Cedric Tillman – Cleveland Browns WR Profile, Career Stats, and What Happens in 2026
Cedric Tillman has caught 71 passes for 833 yards across three NFL seasons. That’s a WR118, WR90, WR98 sequence in fantasy terms – which tells you almost everything about where he stands. He’s not a bust. He’s not irrelevant. He’s a 6’3″, 215-pound wide receiver who has shown genuine big-play ability in flashes, been hurt at the worst possible moments, and is now heading into a contract year with more competition around him than at any point since he was drafted.
His full name is Cedric Jashon Tillman. He was born April 19, 2000, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He wears #19 for Cleveland. His father, Cedric Tillman Sr., played wide receiver in the NFL from 1992 to 1995 – four seasons split between the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars after being selected in the 11th round of the 1992 draft. His older brother Jamir played at Navy from 2013 to 2016 and was the team’s leading receiver. This is a football family, and Cedric has known since childhood what an NFL career looks like from close range.
Before Cleveland: Bishop Gorman, Nevada, and Five Years at Tennessee
He grew up in Las Vegas and attended Bishop Gorman High School, which has become one of the better football programs in the country. From there he committed to Tennessee, where he’d spend five seasons – longer than most players stay – and become one of just four lettermen from Nevada in the program’s history.
His first three years were mostly developmental. A catch for minus-three yards in 2018. Four catches for 60 yards in 2019. Three catches in 2020, limited by the COVID-shortened season. Then 2021 happened.
He caught 64 passes for 1,081 yards and 12 touchdowns. Tennessee hadn’t seen a 1,000-yard receiver since Justin Hunter in 2012, and Tillman didn’t just clear that bar, he cleared it with a stretch at the end of the season that’s still one of the better runs in recent Vols history. He caught a touchdown pass in seven consecutive games – a school record – and logged four straight 100-yard games to close the year. Fifth in the SEC in receiving yards. Third in touchdowns. Yards per catch: 16.9.
In Vols single-season annals, his 12 touchdown catches rank tied for second. The only player he’s tied with is Cedrick Wilson, from 2000. Mentors during his Tennessee years included Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway, and Josh Palmer – all current NFL players who came through the same program – and he earned his undergraduate degree in communication studies in December 2021, midway through his college career.
Then 2022. An ankle injury in the early part of the season limited him to six games and 37 catches for 417 yards. That injury almost certainly cost him draft positioning. A healthy 2022 season, coming off what he showed in 2021, likely would have put him in the second round. Maybe the first.
The 2023 NFL Draft and What Cleveland Saw
He checked in at the combine at 6’3″ and 215 pounds. His 40 time was 4.54. Vertical jump: 37 inches. Broad jump: 10 feet 8 inches. For a receiver his size, those numbers pointed to a red zone weapon who could also stretch the field. The Browns agreed.
Cleveland selected him in the third round, 74th overall. The pick came as part of a trade with the Jets that also brought Elijah Moore to Cleveland. The Browns gave up a second-round pick (42nd overall) to make it work, which suggests they valued the package – Moore plus Tillman – more than they valued a single higher selection. At the time, with Deshaun Watson under center and a rebuilt roster supposed to be competing, the thinking was that Tillman could develop into a red zone weapon while other receivers handled volume.
He signed a four-year, $5.61 million contract in May of 2023. His base salary in 2026 – his fourth and final year – is approximately $1.7 million. After this season, he hits unrestricted free agency.
Three NFL Seasons: What Actually Happened
His rookie year was not the disaster it might look like on paper. He caught 21 of 44 targets for 224 yards in 14 games – numbers that don’t jump off a page, but he was working in a dysfunctional offense, a hip injury cost him three games in October, and the quarterback situation in Cleveland was already starting to fracture. Watson’s health was becoming a persistent problem. Tillman started three games and never quite found rhythm.
2024 was the year that matters most when you’re trying to figure out what he actually is. Week 7: the Browns traded Amari Cooper to Buffalo. Suddenly Tillman had a starting role. Over the next three weeks, he caught 21 passes for 255 yards and two scores – a stretch that had fantasy managers scrambling to their waiver wires. His best single game came October 7 against Baltimore, when he hauled in seven catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns, including a 38-yard game-winner with 1:37 left. He also set a career high with eight catches against Cincinnati on October 20.
He finished 2024 with 29 receptions for 339 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games. The ankle injury late in December placed him on IR before he could build further. The full-season numbers look modest. The mid-season stretch didn’t.
2025 was harder to watch. The Browns cycled through Dillon Gabriel, Joe Flacco, and Shedeur Sanders at quarterback – none of them consistently functional – and Tillman managed 21 catches for 270 yards and two touchdowns in 13 games. He had five catches total over the final seven weeks. His two longest plays of the season came in consecutive games late in the year, including a 42-yard catch against Pittsburgh in Week 17, which at least confirmed the speed and separation were still there. A hamstring injury in September had placed him on IR again, costing him four weeks, and a concussion and rib injury in December cost him more time near the finish line.
