Browns Waive 4 Players, Including K Garrett Hartley

The Cleveland Browns waived four players today, a necessary move to sign some of the undrafted free agents the team wanted to get a closer look at from rookie minicamp this past week. Here are the players who were waived:

• WR Phil Bates - He had been off-and-on the Seattle Seahawks' practice squad for three years before Cleveland signed him to their practice squad last October, and then called him up to the 53-man roster for the regular season finale against Baltimore. Of the eight UDFAs signed by the Browns on Monday, two of them were wide receivers.
  
  
• DL Christian Tupou - In terms of a career, Tupou had a similar one as Bates -- he'd been in the league for three years before being signed to the Browns' practice squad last October. Between the draft, DL Dylan Wynn, and the youngsters Cleveland retained from last year's undrafted free agent group, the team had a surplus of defensive linemen.
  
  
• DB Varmah Sonie - The Browns signed Sonie, the former Arena Football League player, back in February. Cleveland signed a couple of more defensive backs in today's undrafted free agent group, so Sonie was expendable on the back end of the depth chart.
  
  
• K Garrett Hartley - This is by far the biggest cut made by the team, and a little bit of a surprising one. Hartley played the final two games of the season for Cleveland last year, taking over for veteran Billy Cundiff. Hartley drilled all three of his field goal attempts. By cutting him, the Browns are left with two new kickers -- Carey Spear and Travis Coons, both of whom were signed on January 1st. You can read more about both of those guys here.