BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Shedeur Sanders has commanded most of the attention and national spotlight when it comes to the Cleveland Browns rookie class.
However, all seven players in Cleveland's 2025 draft class have seen significant playing time this season.
Going into Sunday's finale at Cincinnati, the Browns are on pace to be only the second team in the Super Bowl era to have rookies lead the team in passing, rushing and receiving yards.
The only other team to have achieved that is the 1968 Buffalo Bills, who went 1-12-1 and lost the final eight games of the season. The Browns are 4-12, a one-win improvement from 2024.
“They don’t approach it like rookies. This is not a group where I’ve had to be chasing them around the building to get them to do something or their focus is not where it needs to be," coach Kevin Stefanski said.
"Forget how good of players they are, this is as diligent a group of workers that I’ve ever been around. And I think that’s a testament to these players. I think it’s a testament to (general manager) Andrew (Berry) and crew identifying these players. I think it’s a testament to their coaches and how they develop them. This is a group that loves to work, loves to compete, loves to be out there with their teammates and is willing to do anything that they have to do.”
Second-round pick Carson Schwesinger, the linebacker and 33rd overall pick, leads NFL rookies in tackles (156) and tackles for loss (11). He is also the first rookie since Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson in 2022 to have at least 2 1/2 sacks and two interceptions.
Schwesinger has played in all 16 games despite playing through a pair of injuries. He suffered a high ankle sprain during a Week 8 game at New England and played through a calf injury last week.
“I think, for me, whether it’s good or bad, I tend to do the best when I don't think about the attention. I think when you try to focus on stats or awards or things like that, it takes away from why I’m really playing this game and what I love to do,” Schwesinger said about possible offseason accolades.
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz also lauded Schwesinger's toughness and his ability to continue to play well.
“I think some of the plays that I think he’s played the best are plays that you guys might not notice, because he’ll take something away in the passing game or he’ll play perfectly in the run game and somebody else will make the play. Really a cement block for our defense and I think defensive rookie of the year,” Schwartz said.
Mason Graham, the fifth overall pick, has also excelled on the defensive line. The defensive tackle has seven tackles for loss, tied for fifth among rookies, along with 45 tackles and half a sack.
Sanders is 2-4 and averaging 207 passing yards per game in his six starts. He has played behind a makeshift offensive line, but has also had to adjust after losing his top two playmakers the past two weeks.
Running back Quinshon Judkins, who was selected just after Schwesinger as the 36th pick, suffered a broken leg during the second quarter against Buffalo on Dec. 21. He finished the season with 827 rushing yards, fifth most by a Browns rookie in a season, along with seven touchdowns. Both are third among NFL rookies.
Tight end Harold Fannin Jr., a third-round pick, leads league rookies in receptions (72), is tied for second in receiving scores (six) and fourth in receiving yards (731).
However, Fannin is questionable for Sunday because of a nagging groin injury that first occurred in practice on Dec. 26.
Running back Dylan Sampson, who was selected in the fourth round, picked up some of the slack in last week's win over the Steelers with 27 rushing yards. He also has three games this season with at least 50 scrimmage yards. Sampson's 66-yard touchdown catch on a screen pass at Las Vegas in Sanders' first NFL start is the Browns longest play of the season.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel went 1-5 in six starts. The third-round pick had a passer rating over 80 in four of his starts, but struggled with throwing the deep ball.
“It is unique with how many of us are contributing, but it’s not even something we think about at this point in the season,” Sampson said. “We're trying to wrap this season up and just continue to make it strides and growing in this league.”
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) throws to tight end Harold Fannin Jr. (44) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Cleveland, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Browns tight end Harold Fannin Jr. (44) celebrates with teammate quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) after catching a touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
FILE - Cleveland Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger (49) warms up before an NFL football game, Dec. 28, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Durisko, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city's striving, struggling working class.
Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall just after midnight, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath as the city's first Muslim mayor.