Three seasons. Seventy-one catches. 833 yards. Five touchdowns. Average of 11.7 yards per reception, which is actually fine for a WR2 – it’s not like he’s been catching short routes and falling down. The production just hasn’t been consistent enough to make him a reliable starter in anyone’s real-life or fantasy lineup. What bothers me when I look at the full picture is that he’s never had a full healthy season behind a stable quarterback. Not once in three years. So the question of what Cedric Tillman actually is as an NFL receiver remains genuinely open.
Career Stats at a Glance
| Year | G | GS | Targets | Rec | Yds | Avg | Long | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 14 | 3 | 44 | 21 | 224 | 10.7 | 23 | 0 |
| 2024 | 11 | 6 | – | 29 | 339 | 11.7 | 38 | 3 |
| 2025 | 13 | 10 | – | 21 | 270 | 12.9 | 42 | 2 |
| Career | 38 | 19 | – | 71 | 833 | 11.7 | 42 | 5 |
The Injury Pattern Is Hard to Dismiss
Hip, 2023. Hamstring, 2024. Hamstring again in September 2025, landing him on IR for four weeks. Concussion and ribs in December 2025. That’s four significant injury events across three seasons, all soft tissue or contact-based, none of them individually catastrophic but collectively devastating in terms of momentum. Every time he’s started to build something, something breaks the sequence.
The hamstring issue appearing twice is worth watching going into 2026. The first one was Week 4 of 2025 against Detroit – he’d caught 11 passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the four games before that, leading the team in targets alongside Jerry Jeudy. Then the injury, four weeks of IR, and when he returned the offense had reshuffled around him. That’s the kind of timing that can define or derail a contract year.
The 2026 Browns Receiver Room and Where Tillman Fits
Jerry Jeudy is WR1. That’s settled. The 2026 NFL Draft made everything else more complicated.
Cleveland used two of their first three picks on wide receivers: KC Concepcion from Texas A&M and Denzel Boston from Washington. Both are highly regarded prospects. Isaiah Bond, a rookie who led the team in targets and receiving yards on the day Tillman got hurt in Week 4 of 2025, is also in the room. So is David Njoku at tight end competing for targets in the passing game.
That puts Tillman at WR3 or WR4 on paper, though the Browns would probably say WR2 competition. He has experience Boston and Concepcion don’t have. He’s been in this system longer than anyone at the position other than Jeudy. Those things matter in the preseason and early in a regular season when rookies are still learning NFL speed. Whether they matter by Week 8 is a different question.
His physical tools haven’t disappeared. The 42-yard catch in Week 17 of 2025 was a clean route, full speed, quarterback hit him in stride. He’s 26 years old. The size (6’3″), hands, and ability to get open downfield over linebackers in the red zone are real. The Browns didn’t cut him this spring; they’re heading into summer with him on the roster and presumably a path to meaningful snaps if he stays healthy.
Fantasy Football Value in 2026
Redraft leagues: he’s a free add in most formats. The upside is real enough – if Jeudy misses time or if the Browns’ new coaching staff finds ways to use Tillman’s size – but counting on him as a weekly starter is a bad plan given everything in the three sections above. FantasyPros calls him “boom-bust going into 2026.” That’s about right.
Dynasty leagues are where it gets harder. FantasyData put it plainly: “nothing he’s shown before or since has indicated a need to keep him rostered anywhere outside of the deepest dynasty leagues.” He’s ranked WR118, WR90, and WR98 in his three seasons – a player who exists in fantasy, just not meaningfully. With rookie drafts approaching and Boston and Concepcion entering the picture, dynasty managers facing roster crunches have reasonable cause to move on. His ADP in 2026 redraft reflects this: he’s barely being drafted.
The one scenario that changes the math is simple: injuries ahead of him on the depth chart, early-season usage data showing the Browns leaning on his size in two-minute situations or near the goal line, and a quarterback who can actually deliver the ball consistently. All three happening at once is a lot to ask.
Contract Year, Free Agency, and What Comes Next
His four-year, $5.61 million rookie deal expires after this season. Base salary in 2026 is roughly $1.7 million. After that he’s an unrestricted free agent, 26 years old, with a 2021 college season that showed a ceiling and three NFL years that showed a floor.
The Browns haven’t extended him, which is not a surprise given the draft investments at the position. A strong 2026 – say, 50 catches, 600 yards, four or five touchdowns, full health – would get him a second contract somewhere. Whether it’s in Cleveland or elsewhere is secondary to whether the season happens at all without another injury or another quarterback disaster swallowing his targets.
He’s worth watching in training camp. The new coaching staff will make decisions about the receiver room by late August, and where Tillman lines up in those first preseason games, how many first-team reps he’s getting, will tell you more than any depth chart release. His brother Jamir knows what it’s like to fight for a roster spot. His father knows what it’s like to be cut after a few seasons and move on. Whether Cedric has a different story is being written right now, in the final year of a contract that almost nobody saw coming when he ran 16.9 yards per catch for a Tennessee offense that briefly made him look like a first-round receiver.
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