Cleveland Browns Free Agent Review: DE Stephen Weatherly

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You may not have even known he was on the roster, but next up on our preview of Browns’ free agents is DE Stephen Weatherly.

How and When He Joined the Browns: Out of all the Browns’ free agents, Weatherly might be the guy who most has you wondering, “who?” He played 6 years in the NFL between the Vikings, Panthers, and Broncos before signing with the Browns as a free agent in April 2022.

Productivity Level Last Season: At the beginning of camp, before any preseason games even took place, Weatherly was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury that required surgery.

Why Keeping Him Could Make Sense: When the knee injury happened, head coach Kevin Stefanski said, “I have a history with him going back to the Vikings. A really, really solid person. Just a rock-solid person so disappointed for him.” The Browns could sign him to a minimum, non-guaranteed contract, and he would probably take it and could turn out to make a good depth player.

What the Browns Should Do: Not to beat a dead horse, but this is the wrong year for players hoping to re-sign with the Browns on the defensive side of the ball, since a new defensive coordinator (Jim Schwartz) will likely have some input into the type of personnel that gets signed. While it wouldn’t cost much to sign Weatherly again, the team would probably rather dedicate that roster spot to someone who isn’t coming off of a knee injury.

Let us know below whether or not the team should try to re-sign DE Stephen Weatherly.