Cleveland Browns roster cuts tracker as team tries to get down to 53 players

The Cleveland Browns need to get their roster down to 53 players by Saturday at 4:00 PM ET. Some moves may come in early, so we will begin to track them here in a live blog format. Please feel free to use the comments section to discuss cuts around the NFL who may be of interest to Cleveland.

Browns Roster Cuts Live Blog

9:08 PM: Our live blog is now complete for the weekend. We just wrote an article on waiver wire pickups the Browns should consider. You should use that as your new open thread for Saturday night and Sunday morning.

6:56 PM: I just posted a column with some quick-hitter reactions to the Browns’ initial 53-man roster.

5:12 PM: Although no deal is in place yet, Mary Kay Cabot (and others) are saying the Broncos will sign QB Brock Osweiler. If it is for the minimum (i.e. 800k), then Cleveland will get that much of a discount on his $16 million.

4:30 PM: Keeping tally from my 53-man projection, I got 46/53 players right. I’m on-the-fence as to whether I should also include OT Rod Johnson, since we know he’ll be headed to IR anyway and that’s why I didn’t include him.

4:20 PM: Some early notes on the initial 53-man roster:

• The “surprises” making the roster could be considered: OT Zach Sterup and S Kai Nacua. Some might be surprised that S Calvin Pryor is still here too.
• A surprise cut might be MLB Kenneth Olugbode.
• Out of the wide receiver group, WR Rashard Higgins made it over WR Rannell Hall and WR Jordan Payton.

4:13 PM: Your 53-man roster is up! See here for the full roster and all of the cuts.

3:48 PM: Update on OT Rod Johnson: it’s now believed he’ll stay on the 53-man roster initially, then go on IR as team makes waiver claims. That’ll allow him to be eligible to come back around midseason.

3:31 PM: Believe me, I’m constantly refreshing my news sources every few seconds to get everyone the full cuts ASAP when they come out.

3:04 PM: Looks like we’ve got the Denver Broncos going in on QB Brock Osweiler. Probably not via a trade, but could offer Cleveland some offset:

2:55 PM: We’re just playing the waiting game; a little over an hour until final cuts are due in. We should hear some news soon.

2:12 PM: It sounds like WR Jordan Leslie has been released. Someone else had to go with the acquisition of WR Sammie Coates.

2:06 PM: Per Benjamin Albright of Yahoo Sports, the Browns were interested in both WR Sammie Coates and WR Dontrelle Inman, but got a better deal from Pittsburgh.

1:52 PM: Some fans were wondering if the Browns could claim either QB Jacoby Brissett (Patriots) or WR Phillip Dorsett (Colts) if either were cut. Instead, they were traded for each other.

1:36 PM: Pretty much a confirmation on my speculation earlier that OT Rod Johnson will go on IR. Whether it’s before or after the 53-man roster is named remains to be seen.

12:55 PM: Former Browns CB Johnson Bademosi will now be a special teams ace for the Patriots.

12:50 PM: See this story from earlier about the Panthers’ kicking situation?

It’s similar to Cleveland’s situation, and K Cody Parkey hasn’t “officially” been cut yet. It’ll be interesting to see if they’re still trying to field calls on him.

12:43 PM: Here is our story on Cleveland acquiring WR Sammie Coates from Pittsburgh. That move means that the Browns now need to cut 9 players to get to 53 players by 4 PM ET. It’s pretty funny how the Browns traded back the pick they acquired from Pittsburgh last year for CB Justin Gilbert.

12:36 PM: TRADE ALERT! The Browns have acquired WR Sammie Coates from the Pittsburgh Steelers!

12:35 PM: I personally think that OT Rod Johnson will be going on IR today, but you never know. If they plan on making several waiver claims anyway, they could keep Johnson on the initial 53-man roster and then place him on IR after the 4 PM deadline. That would thus clear one roster spot for a waiver move, while also allowing Johnson to be a short-term IR guy as opposed to a permanent IR guy.

12:30 PM: Here’s an interesting name for you: RB Matt Jones, who fell out of favor in Washington due to fumbling issues. But he had a 4.6 YPC average last season for the Redskins, including 22 carries for 117 yards and 1 TD against the Browns.

