The Browns re-signed DT Maurice Hurst II to a one-year deal, keeping a key depth piece of their dominant defense.

"It's everything," Hurst said on re-signing with the Browns. "I feel like I definitely made a home here and I'm really comfortable with the scheme, with the coaches and really love the players, the guys that I got to be next to and work with and a lot of like-minded people. Which has been really awesome for me, personally, just having that that core group of guys to lean on.

"I think that's how every great team is made is by having a great core group of guys," Hurst continued. "And it seems like we're going that route by retaining a lot of our players and just improve on things that we didn't necessarily do well last year. And then also just having greater understanding of the scheme and how teams are trying to attack us."

Hurst played his first season in Cleveland in 2023 and is entering his sixth season out of Michigan. He played in 13 games and recorded a total of 22 tackles, four tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, 1.5 sacks, three passes defensed, one fumble recovery and one interception. Hurst dealt with a pectoral injury and was placed on injured reserve on Dec. 12, ending his season.

He has appeared in 55 career games and recorded 100 tackles, 9.5 sacks, two interceptions and three fumble recoveries.

Now returning for his second season with the Browns in defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz' scheme, Hurst believes they can build off the success of the 2023 season that they experienced defensively. 

"I always say success leads to confidence and then confidence leads to more success," Hurst said. "So just having that confidence in the fact that we know that we're a playoff team. So then, what's the next steps? The next steps is making it further, making it to the Super Bowl. And it's just looking back at what we did during the season and just correcting the things that we feel like we did wrong, correcting the road games where we kind of fell asleep on some of those games and just making those small changes to help make us a championship team and take that next step."