Breakouts: Cedric Tillman - CLE

Now, I realize the sample size is not that big, but there was a 4-game stretch last season where Cedric Tillman looked like he was about ready to be the breakout star of 2024 at the wide receiver position. Unfortunately, an injury ended up derailing that, but maybe 2025 is exactly what we need.

Cedric Tillman's name didn't really pop up on a whole lot of radars to begin 2024. It wasn't until Week 7 that all of a sudden he was seeing big plays for the Cleveland Browns. And it didn't stop after one week. It was four games of Cedric Tillman showing up as a top fantasy option.

From Weeks 7 through 11, when he played four games, he had 40 targets, 24 receptions, 302 receiving yards, and three touchdowns. His ranks among NFL wide receivers during that time span: 10th in targets, 13th in receptions, and 20th in receiving yards. But it was his big-play ability down the field—during that stretch, he was second in contested catch rate among all wide receivers. And from a fantasy standpoint, he was the WR9.

Again, it is a small sample size and there's no telling what would have happened with Cedric Tillman had he played the rest of the season, but he was clearly becoming a focal point of that offense. And with a lot of attention being paid to other players, Cedric Tillman was a guy that was seeing a lot of one-on-one coverage.

It's really hard to anticipate this type of a projection, but if you take a look at the numbers over four games and spread them out over a 17-game span, that's 170 targets, 102 receptions, over 1,200 receiving yards, and 13 receiving touchdowns. Again, I'm not projecting Cedric Tillman for that—it would have been hard to keep up with that type of a pace—but that just puts into perspective how good he was for four games.

Now, this is where the breakout potential for Cedric Tillman really starts to present itself. Per Matt Harmon over on X (formerly Twitter), who's considered to be one of the wide receiver analyst gurus in the industry, he posted that Cedric Tillman last year had a 70.2% success rate against man coverage.

And it's hard to anticipate any defense playing against the Cleveland Browns doing anything other than man against Cedric Tillman. You've got to pay attention to Jerry Jeudy and you've got to pay attention to David Njoku. Both of those guys are going to have eyes on them.

But the Cleveland Browns are also recommitting to the run game by drafting Quinshon Judkins. So that's also going to put some eyes in the backfield trying to pay attention to the run game as well. That's going to leave Cedric Tillman in some one-on-one man coverage opportunities.

Now, the best shot for Cedric Tillman to see a breakout would definitely be Joe Flacco, but it's going to depend on what Cleveland thinks they have going for them in 2025. It's hard to imagine Kevin Stefanski just bailing on this season. He’s definitely a guy who may be on the hot seat. So if Joe Flacco is his best quarterback, he's going to go with Joe Flacco.

Kenny Pickett might be number two in line, and you could see Shedeur Sanders at some point in time. But Cedric Tillman is going to be the guy that helps stretch the field in this offense. You have to have a guy like that, especially when you have weapons like Jeudy and Njoku who win over the middle of the field and the intermediate routes so well.

Cedric Tillman may not be a consistent option in 2025, and he could end up being like the diet version of Jameson Williams for the Detroit Lions. He's going to have some big games here or there, and in other games, he's going to leave a lot to be desired.

He might be a really good pick for best ball leagues, but if you're looking at the late rounds of your draft and you want to add a high-upside play to your bench, might as well take a shot on Cedric Tillman. And keep your fingers crossed that that big-play ability we saw over the course of four games continues into this season.