12:26 PM: The Broncos have cut SS T.J. Ward, formerly of the Browns. While Cleveland fans might be a little nostalgic about bringing him back, it’s a move that would go against most of the moves they’ve made (i.e. with CB Joe Haden, OG John Greco, and DE Desmond Bryant).

12:23 PM: The Panthers have cut P Andy Lee. Remember that they have Cleveland a 4th round draft pick in the 2018 NFL Draft for him. Carolina is opting to keep P Michael Palardy, who was one of the two guys the Browns tried out after trading Lee last year before having P Britton Colquitt fall into their lap.

8:30 AM: Good morning, Browns fans! It’s Saturday, and there are still 8 more cuts we need to learn about. Technically, the Browns did not announce the cuts of Osweiler, Greco, Cooper, and Parkey, so there’s always a slim chance that one of those guys could secretly held on to and traded (but don’t bank on it).

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6:55 PM (Friday): We’ve said that 61 players are left on the Browns roster, but you might have a tough time visualize who is remaining. The table below helps with that -- the left column show the 61 players still on the roster. So the 8 cuts that happen will have to come from that group.

6:30 PM (Friday): If you were still thinking about possible wide receiver trades, you can cross WR Jermaine Kearse off the list, as the Seahawks dealt him to the Jets.

6:24 PM (Friday): Per Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer, sources tell her that over the past week, QB Brock Osweiler “seemed somewhat aloof to those around him,” which could have contributed to making it easier for the team to cut him.

6:18 PM (Friday): Keeping track of things, the team officially announced cuts down to 65 players earlier. The other four releases (see below) were reported via “sources,” but should be reliable enough to trust that, mentally, we can think of the team having 61 players. That means 8 more cuts are due before the 4 PM ET deadline on Saturday.

6:12 PM (Friday): Tying the bow on things, we’ve now got a story up on Cleveland releasing K Cody Parkey, which should mean that K Zane Gonzalez has won the competition.

6:00 PM (Friday): We’ve got an article up on Cleveland releasing veteran OG John Greco and waiving DL Xavier Cooper. Included in that article is how after LT Joe Thomas (2007), the next-tenured active players are from 2014.

5:38 PM: Here is our story on the Browns cutting QB Brock Osweiler. Reminder: he has offset language, so Cleveland could clear some of the $16 million in cap space they owe him. However, it doesn’t seem likely that another club will pay him a whole lot (why would they if it doesn’t benefit them nor Osweiler?).

5:22 PM (Friday): I was away for a couple hours, and we’ve got a few more big cuts that I’ll be getting to in separate posts:

QB Brock Osweiler is cut, and also gone are OG John Greco, DL Xavier Cooper, and K Cody Parkey.

1:34 PM (Friday): And just like that, 18 roster moves are in! We’ve got a list of them here. The biggest name is DL Karter Schult, and 12 roster moves remain before the deadline.

1:30 PM (Friday): This may be obvious as it happens every year, but Mary Kay Cabot likely heard from someone within the Browns to expect some roster cuts today:

1:20 PM (Friday): In case you missed it, I’ll take this time to remind everyone that come Sunday, the Browns will have first dibs on all players who are subject to waivers, as explained here. That is why the Browns’ initial 53-man roster is expected to look quite different than their final one.

1:00 PM (Friday): If you haven’t checked it out already, the final version of our 53-man roster projection was posted late last night/early this morning. I made eight changes from my previous projection, which might be a record for me.

12:50 PM (Friday): The only player we’ve heard about being cut from Cleveland’s roster is OL Kitt O’Brien, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.

12:30 PM (Friday): As of Friday morning, the Browns’ roster was at 83 players (82 on the roster, and then CB Howard Wilson on the PUP). Wilson can stay on the PUP when the regular season begins, so therefore, we can treat it as them having 82 players.

They’ll need to get down to 53 players, which comes out to 29 cuts. Cleveland ended up taking part of the strategy I adovacated all along with the removal of the 75-man cutdown period — even though the mandate was removed, nothing stops teams from trimming their roster early.