With their offseason program starting this week, the Browns have made several roster moves on Monday.
According to the league’s daily transaction wire, Cleveland has signed free agent defensive back Myles Bryant. The club has also signed six of its exclusive rights free agents, including kicker Andre Szmyt.
Bryant, 28, spent the last two seasons with the Texans after playing his first four with the Patriots. In 2025, Bryant appeared in 11 games with three starts, recording 40 total tackles.
Bryant has tallied four interceptions and 17 passes defensed in his 77 career games with 20 starts.
Szmyt kicked in all 17 games for the Browns last season, connecting on 24-of-27 field goals and 25-of-26 extra points. He previously spent time with the Bears, as well as the St. Louis Battlehawks of the UFL after going undrafted out of Syracuse in 2023.
Cleveland has also officially re-signed tight end Brenden Bates, receiver Malachi Corley, linebacker Winston Reid, long snapper Rex Sunahara, and receiver Jamari Thrash — all of whom were ERFAs.
The Texans are taking a look at a defensive back.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Martin Emerson Jr. is visiting with Houston on Monday.
Emerson missed all of the 2025 season with a torn Achilles suffered during training camp in late July. That meant he did not play in the final year of his rookie contract with the Browns, who selected him in the third round of the 2022 draft.
In his first three seasons, Emerson appeared in 50 games with 33 starts. He recorded four interceptions and 14 passes defensed in 2023, helping Cleveland reach the postseason. In 2024, he played all 17 games with 15 starts, tallying five passes defensed, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and 80 total tackles.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
C.J. Stroud made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. He has not been the same quarterback the past two seasons, despite winning a playoff game in each of his first three seasons.
Stroud threw five interceptions in the 2025 postseason, including four in a 28-16 loss to the Patriots in the divisional round.
It begs the question: How committed are the Texans to their quarterback?
They are likely to exercise the fifth-year option on Stroud’s contract, which would guarantee him $25.9 million for 2026, but they appear in no hurry to complete a long-term extension. General Manager Nick Caserio has said only that Stroud is the Texans’ starting quarterback for 2026, offering no insight into the future beyond this season.
Cal McNair, in an interview with Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle, would say only that they support Stroud.
“We’re totally behind him,” McNair told Alexander. “He’s totally bought into being our quarterback and all that entails.
“We all want to get better every year. He’s doing that. We’re doing that. Everyone is doing that in the organization. Everybody is trying to get better every day.”
Stroud, who threw a career-high 12 interceptions in 2024 and a career-low 19 touchdowns in 2025, has not played good enough the past two seasons for a team that had the No. 6 defense in 2024 and the No. 1 defense in 2025. McNair, though, isn’t listening to the criticism of his quarterback.
“I will let them do that and like I said, we’ll try to get better every year, top to bottom,” McNair said.
Edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney remains a free agent.
That is not unusual for Clowney. In the past four years, he signed one-year contracts on Sept. 14 (with the Cowboys in 2025), March 27 (with the Panthers in 2024), Aug. 18 (with the Ravens in 2023) and May 22 (with the Browns in 2022).
Clowney, 33, is doing what he does every time this time of year — working out at his home in Houston and waiting.
“That’s the usual for me,” Clowney told Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “The usual, all season. Come in, stand on my grind. I got a lot left in the tank. I don’t know if other people know that, but I know that. I can continue to prove that to people and go out there and show people I’m going to do that.”
Clowney has played for seven teams in 12 years, signing mostly one-year deals. He could have an eighth home this season, likely on a one-year deal.
He spent last season with the Cowboys, totaling 8.5 sacks and 10 quarterback hits in 13 games.
The Cowboys, though, moved on this offseason when they traded with the Packers for edge rusher Rashan Gary. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confirmed the team will not re-sign Clowney on Tuesday.
“It’s real hard when you look at how Clowney came on last year and the snaps he gave us,” Jones said, via video from Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s real hard not to have a place there for Clowney, but you can’t have it all. You just can’t have it all. If things go right for us, we’ve already made a signing. We’ve made trades. We think that’s the better way to go.”
Clowney has never had a double-digit sack season since the Texans drafted him No. 1 overall in 2014, and he has made the Pro Bowl only three times. But his 66.5 career sacks will entice someone to sign him for 2026.
“I done played in every scheme, ain’t no scheme I can’t play in, 3-4 to 4-3 to whatever damn scheme that you had,” Clowney told Wilson. “I think I done proved that I can play in them all and not just play in them, but also dominate in them schemes and do my job at a high level. I just came off a great season, looking forward to doing it again and, you know, continue to prove to people and show the balance.
“They know I’m available. I walk in every year and play well on every scheme and every team I’ve been on. I want to continue to do that going into year 13. Showing people wrong and proving that I can still play at a high level. It don’t matter where I end up, where I play at, just know I’m coming to show you again and prove people wrong again.”
