Roster trimming begins in Cleveland as veterans and undrafted hopefuls hit the bricks, forcing coach Todd Monken to weigh difficult quarterback decisions before the final 53-man deadline.
The Cleveland Browns have some tough decision to make after their preseason ended in a 37-13 win over the New England Patriots on Thursday night.
The contest was important for many young players on the bubble of making the team before the Browns' season opener on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1.
The Browns must trim their roster from 90 players to 53 players by Sunday.
Per Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN, the team made 16 cuts as of Friday afternoon. The Browns terminated the contracts of cornerback Tre Avery, cornerback Tyler Hall, offensive lineman Tyre Phillips and tight end Jack Stoll.
The Browns waived:
- TE Drew Biber
- T Jeremiah Byers
- P Nik Constantinou
- S Christopher Edmonds
- CB Nate Evans
- DT Coziah Izzard
- DT Patrick Jenkins
- CB Jeremiah McClendon
- T Izavion Miller
- DE Jamil Muhammad
- WR Ben Patterson
- TE Jermaine Terry II
The Browns are down to 74 players. They'll need to make 21 more decisions by Sunday afternoon, a difficult task for the first-year head coach and his staff.
Following Thursday night's game, Browns head coach Todd Monken spoke candidly about the quarterback position. (Dillon Gabriel played for much of Thursday night's game before Taylen Green made his NFL debut.)
"That's why we played both of them, right?" Monken said of Gabriel and Green. "That's why we played them, to help us a little bit in terms of where we're at from a roster standpoint. We got a lot to talk about...
"So again, it was fun to watch him (Green) play, but just like every position, we're gonna have to cut it down, that's just, we can't keep everybody."
The Browns are likely to keep three quarterbacks on the roster. It remains to be seen if Cleveland will do what its AFC North rival the Pittsburgh Steelers will do and keep four quarterbacks on its 53-man roster.
Green, a sixth-round pick, went 5 of 7 passing for 27 yards. He ran eight times for 66 yards, including making an incredible 30-yard scamper. Amid the battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders, Gabriel and Green didn't get much playing time during the preseason.
