Wyatt Teller's eight-year run in Cleveland ended not with a ceremonious exit, but with a hard truth. The guard shared an insider’s perspective on how the franchise affected him as a player.

“I feel like, in all honesty, I got a little complacent. You get used to a city, you get used to your routine, everything like that,” he said on June 6.

After six seasons anchoring Cleveland's line, Teller, 31, found himself ranked 40th among guards in 2025. He joined the Browns in 2019 and held a 62.2 overall grade in his last season with them. He played 765 snaps in 2025. 

In his eight-year career, he appeared in 94 Browns games and received three Pro Bowl and two All-Pro nods. Teller's Pro Bowl pedigree stood in stark contrast to the Browns' 3-14 collapse.

Teller, now with Houston, explained his mindset shift after eight years in Cleveland.

“It kind of re-fired me up. End of the year, last year, I'm not going to throw away six years that they treated me unbelievable for six months of indifference or whatever…You don't want to be like, hey, I'm saving it for next year when there could be no next year,” he said in the X post shared by Jacob Barzilla, a Texas content curator. 

Teller was released by the Browns in the offseason and he signed a two-year contract with a $16 million base value with the Texans. He shared that “he no ill will to anybody there,” and started working on shedding away complacency he had developed. 

Wyatt Teller’s Perspective On The Browns' Offense Issues

The Cleveland Browns’ overall offense ranked 30th last season. Their passing offense was among the worst in the league, with just 3,152 cumulative yards. The Browns’ defense had a stellar run and ranked fourth overall (283.6 yards per game).

Yet Wyatt Teller, the Browns' former left guard, offered a more nuanced view.

“It felt like they kind of blamed it on the offensive line, which don't get me wrong. Did we play at our standard? We were the top five offensive line for so long and then kind of drop off. But there were so much issues, you can't point at one thing,” he told Landry Locker originally.

The Browns’ offense last ranked high in 2020 under former head coach Kevin Stefanski. Their graph had been a downward slope since then, which charred Teller’s desire to improve himself. In essence, the Houston Texans are witnessing his growth. 

“Training as hard as I've trained in a long time, kind of getting body fat down, getting weight up, getting back to strength,” he said. “Coach Eubanks here is unbelievable. We had a great strength coach in Cleveland in Larry Jackson, but Mike Eubanks here is the real deal.”

Teller has moved past his slump in the Browns, determined to amp himself up. Are you excited for his new chapter?  

Read more at the Cleveland Browns Community! 

Written by

Akanksha Biradar