After working part of the night in his new office, Mamdani then returned to City Hall in a taxi cab around midday Thursday for a grander public inauguration where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes, administered the oath for a second time.
“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,” Mamdani told a cheering crowd.
“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives," he said.
Throngs turned out in the frigid cold for an inauguration viewing party just south of City Hall on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.
Throughout the ceremony, Mamdani and other speakers hit on the theme that carried him to victory in the election: Devotion to using government power to lift up the millions of people who struggle with the city's high cost of living.
Mamdani peppered his remarks with references to those New Yorkers, citing workers in steel-toed boots, halal cart vendors “whose knees ache from working all day” and cooks “wielding a thousand spices."
"I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed ‘radical.’”
Before administering the oath, Sanders told the crowd that most of the things Mamdani wants to do — including raising taxes on the rich — aren't radical at all.
“In the richest country in the history of the world, making sure that people can live in affordable housing is not radical,” he told the crowd. “It is the right and decent thing to do.”
Mamdani was accompanied on the stage by his wife, Rama Duwaji. The previous mayor, Eric Adams, was in attendance, sitting near another former mayor, Bill de Blasio.
Actor Mandy Patinkin, who recently hosted Mamdani to celebrate Hannukah, sang “Over the Rainbow” with children from an elementary school chorus. The invocation was given by Imam Khalid Latif, the director of the Islamic Center of New York City. Poet Cornelius Eady read an original poem called “Proof."
In addition to being the city's first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.
At the watch party on Broadway, onlookers stood shoulder to shoulder gazing up at several jumbotrons and singing and dancing to stave off the cold, with some passing out hot cocoa and hand warmers. Many described feeling as though they were witnessing history.
Among them was Ariel Segura, a 16-year-old Bronx resident, who had arrived five hours earlier to secure a place near the front of the crowd.
“I’m out here fan-girling a politician, it’s kind of crazy,” he said, wiping away tears as Mamdani concluded his speech. “Now it’s time to hold him accountable.”
In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, Mamdani ran on a focused platform that included promises of free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.
Mamdani insisted in his inaugural address that he will not squander his opportunity to implement those policies.
“A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are on the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition," he said.
But he will also have to face other responsibilities: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.
In opening remarks to the crowd, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised New Yorkers for choosing “courage over fear.”
"We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few,” she said.
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.
He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.
Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, are departing their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.
Mamdani inherits a city on the upswing, after years of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic lows. Tourists are back. Unemployment, which soared during the pandemic years, is also back to pre-COVID levels.
Yet deep concerns remain about high prices and rising rents.
During the mayoral race, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city.
But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to the White House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.
“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.
Still, tensions between the two leaders are almost certain to resurface, given their deep policy disagreements, particularly over immigration.
Several speakers at Thursday's inauguration criticized the Trump administration's move to deport more immigrants and expressed hope that Mamdani's City Hall would be an ally to those the president has targeted.
Mamdani also faces skepticism and opposition from some members of the city’s Jewish community over his criticisms of Israel’s government.
Still, Mamdani supporters in Thursday's crowd expressed optimism he'd be a unifying force.
“There are moments where everyone in New York comes together, like when the Mets won the World Series in ’86,” said Mary Hammann, 64, a musician with the Metropolitan Opera. “This feels like that — just colder.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. administers the oath of office to Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji holds the Quran during Mamdani's inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after speaking during his inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (Amir Hamja/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
People wait in the cold near City Hall before Zohran Mamdani's inauguration as mayor on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after arriving for his swearing-in ceremony as Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, greets New York Attorney General Letitia James before the swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and his wife Rama Duwaji, arrive for Mamdani's public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, prepare to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony in the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Zohran Mamdani reacts after being sworn in as mayor of New York inside the the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks after taking the oath of office, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Attorney General Letitia James left, prepares to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji, looks on, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, administers the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, as his wife Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
