The Browns are barely into camp, but the roster squeeze is already starting to show. Cleveland’s rookies have been in the building for nearly a week, and with veterans set to join them on Wednesday, the fight for 53-man spots is about to get a lot sharper.
Two of the team’s 2026 NFL Draft picks look especially vulnerable.
One is quarterback Taylen Green, whom Cleveland grabbed with the 182nd pick. At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Green brings plenty of athletic upside, but the source of his problem is obvious: he still needs major work as a passer. That makes his path to the active roster a steep one, especially with the Browns already carrying Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel.
That quarterback room is the real bottleneck. Most teams do not keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, and there’s growing speculation that Gabriel could be the odd man out.
But that decision is not simple. New head coach Todd Monken was not around when Cleveland drafted Gabriel last year, yet general manager Andrew Berry was.
The Browns took Gabriel in the third round, and even if some viewed it as a reach, the team may be reluctant to give up on a third-round pick without another season to prove himself.
Watson is staying put, and moving on from Sanders is considered a long shot. That leaves Gabriel and Green in the thick of the battle for the final quarterback job.
If Cleveland decides Gabriel is better served as the No. 3 quarterback, Green could be the one released. The other possibility is trying to sneak Green onto the practice squad and let him develop there this season.
The other rookie in danger is seventh-round pick Ryan out of BYU. He played both tight end and fullback in college, but the Browns’ depth chart makes his situation tricky. Cleveland already has four tight ends on the roster: Harold Fannin Jr., Blake Whiteheart, Jack Stoll and Joe Royer, who was drafted in the fifth round this year.
Ryan also has veteran fullback Michael Burton ahead of him, which only tightens the squeeze. With so few openings available, he may wind up on the practice squad after camp.
For Monken and Berry, the next few weeks will be about sorting out which draft picks stick and which ones are still looking for work by late August.
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Layered into all of it is the quarterback situation, where Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders keep drawing the most attention, even as a viral Jerry Jeudy clip added another wrinkle to the discussion. There is also the usual mix of side chatter, from Jake Paul floating his interest in playing for Cleveland to the broader NFL headlines that always seem to land around the Browns, but the real tension remains the same: camp is supposed to clarify things, and this one is already making them feel more complicated. [Read more 🡒]