Cleveland Browns re-sign offensive lineman Matt McCants

The Cleveland Browns re-signed offensive lineman Matt McCants on Monday. Is this a minor move or a sign of something bigger at right tackle?

The Cleveland Browns made another minor roster move on Monday, re-signing offensive lineman Matt McCants.

The team announced the move on its website.

A fifth-year veteran, McCants spent two weeks with the Browns late last season after being waived by the Oakland Raiders. Cleveland brought the 6-foot-5 and 309-pound McCants to town after losing guard John Greco for the season with a foot injury.

The Browns released McCants after Week 14 and he closed out the 2016 regular season with the Chicago Bears.

McCants was originally drafted by the New York Giants in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He spent his rookie season on the Giants practice squad before moving onto the Oakland Raiders in 2013.

He was with Oakland for four seasons, appearing in 28 games and making three starts. Even though he didn’t see much playing time with the Raiders, McCants always kept a positive attitude, according to the Raiders team website:

"“Every day I come to work I have my positive attitude, 100 percent effort. That’s the one thing I try to bring to the table is a positive attitude, and 100 percent effort every time. Knowing when I’m out there I need to be accountable to my team, my coaches, and the fans. Just a reliable guy.”"

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The signing of McCants is mildly interesting on two fronts.

First is that McCants has played primarily at right tackle, a position that should be coming down to a training camp battle between Cameron Erving, the former first-round pick who failed at center, and Shon Coleman, a third round-pick from last year who was limited as he recovered from off-season knee surgery.

The second is that it highlights that the Browns seem to have no desire to bring back Austin Pasztor, last year’s starter at right tackle. For a player that is a guard, Pasztor held his own at tackle in 2016.

But with the signing of Kevin Zeitler in free agency and Erving and Coleman set to push each other at right tackle, Pasztor’s day in Cleveland are seemingly over. (Of course, he is still a free agent so it is not just the Browns that seem to have reservations about Pasztor.)

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At the end of the day, the McCants signing will probably wind up as nothing more than a minor footnote from the off-season.

But with the Browns you never know.

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