Browns sign DL Nick Hayden to bring roster to 90 players

The Cleveland Browns’ roster has been at 89 players for a couple of weeks ever since the team waived QB Connor Shaw. With training camp less than a week away, they’ve added their 90th player in the form of some veteran depth to make up for the injury to starting DE Desmond Bryant.

On Friday, the Browns announced the signing of DL Nick Hayden. He was a 6th-round draft pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2008, where he played through 2010. He spent one year with the Bengals in 2011, and had been with the Dallas Cowboys from 2013 until 2015. He started 47 of 48 games for Dallas, and last year, he started 15 games for Dallas, logging 48 tackles.

Hayden (6-3, 295 lbs) only has two sacks in his career, so he’s not the pass-rushing type. From 2013-2014, Pro Football Focus graded him as pretty much the worst defensive tackle in the game. He saw most of his work as a 1- or 3-technique defensive tackle in Dallas 4-3 defense, so he shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for Bryant, but rather a veteran defensive tackle in camp.