Tag: Taywan Taylor

Final Browns injury report: Denzel Ward and KhaDarel Hodge OUT

Myles Garrett will play but losing Hodge hurts at WR

Friday’s final injury report from the Cleveland Browns in advance of Sunday’s big AFC matchup with the Tennessee Titans reveals the Browns will be shorthanded at wideout.

The Browns will be without two wide receivers for the trip to Tennessee. KhaDarel Hodge has been ruled out with a hamstring injury and Tayway Taylor is out with a neck issue. Hodge injured the hamstring running a route in Thursday’s practice, per coach Kevin Stefanski in his Friday media session. It’s not the same hamstring that kept Hodge on injured reserve earlier this season, Stefanski also indicated.

With two wideouts ruled out with injuries, expect Derrick Willies to be elevated from the practice squad for the game. The Browns have just three healthy wideouts: Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins and rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones.

Cornerback Denzel Ward will miss his second straight game with a calf strain. He did not practice all week and Ward was not expected to play.

All the Browns activated during the week from the reserve/COVID-19 list, including starters Myles Garrett and Andu Janovich, will play Sunday.

Browns sign WR Taywan Taylor from the practice squad

Taylor fills the opening created when KhaDarel Hodge went on I.R.

In a move that was expected by many, the Cleveland Browns have signed wide receiver Taywan Taylor from the team’s practice squad to the active 53-man roster. The team announced the move on Wednesday.

Taylor’s promotion from the practice squad comes one day after the team placed WR KhaDarel Hodge on injured reserve. Hodge suffered a hamstring injury during pre-game warmups in the Week 4 win over Dallas and will miss at least the next three games as a result.

Taylor played in three games for the Browns in 2019, with zero catches on one target, after spending his first two seasons in Tennessee. He has been on Cleveland’s practice squad all year.

Taylor bolsters the depth at wide receiver. Rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones figures to be Hodge’s primary on-field replacement as the team’s No. 3 wideout.

Browns pull the plug on WRs Damion Ratley, Taywan Taylor

WRs Damion Ratley and Taywan Taylor were among the early cuts for the Browns

The Cleveland Browns have ended the runs for two of the young wide receivers of some prominence on the roster. Damion Ratley and Taywan Taylor were among the first players released on Saturday as the Browns cut down the roster to 53 by Saturday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline.

Ratley was a sixth-round pick by the John Dorsey-era Browns in 2018. The speedy Texas A&M product caught 25 passes for 344 yards and a touchdown in his two seasons in Cleveland as a vertical threat. He was used almost exclusively as a deep threat up the right sideline, and the limited role ability and an inability to contribute on special teams likely cost Ratley.

Taylor came to Cleveland in the summer of 2019 after being dumped by the Tennessee Titans. He was a third-round pick in 2017 by Tennessee and caught 37 passes in 2018 for the Titans, but it never clicked for Taylor in Cleveland. He did not register a single catch in his debut season in brown and orange.

Both are eligible for the Browns practice squad if they go unclaimed on the waiver wire.

Browns flashback: Storylines from 1 year ago reveal a very different team

From Greg Robinson being cut to a college football preview, so much has changed in a year

With the calendar turning to September and the Browns idle yesterday, I decided to take a look back at where we were with the team one year ago. My how the times have changed!

There were the top five most-read stories on Browns Wire one year ago today, on Sept. 1st, 2019:

Browns release starting left tackle Greg Robinson

This was one of those, “huh?” moments. Yes, the Browns did indeed cut their starting left tackle after the final roster cutdowns. It was a designed maneuver to allow rookie Drew Forbes to sneak through to I.R. rather than expose him to waivers. Robinson quickly re-signed with the team. Now Forbes is on the opt-out list and Robinson is facing up to 20 years in prison.

Taywan Taylor: What the Browns are getting in their new WR

Oh the excitement there was over acquiring Taywan Taylor! Here was a recent third-round pick set free by a numbers game in Tennessee. John Dorsey (remember him?) pounced on Taylor, picked up via trade for just a 7th-round pick. Another Dorsey masterstroke!

Welp. Taylor, who caught 37 passes in 2018 for the Titans, did not catch a single pass in his first year in Cleveland. He seems unlikely to get a second season to redeem himself.

Cleveland Browns roster cuts: Here’s who has been released

Roster cutdown day was Aug. 31st, so the first day of September was full of getting caught up on who was still in the brown and orange and who got sent packing.

In looking at this list, a few of the players here came back in one form or another: Stephen Carlson, Willie Harvey, J.T. Hassell, Robert Jackson, Donnie Lewis. All remain with the Browns today. Only punter Britton Colquitt went on to do anything notable anywhere else, and the Browns were right to take the risk and go with rookie Jamie Gillan over the reliable veteran.

Eric Kush named Browns starting RG “as we speak” by Freddie Kitchens

Insert GIF of Nancy Kerrigan screaming a tearful “why!?” here. The only upshot is the mention of newcomer Wyatt Teller getting a chance to usurp Kush, now struggling to make the Raiders as their final reserve OL. Teller is the starting right guard for 2020 — as we speak, anyway…

2020 NFL Draft Prospect preview: Oklahoma Sooners

Remember college football? Yeah, me too. Sigh. Props to Josh Keatley for trumpeting CeeDee Lamb, recently rated the best WR in Dallas Cowboys camp, as an attractive target for the Browns.

 

Tracking what happened to the draft picks the Browns traded away

Tracking what happened to the draft picks the Browns traded away in the 2020 NFL Draft

Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns made a couple of trades during the 2020 NFL Draft. The rookie GM accepted two separate offers to move back a few spots.

Here’s what became of those draft trades.

No. 41 overall

The Browns traded No. 41 overall in the second round to the Indianapolis Colts. In return the Browns received No. 44 and No. 160 overall. Cleveland used those picks to select Grant Delpit and Nick Harris, respectively.

The Colts moved up to land Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor at No. 41. With RB not a need in Cleveland, it’s a good return on a pick that the Colts used on a player the Browns weren’t going to select anyway.

No. 74 overall

The Browns picked up No. 88 overall and a third-round pick in 2021 from the New Orleans Saints in exchange for the team’s first third-round selection. Cleveland snagged DT Jordan Elliott after moving back and still owns the extra 2021 pick.

New Orleans drafted Wisconsin OLB Zack Baun at 74. The Browns also sent the Saints a seventh-round pick, No. 244 overall. The Saints used that pick on Iowa QB Nathan Stanley.

Baun would have been an interesting fit in Cleveland. He’s a better all-around player with much more positional versatility than Jacob Phillips, the LB the Browns chose later in the third. Baun fell because of concerns about his size, or lack thereof.

No. 155 overall

This was originally the Browns’ pick, but it was traded to the Buffalo Bills at the end of the 2019 preseason in exchange for guard Wyatt Teller. The Browns original 6th-round pick, No. 188 overall, was also included in that deal. Buffalo took Georgia Southern kicker Tyler Bass with that pick.

The Bills traded this spot to Minnesota in the huge, multi-pick deal last month to acquire WR Stefon Diggs. Minnesota didn’t keep the pick either. They traded No. 155 to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick in 2021. Chicago used the 155th pick on Tulsa EDGE Trevis Gipson.

No. 224 overall

Cleveland sent this pick, it’s original 7th-rounder, to the Tennessee Titans last August in exchange for WR Taywan Taylor. The Titans kept the pick and used it to select Hawaii QB Cole McDonald.

Donovan Peoples-Jones was selected by the Browns with the pick acquired from the Arizona Cardinals in the Jamar Taylor trade back in 2018.