Dolphins Claim CB Chris Owens After Browns Waived Him From IR

In early December, the Cleveland Browns placed cornerback Chris Owens on injured reserve with a sprained knee. At the time, I just assumed that we was on the season-ending IR. As it turns out, Cleveland actually had reached an injury settlement with him. That means the Browns kept him on the IR for the duration of how long his injury was expected to last, and then they waived him on Tuesday. That's when the Miami Dolphins claimed him.

If you recall, the Browns waived cornerback Dimitri Patterson near the end of the 2012 season after he had a string of ankle injuries. The Dolphins claimed him, and this season, Patterson was a key player in Miami's secondary, until he landed on IR a couple of weeks ago with a hamstring injury. Miami's other cornerbacks are also banged up, so with the experience Owens has and the team trying to make a push for the playoffs, expect him to see quite a bit of action.

Owens finishes his time with Cleveland with 51 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 1 fumble recovery. Although Owens had an impressive camp, he was quite underwhelming when it came to his performance as a cornerback in nickel packages. With him being gone the past two games, it has given third-round pick Leon McFadden an opportunity to gain some experience before he is, presumably, part of the cornerback rotation in 2014.

The Browns also pulled a similar move, waiving wide receiver Armanti Edwards from IR, but nobody put a waiver claim in for him. Edwards injured his ankle a few weeks ago and was replaced by cornerback Jordan Poyer on punt return duties.