Browns claim Joe Jackson and Vincent Taylor

Waiver Sunday came and moved along with the Cleveland Browns stepping out and giving one more chance to two linemen waived by their teams on cutdown day.

Cleveland claimed defensive end Joe Jackson (hence the above puns) from the Cowboys and defensive tackle Vincent Taylor from the Bills to add to their defensive line depth.
The Browns waived defensive tackle Eli Ankou and tight end Pharoah Brown to make room for the two defensive linemen.

Joe Jackson is a player that was drafted in the fifth round in 2019 from Miami as an early entry.
The 6'4 Jackson led the Hurricanes in sacks with nine as a junior before leaving Miami and similar to Mack Wilson in the same draft slid further than expected in pre-draft predictions.
Jackson played in five games for Dallas last season but did not finish with a sack although he is listed with a few tackles and a pass deflection.
Dallas brought in a few veteran defensive ends in the off-season including Aldon Smith and Everson Griffin, so Jackson was going to have a difficult time making the Cowboys with the extra money spent at the position.
Jackson's an interesting pickup and at his age (Jackson will not turn 24 until December), Jackson still has room to develop.
I like this addition a lot.

The other claim was defensive tackle Vincent Taylor, who was a sixth-round pick from Oklahoma State for the Dolphins in 2017.
The 6'3 305 pounds Taylor spent two seasons in Miami, playing 21 games during that time, making twenty-six solo tackles and two sacks before being waived last season.
Buffalo signed Taylor, who played in three games for the Bills, finishing with six tackles.
Noted as a run-stuffing type, Taylor has a special talent, and knowing the commitment to special teams from the Kevin Stefanski staff in keeping players that specialize there, my guess is that Taylor might have been claimed for his kick blocking skills.
Taylor has blocked three field goals in his NFL career and was noted for blocking kicks during his years with Oklahoma State.
That is the type of specialty that can make a difference in making a team and may have helped the Browns interest in Taylor.
I remember when the Browns had Shaun Rogers, who took up a lot of space in the line and was very good at sticking his hand up and blocking kicks, perhaps Taylor was signed for this skill as much as his line play?

The Browns made space by waiving defensive tackle Eli Ankou and tight end Pharoah Brown.
Ankou played in nine games after being signed from Jacksonville last season finishing with seven tackles.
Brown also played in nine games, catching two passes for twenty-seven yards.

Brown was the bigger surprise as I thought he might stick around as the top blocking tight end.
Kevin Stefanski is known for his love of tight ends, but five of them would be a tough carry for any team, and the athleticism of Stephen Carlson might have made Carlson a more likely claim than Brown on the wire.
I would speculate that both would be added to the practice squad, should they clear waivers.

Of the Browns Saturday releases, only one player was claimed as wide receiver Damion Ratley was claimed by the New York football Giants.
The physically talented, yet fragile Ratley figured to have a chance to be claimed, and former Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens is on the Giants staff, so they may have had an inside word or two on the former Texas A&M Aggie.

The Browns signed 14 players to the practice squad, including quarterback Garrett Gilbert and running back Dontrell Hilliard, and wide receiver Taywon Taylor, but there were a few thoughts that came to my mind as well.
The Browns returned cornerback A.J. Green, but not Donovan Olumba in a surprise to me.
I thought Olumba had a great chance of making the team and not to make the practice squad is puzzling.
No one claimed former third-round defensive end Chad Thomas and the Browns didn't bring him back either.
Perhaps the rumors of Thomas not being dedicated to the game have spread to other teams as well?\

The surprise was the one squad signing that was not in camp originally as the Browns signed former Brown Cody Parkey to the squad.
Parkey has a huge leg with ten career field goals of fifty years or more and kicked for the 2016 Browns connecting on 20 of 25 field goals.
Parkey spent 2017 with the Dolphins and 2018 with the Bears and was released by the Bears after the "double doink" off the upright and crossbar on a game-winning field goal attempt against the Eagles in the playoffs.
Parkey appeared in three games last season for Tennessee, successfully converting three field goal attempts.
I'm not sure this is a move to put some heat on Austin Seibert, I think it's a nod to Covid-19 in wanting to have a veteran kicker in town and ready to go in the event that something would occur in these crazy time.
A smart decision in my opinion.

I'll have a Browns preview later in the week.

Browns make final cuts; Thomas, Ratley among them

The Cleveland Browns decided on their final cuts to 53 players on Saturday as required by the NFL, but I would not feel completely comfortable yet if I was a player on the back end of this roster.

As is always the case in Cleveland, the Browns will be looking closely at the waiver wire and they are likely to make a few claims on players released by the rest of the league, so I'd be surprised if this version of the roster is the exact one that the Browns will take to Baltimore next Sunday.

There are a few players of note that were released and a surprise or two hit the wire as well.
Cleveland will hope to see a few of these players clear and sign them to the newly enlarged and detailed ( a larger roster and a few veterans are now allowed to be on the practice squad) practice squad.

Two John Dorsey draftees were released with 2018 third round defensive end Chad Thomas and sixth round wide receiver Damion Ratley heading out the door.
Thomas was a questionable selection at the time, seeming to have been drafted a round too early and selected over Ohio State defensive end Sam Hubbard, who was drafted by the Bengals.
Thomas barely played as a rookie, started eight games in 2019 and finished with four sacks in seventeen games, none in the final month after the suspension of Myles Garrett, and has been thought to have more concerned with his off-field interests in the music industry.
Hubbard has totaled 14 and a half sacks in two seasons in Cincinnati and is a starter for the Bengals.
The development of Porter Gustin, who joined the Browns late last season, made Thomas expendable after Gustin's very strong training camp, and I would think that Thomas could be claimed by another team.

