Cleveland Browns fans have been waiting to see Taylen Green, and that first real look is finally on the way.
The Browns are set to give the rookie quarterback some snaps in their third preseason game against the New England Patriots on Thursday, Aug. 27, according to head coach Todd Monken. Green has barely gotten on the field this summer, and he was held out of Cleveland’s preseason opener against the Chicago Bears. He also won’t play in preseason Game 2 against the Buffalo Bills.
“(Green’s) doing fine,” Monken said. “Really smart, doing a really good job, but we just don’t have enough reps for him.”
That lack of reps has slowed the early rollout for a player who was always going to be more of a project than an immediate answer. Cleveland spent a Day 3 pick on Green for the second straight year with a quarterback, betting on the raw tools of a 6-foot-6 athlete who wasn’t on a lot of teams’ radars.
And the tools are obvious. Green turned heads at the NFL Scouting Combine with a 4.36-second 40-yard dash and a 43.5-inch vertical.
He can run, he can move, and he’s got a bazooka for an arm. At Arkansas, he also showed off that athletic juice by forcing 29 missed tackles in his final season.
But the upside comes with plenty of baggage. Green had turnover issues in college, and that’s the kind of thing that makes life hard for a quarterback trying to hang around in the NFL.
Athleticism gets your foot in the door. It does not keep you there by itself.
Cleveland’s quarterback situation makes Green even more interesting. The room isn’t exactly packed with established answers, and Green may have as much upside as Dillon Gabriel, a 2025 third-round pick who has spent camp well behind Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders on the depth chart.
Right now, everything points to Watson starting the Browns’ regular-season opener at Jacksonville. Sanders may not even see much work with the starters in the preseason game against Buffalo, and Monken has been signaling Watson as the starter since spring workouts.
That leaves Cleveland with a roster decision looming. The Browns probably should not keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, especially if none of them looks like a sure-fire starter. Gabriel would seem to be the likeliest odd man out, while Green could stick around and keep developing for at least another year.
There’s even a scenario where the Browns might eventually use Green somewhere else on offense if they ever needed to, though the team has made clear it views him as a quarterback. For now, the bigger story is simpler: Browns fans are finally about to see the intriguing gunslinger who has spent camp buried at the bottom of the depth chart.
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Browns Offense Finally Showed Something Fans Have Been Waiting For
During a joint practice against the Bills, the Browns finally put together an offensive showing that seemed to match the standards Todd Monken has been pressing for all summer. Clevelands head coach said the team looked like it belonged on the field, and the session offered a cleaner look at an offense that has spent plenty of time trying to find its footing. The offensive line also showed progress, even with a few mistakes mixed in and some injury-related shuffling still affecting the group.
For a team trying to build momentum before the regular season begins, a practice like this matters because it hints at a better rhythm and a little more cohesion than the Browns have shown at times earlier in camp. It is still just one step, not a final answer, and the opener will tell much more about where the offense really stands. But after a summer of searching for signs of consistency, Cleveland at least walked away from this session with something encouraging to build on. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Just Lost A Tight End In A Twist Few Fans Saw Coming
DaeQuan Wrights path to the Browns took an unusual turn almost as soon as it started. After going undrafted and signing with Cleveland, the tight end was part of the teams early professional process before being granted a restraining order that allowed him to head back to college, a move tied to the NCAAs evolving eligibility rules and the legal questions surrounding players who dabble in the pro game before returning to campus.
For the Browns, it is a depth hit at a position where every body matters. Wrights exit leaves Cleveland thinner at tight end than it would prefer this early in the cycle, and it also adds another reminder that roster-building now stretches beyond the usual camp competition, with college football and the NFL increasingly colliding in ways teams have to navigate on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Suddenly Face A Bigger Edge Problem Than Expected
A joint practice is usually where the Browns hope to get clean work in before the games begin, but Tuesday brought an unwelcome scare on the edge. Alex Wright was carted off with an apparent left leg injury after going down during a one-on-one rep with Bills offensive lineman Spencer Brown, and the early signs point to an ankle issue that could alter Clevelands rotation before the preseason even really gets going.
The timing matters because Cleveland already entered camp with some depth questions at defensive end, and Wright has been part of the group the Browns were counting on for steady snaps. If he has to miss time, Isaiah McGuire and others are in line for a bigger workload, which only adds pressure to a position the Browns can ill afford to thin out. [Read more 🡒]