Foreman: Browns ‘a true contending team’
BEREA — D’Onta Foreman noticed it while he studied film and then felt it in the game.
When Foreman and the Chicago Bears visited the Browns last season, he gained a tremendous amount of respect for Cleveland.
“Just the physicality and everything that they brought when we played against those guys last year, I just knew I’d fit in well,” Foreman told the Beacon Journal on June 12 during mandatory minicamp.
The Browns defeated the Bears 20-17 on Dec. 17, 2023, and their style stuck with Foreman this offseason as he considered his options in free agency.
Foreman explained he has admired Cleveland’s running game for years and thought Jim Schwartz coordinated the best defense in the NFL last season. He said competing against the Browns defense in December was akin to encountering a relentless full-court press on the basketball floor.
“We couldn’t even run the ball,” Foreman said. “We couldn’t get a yard on those guys. It was crazy.”
On March 20, Foreman struck a deal with the Browns after pondering the possibilities with a couple of other freeagency suitors. The one-year contract he signed is worth $1.29 million, according to spotrac.com.
Foreman has forged ahead on his football journey despite tragedies in his personal life. During his final season at the University of Texas in 2016, his infant son died of an infection. In 2021, his father, Darreck Foreman, died in a onevehicle crash after losing control of his Freightliner.
Foreman, 28, has played for four NFL teams in six seasons, appearing in 54 games, including two in the playoffs. He has overcome a torn Achilles tendon suffered in 2017 and persevered after being out of the league for the entire 2019 season.
Through it all, Foreman has yet to experience a deep postseason run.
“I’m at the back end of my career, so I just feel like winning the Super Bowl is everything on my mind right now,” he said. “Anything I could do to help us win a Super Bowl and get to that point is what I’m trying to do.
“I really feel like we have a true contending team, a team that we really can get over the hump and go win a Super Bowl. … Everybody’s hungry, and it’s not like that in every organization. I’ll say that.”
Why Kareem Hunt’s 2023 role could be a logical blueprint for running back D’Onta Foreman and the Cleveland Browns
How the workload is divided among Browns running backs in the coming season will hinge on injury statuses and competition.
Four-time Pro Bowl selection Nick Chubb and March free-agent acquisition Nyheim Hines are attempting comebacks from major knee surgeries. Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr. remain on the Browns roster after appearing in all 17 regular-season games last season.
Ford and Kareem Hunt were the running backs on Jan. 13 in the Browns’ 4514 wild-card playoff loss to the Houston Texans. Strong had a back injury and was inactive. The franchise did not resign Hunt, whose contract expired in March. Hunt thrived in short-yardage situations last season, and Foreman has a reputation for being able to handle those duties with his power.
“He’s a big, physical runner that’s played a lot of football, has had a lot of success and recent success at that,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said June 13 when asked about Foreman, who’s listed as 6 feet and 235 pounds. “So excited to add his skill set, but in terms of roles, it’s just so early to say.”
The Houston Texans drafted D’Onta Foreman the same year they chose Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson in the first round
Since Foreman entered the league as a third-round pick and Texans 2017 draft classmate of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, he has compiled 2,326 yards and 14 touchdowns on 552 carries (4.2 average) to go along with 34 catches for 342 yards and another three TDs in 52 regular-season games, 21 of which he started.
Last season with the Bears, Foreman started eight of his nine games and posted 425 yards and four TDs on 109 carries (3.9 average), plus 11 catches for 77 yards and another TD.
“I think my best attribute is running the ball and just getting downhill, being physical, making the opposing team have to tackle me,” Foreman said. “There’s still room that I could grow, though.”
Foreman pointed out he has played every game in a single season just once in his NFL career. It happened with the Carolina Panthers in 2022, when he started nine of his 17 games and rushed for 914 yards and five touchdowns on 203 carries (4.5 average) and caught five passes for 26 yards.
It’s the only season in which he has tallied at least 200 carries, and it occurred as a byproduct of the Panthers trading Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers in October 2022.
“I don’t feel like I’ve reached my ceiling because I don’t feel like I’ve been able to play a full season from start to finish to where I’m able to show I could be one of those top guys,” Foreman said. “... If I could just get to a point to where I could just really display my ability for a whole season, I think I’d be able to show the world who I am.”
D’Onta Foreman joins a Cleveland Browns running backs room led by star Nick Chubb and assistant coach Duce Staley
In the meantime, Foreman has been trying to get to know his teammates and coaches in Cleveland. He said Chubb is “cool” and new Browns running backs coach Duce Staley is “upbeat.”
Foreman realizes he’ll need to convince the organization he’s worthy of opportunities in his latest NFL home.
“I just got to come out here and prove it every day — who I am and what I am and what I can bring to the team,” Foreman said. “I’m new here, so there’s guys who have been here before me that already were able to kind of put their mark and show what they could do. I’ve just got to come in here and show every day that I could play at a high level and what I bring to the team is dominance.”
The Browns would welcome the evidence.