging by his performance in his rookie season, such a comparison is fair.
Schwesinger played a key part in Cleveland's fourth-ranked defense and will look to build on his early success in 2026 -- this time, with a new trophy in hand.
