Another Year as a Cleveland Browns Season Ticket Holder
September 2, 2014Akron and Hudson dominate Ohio’s first week of football
September 2, 2014While we were away getting our new look, the Cleveland Browns decided to make a slew of roster moves in attempt to thin their roster down to 53 men. Wide receiver Nate Burleson missed most of training camp and preseason with injury resulting in the team deciding to keep youth and potential over Burleson’s experience as Charles Johnson and Taylor Gabriel both made the squad over Burleson initially. Johnson would later be dropped in favor of LaRon Byrd, who was cut by the Cowboys. Johnson was then signed to the practice squad.
The ‘youth with potential’ strategy carried over to the running back position, where rookies Isaiah Crowell and Glenn Winston made the team over Chris Ogbonnaya and Dion Lewis.
The Browns 53-man roster includes:
Offense (23)
Quarterbacks (2): Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel*
Running Backs (4) : Ben Tate, Terrance West*, Isaiah Crowell*, Glenn Winston*
Fullback (1): Ray Agnew*
Wide Receivers (5): Miles Austin, Andrew Hawkins, Travis Benjamin, Taylor Gabriel*, LaRon Byrd
Tight Ends (3): Jordan Cameron, Gary Barnidge, Jim Dray
Offensive Linemen (8): Joe Thomas, Alex Mack, John Greco, Mitchell Schwartz, Joel Bitonio*, Paul McQuistan, Caylin Hauptmann, Ryan Seymour
Defense (27)
Defensive linemen (7): Desmond Bryant, Armonty Bryant, John Hughes, Ishmaa’ily Kitchen, Phil Taylor, Billy Winn, Ahtyba Rubin
Linebackers (8): Karlos Dansby, Barkevious Mingo, Craig Robertson, Paul Kruger, Jabaal Sheard, Chris Kirksey*, Tank Carder, Eric Martin
Defensive Backs (12): Joe Haden, Buster Skrine, Justin Gilbert*, Aaron Berry, Pierre Desir*, Robert Nelson*, K’Waun Williams*, Donte Whitner, Tashaun Gipson, Jim Leonhard, Johnson Bademosi, Jordan Poyer
Specialists (3)
Kicker (1): Billy Cundiff
Punter (1): Spencer Lanning
Long Snapper (1): Christian Yount
The Browns also have a trio of players on injured reserve (OL Michael Bowie, LB Darius Eubanks and DB Isaiah Trufant) and a pair on the suspended list (WR Josh Gordon 16 games and WR Marlon Moore 1 game).
The practice squad is comprised of the following ten players-
OL Karim Barton*, OL James Brown, OL Patrick Lewis, WR Charles Johnson, DL Jacobbi McDaniel*, TE Emmanuel Ogbuehi, LB Keith Pough, QB Connor Shaw*, FB Kiero Small*, LB Justin Staples.
The * indicates rookies. The Browns have 12 on the 53-man roster, 6 of them were undrafted free agents.
11 Comments
Anyone know how many CLE cuts were picked up elsewhere? Decent practice squad group. It also feels like they gave Tabor some say as to a few special teamers he wanted to keep (did Carder deserve a LB slot?), which is smart.
I’m a bit torn on the preseason strategy the Browns employed. On the one hand, you want to give reps to players who you aren’t sure about so you can decide if you want to keep them. On the other, you want some significant portion of the starter time at least to focus on people who will be around. To see so many plays involve guys like Marqueis Gray and the like seems like a waste looking back, though I guess that’s what they wanted to know.
Many were. I know Gilkey and Grey were scooped up right away.
No cuts should surprise anyone on a team that regularly wins either 4 or 5 games, but two slightly raised my eyebrow: 1) Gilkey, since his position coach made it a point to praise his improvement to the press; 2) Dion Lewis, since Pettine made it a point to praise him to the press, even after his game fumble.
Guess I’ll assume it was part of the strategy to make rivals at their positions feel uncomfortable.
In addition to Gilkey and Grey, there was quite a bit of buzz on Leon McFadden immediately catching on with the Jets, who are basically a step away from needing you and me to play corner for them.
Why don’t you give Vince Young a chance.. He wouldn’t cost you hardly anything…. Bring him out of retirement….. You will have to guarantee his contract…. But he has more up side…
He can still play at a HIGH level,…. His NFL won/loss record right now is 31-19 as a starting quarterback… He has playoff experience … He’s a 2 time Pro-Bowler… He was voted 2006 NFL Rookie of the Year…..
You seriously are VY aren’t you?
For the most part this went how I thought it should. A couple of surprises to me, though.
1. I’m surprised they kept 7 defensive linemen in a 3-4 scheme. It’s our deepest and strongest unit, so I guess they figured the worst d-lineman was more valuable than the best of the cuts.
2. I’m not surprised they kept Crowell over Ogbannaya, but I was surprised about Winston over Dion Lewis
3. Taylor Gabriel earned a roster spot, but I’m surprised they kept all three of the mighty-minis. (Hawkins, Benjamin, Gabriel) I’m not surprised about Burleson, but I’m surprised they didn’t kick the tires on one of the better veteran WR’s that got cut, like Robert Meachem. They must really like Byrd.
He was voted 2006 NFL Rookie of the Year
how can we argue with that sound logic? perhaps we can also grab 2005 O-ROY, Cadillac Williams and build and unstoppable offense!!!
not to mention McFadden was learning the same system the Jets run
the number one box office draw from 1939 to 1940
I’m surprised Des Bryant is listed 3rd team on the depth chart. Is that because of injuries?