Browns Fans Look Back At The Team’s Biggest Roster Surprise Heading Into The Season

It’s been a week since the Cleveland Browns made their final roster cuts and named their initial 53-man roster. When I compare that to my initial 53-man roster projection, I successfully predicted 47/53 players (88.6%). The players who I predicted to make it, but got wrong, were WR Luke Floriea, TE Joe Royer, OL KT Leveston, DT Sam Kamara, LB Nathaniel Watson, and CB Tre Avery.

Since then, a few other changes have happened, including the waiving of DE Julian Okwara, CB Michael Coats, and placing DT Kalia Davis on injured reserve, as the team opted to add some other or veteran depth to the main roster with the lines of DE Sam Williams, CB Noah Igbinoghene, and CB Toriano Pride.

For this week’s Reacts poll, I asked fans what the biggest roster surprise was for the Browns. The options focused on two of the team’s cuts, as well as the decisions made at the quarterback decision.

Leading the way with 41% of the vote was the clear cut departure of Floriea, the local wide receiver who quickly became beloved by fans. More surprising than him not making the roster was the fact that the team opted to not even sign him to the practice squad. He did have a tryout with a team this past Friday, but he’s dangerously close to never getting a shot in the NFL again, despite an excellent training camp.

Next up in the voting with 33% of the vote was the fact that QB Dillon Gabriel landed on injured reserve to begin the season. People were half-expecting the Browns to try to find a trade partner for Gabriel, but after a 3-touchdown first half in the final preseason game, the last thing people expected was for him to suddenly have a “back injury.”

With 21% of the vote was Leveston getting outright cut. I don’t think fans had much emotional investment into this one, but heading into training camp, Leveston was locked up in a position battle at right guard with Teven Jenkins. Toward the end of camp, Austin Barber started getting reps at right guard and performing well, but the assumption was that the team was simply testing the rookie’s versatility and potential. In actuality, it helped make Leveston expendable in terms of depth, along with Zak Zinter performing better to win a reserve spot.

Last, but not least, only 5% of fans voted for QB Taylen Green making the team as the biggest surprise. Even though he may not be ready to “quarterback,” his speed showed a huge asset that Cleveland could consider leveraging in packages this season, something the team didn’t want to let get away.

One user noted that “none of the above” would have been appropriate, with Coats having been waived. That’s fair, although our poll was created prior to that transaction.

According to FanDuel, the Browns are 350/1 odds to win the Super Bowl, which is a big drop since roster cuts were made.