Browns Clips
The Browns announced a handful of roster moves on Friday.
Guard Kendrick Green has been placed on injured reserve, which means he’ll either spend the whole season on the list or get released with an injury settlement once he’s on track to return to action. Green played one game for the Browns last season and played in 36 games for the Steelers and Texans earlier in his career.
The Browns also announced that they have signed offensive lineman Jack Conley and cornerback Jeadyn Lukus. Conley was on the practice squad in Cleveland last season and Lukus was waived by the Titans last weekend.
Wide receiver Jamari Thrash and linebacker Reid Carrico were waived to round out the Friday morning moves for the Browns.
For a decade, Hall of Famer Joe Thomas anchored the Browns’ offensive line at left tackle.
With training camp ongoing, Thomas has been at the facility this week to assist with coaching the rebuilt group at the behest of head coach Todd Monken.
Monken revealed to reporters after Thursday’s practice that he offered Thomas a full-time job after he was hired in January.
“Well, when I was interviewing for the job and then when I got the job, I reached out to Joe,” Monken said in his press conference. “Joe, obviously, played for [offensive line coach] George Warhop as well. And I said, hey, we’ve got a spot for you if you want to help us coach. And he said, ‘I’d love to coach.’ He said, ‘I don’t think I want to commit to an everyday contract.’ I said, ‘That’s fine. Anytime you want to come out and help our guys, you’re more than welcome.’ And we certainly would welcome him.”
With the Browns bringing in offensive tackle Spencer Fano with the No. 9 overall pick of this year’s draft, Thomas likely had some useful pointers for the rookie to excel as he begins his first season.
The forgotten man in the Cleveland quarterback rotation is forcing himself into the conversation by performing well in practice. But Dillon Gabriel has yet to officially enter the competition to win the starting quarterback job with the Browns.
Does he feel disrespected by that?
“Never disrespected,” Gabriel told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t take things personally, it’s a business. I’m focused on what I need to do to get better, and that’s all I’m focused on. I’m present with that.”
Gabriel also was asked whether he believes earning more reps gives him a chance to seize the job.
“I’m really just focused on mastering my reps,” Gabriel said. “I really appreciate [pass game coordinator] Danny Bryer and [senior director of player development] James Cook. James Cook and [offensive skill development specialist] Demetric Felton are big on walkthroughs in the morning, which helps set me up for a good day. And afterwards with Danny Bryer, a guy I’ve really leaned on, getting coached up — three or five reps, talking through it as best I can and improving. And same with [assistant quarterbacks] coach [Matt] Baker, he’s been really good for me.”
Contributing to the perception that Gabriel is an afterthought is the manner in which he was strong-armed into giving up No. 8 to Jared Verse. Dillon was asked about his new number, 6.
“Yeah, I don’t really care about numbers,” Gabriel said. “My freshman year in high school, I remember I got pulled up to varsity wearing 96. . . . No, no attachment to any numbers. There may be some cool things to certain numbers that everyone tells themselves once they get a new number, but for the most part it’s just a number.”
That’s the right attitude. Although some players believe their number becomes part of their identity, it’s simply a mechanical feature allowing the officials and the opponent to more easily track the player. There’s no real reason to become emotionally invested in it.
Players change teams. When they do, they change uniforms. Changing the number on a uniform is no different. For Gabriel, the far more important number is the one he’ll eventually be assigned on the depth chart.
Browns head coach Todd Monken opened a Wednesday press conference by responding to a question about the team’s plans for their starting quarterback in their first two preseason games.
Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network reported on Tuesday that Monken told him either Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders would start the preseason opener against the Bears on August 15 and that the other one would start against the Bills on August 22. On Wednesday, Monken said that was not an entirely accurate representation of the team’s plans at this point.
“Basically talked about that the quarterbacks are gonna play in the preseason,” Monken said. “Obviously if it’s still a competition at that time, why wouldn’t you start one and start the other and then we would go from there. That was really what the conversation was. He wasn’t wrong in what we talked about, which you’ve all known that they’re gonna play in the preseason. Someone has to go out there for the first snap thus they would be the one that starts. At this point we’re so far from that, that it’s not really as important as what it got made out to be.”
Monken said that Watson and Sanders will continue rotating with the first team as long as the competition continues and gave no indication that there’s a specific date he has in mind to make a decision on a starter. It seems likely that both Watson and Sanders will wind up starting a preseason game if that continues for a few more weeks, but it’s not the sure thing it may have seemed on Tuesday.
