How Browns special teams have changed since 2025 Jets debacle
BEREA ― Malachi Corley was on the Browns' roster the last time they played the New York Jets. Ask the wide receiver and special teamer if he was on either the kickoff or punt coverage in that game, and he's quick to answer.
"No, I wasn't," Corley said this week.
The look on Corley's face as he said it sent another message. It was one of, "don't you pin that evil on me."
If you don't recall the last time the Browns and Jets met, exactly 11 months ago in Week 10 of the 2025 season, special teams bore a heaping helping of responsibility for the 27-20 New York win. Cleveland's early 7-0 lead was wiped out in roughly 34 seconds, maybe even less than that when Kene Nwangwu returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, then Isaiah Williams returned a punt 74 yards for another one.
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The Browns return to the Meadowlands in New Jersey this weekend to play the Jets again. The changes specific to the special-teams units have been such that the back-to-back New York returns have little impact as they prepare for this one, other than the massive impact they helped have overhauled the system.
"Schematically, I just think we're a different unit," Corley said. "The individuals on the unit are different. I think that we got a lot of fire and a lot of juice. I think we play with a lot of passion for the game. I think you can tell like even the first tackle that we made as a kickoff unit early, we were getting up dancing and everything like that. I think that this team just has a desire to help this team win. I think that we look at it as, because all of us don't necessarily play strong roles on offense or defense. So I think that all of us see it as us just doing our one of 11th and trying to help the team win."
That loss to the Jets was one of the final nails in Kevin Stefanski's coffin as Browns head coach, and certainly was for special teams coordinator, and former beloved Browns special teams ace, Bubba Ventrone. Stefanski was fired after the season and replaced by Todd Monken, while Ventrone left for the same role with the Los Angeles Rams and was replaced by Byron Storer.
Storer, who was the Green Bay Packers' assistant special teams coordinator for the previous four seasons, comes off the Rich Bissacia tree when it comes to special teams coaches. One of the central premises Bissacia preached was one of the areas the Browns were below average at in 2025.
“I think, coming from a system with Rich Bisaccia, we’ve always been a coverage-based system,' Storer said. "So, in terms of philosophy, we always go over philosophy, who we want to be, and then the very next thing is coverage concepts. … We always start with tackling first. And really for us, it’s making sure that we have landmarks on the field, we expand our coverage, and we have multiple levels of coverage. So, it’s just a constant emphasis from day one until this week, it’s just making sure that we have the correct lane distribution and we have levels of coverage. And if we do that, we feel like we have a good chance of handling any kind of return that we encounter.”
The Browns have allowed opponents to average 25.8 yards on 17 kickoff returns, and 7.6 yards on seven punt returns. The kickoff return average is 19th in the league, but the punt return average is sixth.
That's because of players like Corley, who has seen his offensive role go down significantly this season, but his special teams role jumop because of that. The fourth-year pro, however, admits he enjoys doing the "dirty work."
"It's a difficult mentality to wrap your mind around, but the guys who do do it, you see that they play in the league for a long time," Corley said. "Whether they were a big name person or not, you look around 12 years from now and you see this guy made a play 10 years ago. He's been in the league doing his thing for the whole time. So I think it's just once you get your mind to that place, just knowing that you're adding something to the team and a person that is willing to humble themselves enough, because we all were good players coming out of college, but ultimately somebody has to do all these roles and if you're the person that gets to do it, how lucky are you to have opportunity to play for an NFL team?"
Corley had his hand, literally, in one of the Browns' best special teams plays of the season. Late in the first quarter of Cleveland's Week 4 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, punter Corey Bojorquez punted from the Steelers 43.
The ball headed toward the end zone, but Corley was able to get there and, before stepping on the goal line, bat it backwards into the hands of teammate Daniel Thomas. Thomas ultmately downed the ball at the Pittsburgh 1, setting up a drive that ended with Denzel Ward's game-altering interception four plays later.
Corley's want-to was obviously a big reason why he was able to make that play. However, he also points to the attention to detail that Storer has put into the preparations for those coverage units.
"Coach Storer has just brought in a consistency for us," Corley said. "We're very detail oriented and our practice replicates what we're doing in the game. We're putting plenty of situations whether it be logos on punt or doing plenty of drills before we even start our kickoff period, the kickoff return period, we're doing plenty of drills to hone down on the technique because as wins come and people get satisfied, the level of discipline consistently starts to drop off. And I think that they've done a great job just keeping that pedal to the metal and making us all know that we haven't arrived yet, that there's still plays for us to be made."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: How Browns special teams have changed since 2025 Jets debacle
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