Jake Paul seems to be caught between two worlds. He speaks about making a fight return, claiming he is in talks with potential opponents for a ring or a cage face-off. But he also appears to be eyeing a spot on an NFL team. Considering he suffered a major upset this last December when Anthony Joshua knocked him out and left him with a broken jaw, a comeback to put his fight career back on course makes sense.

But his comments on football appear to suggest he’s decided to change course over to the NFL. In the latest development, Jake Paul spoke about his crossover ambitions, including a potential spot as a slot receiver with the Cleveland Browns. What adds to the intrigue is that Paul views his entry as an answer to what he considers the poor athletic abilities of current NFL players.

“I mean, it’s pretty simple, just like when I started boxing, it’s funny to see the tweet-and-deleters out there,” Paul said in an interview with Front Office Sports. “The nonbelievers, the naysayers—shout out to Drake—I think there’s a lot of super mediocrity in the NFL, a lot of not-good athletes, a lot of people dropping passes on a consistent basis.

“I have better hands than them, I’m faster than them, I’m stronger than them, and I work harder than them. Really, all it’s going to take is just me, after boxing, practicing some routes. I have a couple of teams and coaches that I’ve already talked to that are interested in bringing me on to the team. It’s really going to be quite easy.”

When the interviewer asked if Jake Paul had set his sights on a dream team, the YouTuber-turned-fighter replied, “Cleveland Browns.”

It is difficult to understand what compelled Paul to make such observations. Sticking to his criticisms, league passing yards do seem to have dropped from their highs in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

According to data from Pro-Football Reference, the 2025 season reportedly hit a multi-year low, with league averages dipping to 209.7 passing yards per team game. That marked the lowest overall output in well over a decade.

But does that necessarily mean, as Paul suggested, that the overall standard and the skill set of NFL players are largely responsible for that decline?

While acknowledging the data, some experts argue that the NFL’s passing game may not have necessarily become less efficient. Defenses have become better. They are forcing offenses to earn yards.

Against that backdrop, the bigger question is what Jake Paul, who has no record of having played a professional football game, could actually change.

From the boxing ring to the NFL: What’s Jake Paul really planning?

As far as the fight game is concerned, his aims of becoming a world champion have hit a snag after the AJ loss and the subsequent injury. Still, he has succeeded in establishing himself as one of the sport’s biggest disruptors.

In that context, it is worth asking whether he is trying to make a similar impact in football as well.

Just a month ago, the Cleveland native spoke about his dream to play for Stanford before eventually making it to the NFL.

“I do have NFL aspirations. After boxing, I want to play slot receiver, so I think to get that experience in college first would be good. So I walk onto the Stanford team,” he said in an interview.

But replicating his boxing success in football could be a different challenge, given what Paul has achieved in his short boxing career. Outside of his questionable skills and choice of opponents, he has become one of the biggest draws in recent history. With his Netflix appearances, he can proudly claim to have sparked a new trend that is now being followed by many traditional stakeholders in the sport.

It is possible Paul could be looking at his NFL from that lens. He is from Cleveland. He is hugely popular and can easily sell tickets.

Speaking about the Cleveland Browns, Jake Paul previously signed a promotional contract with the team in 2022, becoming their “Junior Associate Content Manager” from a social media perspective.

Taken together, it’s also hugely possible that Jake Paul could be trolling by speaking about his NFL ambitions.

After all, his elder brother is already involved in a highly publicized feud with NFL icon Tom Brady. Unlike Jake, the WWE superstar has not spoken about pursuing an NFL career. However, he does seem to share his younger brother’s critical view of NFL athletes, saying 99% of them would fail in the WWE ring.

Later developments even saw Logan claim that no NFL player could beat him in a boxing match.

For now, Jake Paul’s comments about the NFL may be best viewed in the same vein.