Just before the Browns started training camp, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy found himself going viral on social media for something he didn’t do.
A video showing Jeudy putting up four fingers was portrayed as him answering a question about who he thinks should be the team’s quarterback by favoring Deshaun Watson, but, as noted at the time, the video was clearly edited and Jeudy responded by writing that he doesn’t “speak on decisions that aren’t mine to make.”
Jeudy addressed the video again at a Thursday press conference and said that whoever made the video edited out a section including his daughter. Jeudy said he held up the four fingers to answer a question during a livestream about how old his daughter is and that the video’s editing “made it into something” it wasn’t.
“I’ve been in the league for seven years. At least five or six of those years, there’s always been a quarterback competition within those years,” Jeudy said. “I think I was mature enough, wise enough to not answer questions like that. For anyone to believe I would answer like that on social media is kinda wild. You gotta understand this is what we in and understand how everybody viewing the quarterback competition in this room, so every little thing’s going to try to turn it into that. . . . I don’t even answer quarterback questions in here, why would I answer quarterback questions on TikTok?”
Jeudy said he spoke to Watson and Shedeur Sanders directly to tell them he wasn’t discussing their competition and that the entire episode reinforced his feeling that “nothing’s real” on social media. There are no shortage of examples inside and outside of football to back up that view and there will inevitably be more of them despite admonitions from Jeudy or anyone else to treat it with skepticism.
Browns coach Todd Monken originally hoped to name a starting quarterback by the offseason program. That didn’t happen, with the competition continuing into training camp.
Monken finally has revealed his timeline for a decision.
He told Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network that Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson will each start a preseason game. The next week will determine who starts Aug. 15 at Chicago and who starts the Aug. 22 home game against the Bills.
The leader likely starts the final preseason game on Aug. 27 against the Patriots.
Watson has played only 19 games since arriving in Cleveland in 2022. He hasn’t played since October of 2024, twice tearing his Achilles since.
Sanders earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie despite starting only seven games and completing 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,400 yards, with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Before Eagles defensive end A.J. Epenesa landed in Philadelphia, he had a one-year deal worth up to $5 million in place with the Browns. Until he didn’t.
The Browns pulled out of the agreement, due to concerns regarding his physical.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Epenesa didn’t want to say much about the Browns. He made it clear that he’s happy to be with the Eagles.
“Cleveland, you know, it was a weird situation,” Epenesa told reporters. “But I don’t necessarily want to go back and talk on that in just a weird sense but I’ll just leave that in the past and just be happy that I’m not a Brown and that I’m an Eagle.”
Is Epenesa healthy now?
“Very healthy,” he said, “feeling good, and happy to be here.”
His contract with the Eagles pays much less than his contract with the Browns would have entailed — one year, $1.402 million.
A second-round pick in 2020, Epenesa spent his first six seasons with the Bills.
The Browns claimed defensive tackle Coziah Izzard off waivers, the team announced Tuesday.
The Cardinals cut Izzard on Monday.
In a corresponding move, the Browns waived wide receiver Aaron Anderson with an injury designation. Anderson signed with the team as an undrafted free agent on May 19.
Izzard is in his first NFL season out of Penn State. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2025, signing with the Chiefs.
Izzard has spent time on the practice squad of the Chiefs and Cardinals.
KC Concepcion landed hard on his right shoulder late in Monday’s practice.
The Browns’ rookie wide receiver seemed fine afterward, and coach Todd Monken confirmed as much Tuesday.
“He’s doing fine,” Monken said, via multiple reports. “He’s still sore.”
Concepcion, though, returned to practice Tuesday.
The Browns drafted Concepcion in the first round out of Texas A&M. He totaled 61 receptions for 919 yards and nine touchdowns and added two punt return touchdowns in his only season with the Aggies.
In his three-year college career, which included two seasons at North Carolina State, Concepcion totaled 2,218 receiving yards, 431 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns from scrimmage.
The Browns added a cornerback to their roster on Tuesday morning.
The team announced the signing of Tyler Hall. Offensive tackle Jack Conley was waived in a corresponding move.
Hall appeared in one game for the Seahawks last season. He spent time on Seattle’s practice squad in each of the last two seasons and previously played for the Raiders, Rams and Falcons. He has 46 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and four passes defensed in 32 career games.
Conley spent time with the Patriots and Lions after going undrafted out of Boston College in 2025. He signed with the Browns’ practice squad in December and re-signed in January.
