Former Browns & high draft picks litter XFL’s freshly announced rosters

The list of former Cleveland Browns still bouncing around the NFL isn’t as big as it used to be. In fact, it is more surprising than not when a former Brown makes a big play anymore for another team. It used to be a regular occurrence when “former Cleveland Browns player X came out of nowhere to...” was uttered on television.

Now, with the proliferation of more professional football leagues, we get a chance to track players who put on the Cleveland uniform even more but away from the NFL.

The return of the XFL this month is another chance for fans to not only watch football but to see players who they once cheered for or against. Today, the league announced their rosters with a couple of former Browns, a number of former high draft picks and some players whose names are well-known:

A scan of the roster brought out two former Browns in WR Josh Gordon and OL Willie Wright. (To be honest, it is possible we missed one or two with the way the Google sheet is formatted.) Finding a picture for this article reminded me that Gordon was on the team at the same time as Jarvis Landry, at least in the preseason, and that had been forgotten.

Other names of interest include QB AJ McCarron (who thankfully never became a member of Cleveland’s roster), WR Martavis Bryant (the athletic Pittsburgh Steelers receiver), DE Vic Beasley and QB Paxton Lynch (two former first-round picks) and QB En DiNucci (who played in three games, including one start, for the Dallas Cowboys in 2020).

Scan through the rest of the XFL rosters, any other names pop out to you?