Tag: Maurice Hurst II

Browns: Examining the three weakest positions after cutdown to 53

After the cutdown to 53, what are the weakest rooms on the roster for the Browns?

General manager Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns have done a good job of constructing a complete, competitive roster. Well, only as complete and competitive as one can get under a salary cap. The Browns lead the league in money spent per year and the talent shows across the roster.

With clever layering in the bookkeeping, Berry has found a way to sustain the spending by pushing cap hits across multiple years in the future. Andrew Berry just renegotiated Jedrick Wills’ contract to create more cap room.

It is difficult to find weak spots on the roster, all things considered. Here are the three weakest units going into the season.

LB Jordan Kunaszyk placed on IR to make room for return of Maurice Hurst II.

The Browns send Jordan Kunaszyk and Alex Wright to the Injured reserve. They bring back Michael Dunn and Maurice Hurst II

The Cleveland Browns announced a roster move. They sent linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk to Injured Reserve and brought back defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II to the 53-man roster. The Browns released the vested veteran, who is unexposed to the waiver wire, with a promise to re-sign him after moving Kunaszyk to the short-term injured reserve.  

If a player is moved to the injured reserve list before the final cuts, they are ineligible to play for the season as they recover from their injuries. Jakeem Grant, Jacob Phillips, and Thomas Graham Jr. fall into this category. After the final cuts, a player placed on injured reserve can return to the active roster after four games or until they’ve healed. A team is allowed to bring back eight players from the injured reserve per season. The Browns will use one of those transactions on Kunasyzk. Once a player is moved to the injured reserve list, a roster spot opens up.  

Kunasyzk suffered an MCL tear in the Browns’ preseason finale. The injury can take upwards of three months to heal depending on the severity. Hopefully, Kunasyzk will have a speedy recovery. The veteran linebacker and special teams ace impressed the new coaching staff during the preseason. Jordan has carved his way into the roster for the second year in a row. The Browns will likely need to rely on Kunaszyk later in the season as the linebacker room does not have a good track record with health.  

Maurice Hurst II will have an oversized role in the defense. The veteran is likely to become the primary backup to starters Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris. As the Browns like to rotate their linemen in and out of games to preserve their stamina, expect to see Maurice Hurst II when one of the two starters is out of the game. The Browns need all the bodies they can get to repair a historically bad run defense.  

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Browns officially re-sign DT Maurice Hurst II according to Maurice Hurst II

Hurst II officially returns!

Defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II is officially back on the 53-man roster, according to Maurice Hurst II. After his initial cut from the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday, it was reported that his release was a bookkeeping move so the team could roster a young player who needed to be placed on Injured Reserve.

While the Browns have yet to announce which players have been placed on IR, a roster spot has opened back up for Hurst to re-sign.

After a stellar preseason, Hurst II is looking to put his injury woes behind him as he looks like his old self. He stacked sacks in each of his last three preseason games, looking like a legitimate rotational piece along the revamped Cleveland defensive line.

The Browns now currently have five defensive tackles on the roster. It remains to be seen if all five stick around or if Jordan Elliott’s time may finally come to a close.

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OG Michael Dunn, DT Maurice Hurst II expected back after ‘bookkeeping’ move

The two veterans are expected back after young players are placed on IR.

Two of the more surprising cuts the Cleveland Browns made as they trimmed their roster to 53 players were offensive guard Michael Dunn and defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II. According to Cleveland Dot Com’s Mary Kay Cabot, however, expect both players to return as their releases were “bookkeeping moves.” Kay Cabot explains the process here:

“The Browns also waived veteran guard Michael Dunn and veteran defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II, but both of those players are expected to be back soon. They were essentially bookkeeping moves designed to help get some of the Browns’ injured players such as linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk on short-term injured reserve, where they must remain until four games have been played.”

Essentially, Dunn and Hurst II are both vested players who have four or more years of service in the NFL. The Browns can release them without being exposed to waivers where another team can claim them as opposed to them cutting a young player they have to pray is not picked up by another team.

Unvested players have to be placed onto the initial 53-man roster before they can be placed on Injured Reserve as well. So young players who may be hurt right now cannot go straight to IR — this is why vested veterans are usually the targeted ones who teams will talk into their release and re-signing.

Of course, Dunn and Hurst II could shock the Browns and sign with another team, but usually, there is some sort of an agreement between the team and player (and their agent) that sweetens the pot for the player to make this type of bookkeeping possible.

For example, Hurst’s original deal he signed this offseason did not include any guaranteed money. In order to entice Hurst to agree to his release and subsequent re-signing, the Browns could either offer him more base money or guarantee a chunk of his salary that was not guaranteed on his initial deal.

As Cabot mentioned, linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk is expected to be placed on Injured Reserve. The other candidate to hit IR would be second-year defensive end Alex Wright, who had arthroscopic knee surgery after the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

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