Ratley caught twenty-five passes over two seasons for over three hundred yards and a touchdown.
Ratley possessed size and speed (6'2) , but had problems staying healthy and on a team that kept five tight ends, Ratley was in a losing battle among the wide receivers due to various reasons against KhaDarel Hodge's special teams ability, JoJo Natson slotted in as the return man, and Donovan Peoples-Jones physical upside and Natson's backup in the return game, leaving Ratley as the odd man out.

Quarterback Garrett Gilbert was released, but is expected to clear waivers and will be assigned to the practice squad, assuming he clears the wire.
Gilbert threw three incomplete passes in five mop-up appearances for the Browns last season.

Dontrell Hilliard lost out in the battle for the final running back spot to D'Ernest Johnson.
Johnson is expected to play a key role on special teams and with new returners in store for this season, Hilliard wasn't going to play special teams after returning kicks in his two seasons with the Browns.
Hilliard caught 21 passes in his two seasons in Cleveland and scored two rushing touchdowns in 2019.

Taywon Taylor was obtained on cutdown day 2019 from Tennessee for a conditional draft choice, but made no impact in playing only three games for the Browns and not catching the one ball thrown to him all season.
The 2017 third rounder was never a factor in camp and is unlikely to return to the practice squad.

I was surprised to see Donovan Olumba released, mainly because of the injuries at cornerback and because Olumba had spent much of recent practice time as part of the first team after those injuries.
What this indicates to me is that the Browns will be very active in claiming one or two cornerbacks off the wire with injuries hampering Greedy Williams and Kevin Johnson in camp.
Tavierre Thomas special teams play must have been the difference in keeping Thomas over Olumba, but Thomas might wind up being the secondary member that loses a spot, should the Browns claim a defensive back.
Olumba will almost certainly be added to the practice squad, should he clear waivers which is far from a guarantee.

The waiver period will expire at noon Sunday with announcement of any new arrivals coming on Sunday afternoon.

Browns finish up draft

The Cleveland Browns finished up their draft day early with three picks, one in round five and the final two in the sixth round.

I absolutely love the Browns selection in round five of Memphis linebacker Genard Avery.
I watched more American Athletic Conference football than any conference this year other than the Big Ten (Maybe the Pac 12 was close) and Avery ranked behind Houston's Ed Oliver (No Kidding, right?) as the defensive player in the league that just seemed to be all over the place running down ballcarriers as the proverbial man among boys.
Avery is physical, likes to hit, can play inside or outside linebacker (although I think he is better suited to the inside), can rush the passer and isn't awful in coverage in addition to being a strong special teams player.
So why was he available in the fifth round?
Frankly, I don't know because I had him pegged as more of a 3rd-4th round player and sometimes players fall through the cracks.
Had you told me Friday that the Browns had taken Genard Avery in the 3rd round where they took Chad Thomas, I would have likely had a better reaction than I did for Thomas
I watched a lot of Boise State games and saw a lot of Dallas first rounder Leighton Vander Esch and from the more limited games that I saw Avery in (I see almost all Boise games, I watched maybe four or five Memphis games), I didn't see much difference in the two except Vander Esch is four inches taller and a handful of pounds heavier with Avery being a little faster.
I'm really happy with this pick and I might even go as far to say that Avery might be a starter as early as 2019.


In the sixth round, the Browns added another receiver in Texas A&M's Damion Ratley.
Ratley is big (6'2) and fast (Faster than his teammate Christian Kirk, who was taken off the board in round two), so he is very toolsy.
The problem is that as an Aggie, he was pretty much a one trick pony as in- "go deep and if we throw it to you- catch it", so route running will be something that Ratley will need to work on.
The rap on Ratley apparently was that Ratley doesn't block well, doesn't like physical corners and doesn't always hustle on special teams.
Considering that most backup wideouts have to help make special teams work part of their profession, Ratley will have to change that in a hurry to make the Browns final roster.
I had two players that I preferred to Ratley in the super-productive Cedric Wilson of Boise State (Picked by Dallas in the sixth round) and Steven Dunbar of Houston (Free agent-49ers), but I could have a bias because I watched so many of their games over their career.
Still, Ratley will have a rough time making this roster.


The Browns final pick is a player that I know very little about in Simeon Thomas, a cornerback from
Louisiana-Lafayette.
Thomas looks like what you would think a player from the smallest of the group of five conferences would be if you took a chance on him- he's big for a corner at 6'2 and 197 and he's athletic with strong leaping ability.
However, Thomas played just one full season in his four years at ULL, had academic issues and was involved in a theft with 13 other football players, so there are questions with Thomas.
I've never seen him play and there is next to nothing on Thomas as far as tape goes, so he's an unknown quantity.
I will say this though if the Browns were going to take a cornerback with off the field questions and with plenty of physical ability, I really liked the tape of Holton Hill of Texas, who signed with the Vikings as a free agent.
Hill's problems clearly scared teams off, but if the Browns weren't bothered by those issues of Thomas (or Antonio Callaway's for that matter), I'm not sure why they would be concerned by those of Hill.


I'll have a Browns draft recap sometime soon, but we still have today's Cavaliers game, a bloated inbox and road trip stories to write, so a Browns recap may wait a little bit...