Browns sign OT Alex Taylor to the active roster

The Cleveland Browns signed offensive tackle Alex Taylor to the active roster on Saturday.

The club also promoted defensive tackle Sheldon Day and cornerback Herb Miller from the practice squad for Sunday’s home game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Cleveland just signed Taylor to the practice squad on Tuesday after putting offensive lineman Chris Hubbard on the injured reserve list. The Browns originally signed Taylor in 2020 as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina State and added him to the practice squad on October 26 of last season. He appeared in one game during the regular season.

Taylor did not make Cleveland’s final roster out of training camp this season, and spent four weeks on the practice squad with the Chicago Bears before rejoining the Browns.

This would normally be one of those weekly minor moves that go mainly unnoticed, but the Browns are dealing with injuries to starting offensive tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin, who are both questionable for Sunday’s game.

Conklin was injured in last week’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, while Wills has been dealing with an ankle injury since Week 1. He continued to play on it through the next three games before being ruled out for the game against the Chargers.

By signing Taylor to the active roster, rather than just promoting him from the practice squad for the game against the Cardinals, it could be signaling that Wills or Conklin is going to be missing a bit more time. In any event, Taylor provides insurance at a position that is dealing with injuries at the moment.

The Browns originally signed Day, a defensive tackle, to the practice squad at the end of December 2020. The 6-foot-1 and 293-pound Day has played in 60 games during his NFL career, and has 55 tackles, six sacks and five pass breakups.

He appeared in 22 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars before being waived late in the 2017 season. Day signed with the San Francisco 49ers, where he appeared in 34 games, making two starts. He also started all three of the 49ers playoff games in 2019, finishing with three tackles as San Francisco advanced to the Super Bowl.

Day played in four games for the Indianapolis Colts in 2020 after opening the season on the injured reserve list with a knee injury. He was waived on November 17.

The 6-foot-1 and 201-pound Miller signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019 as an undrafted free agent from Florida Atlantic University. He did not make the Chiefs roster that season and, after not catching on with another team, started to put in applications to become a police officer, according to a February story from wpbf.com.

He changed his mind when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers called and Miller earned a place on Tampa’s practice squad to open the 2020 season. He was promoted to the active roster for the final four games of the season, finishing with five tackles and an interception.

Miller was on Tampa’s practice squad for the first two weeks of this season.

During his college career, Miller played in 50 games, finishing with 103 tackles, 16 pass deflections and a pair of forced fumbles.