Browns release Ibraheim Campbell, another Ray Farmer miss
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns continue to rework the bottom of the roster after replacing safety Ibraheim Campbell with defensive back Derron Smith.
The Cleveland Browns made a roster move on Thursday as the club released third-year safety Ibraheim Campbell with an injury designation.
To fill Campbell’s spot on the roster, the Browns signed defensive back Derron Smith from the practice squad of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The club announced the moves on the team website.
Campbell appeared in 37 mostly forgettable games for the Browns, making 10 starts and totaling 51 tackles, one fumble recovery and a lone pass defensed. His release is just the latest in a slow purge of the mistakes of former general manager Ray Farmer.
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The Browns selected Campbell in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL Draft despite many pre-draft reports pegging him as an undrafted free agent candidate.
Campbell was one of 12 players the Farmer drafted that spring, eight of whom are no longer on the Browns: Campbell, Cameron Erving, Xavier Cooper, Vince Mayle, Charles Gaines, Malcolm Johnson, Hayes Pullard and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu.
All told, Farmer selected 18 players in his two years running the Browns draft and only six remain with the Browns: Danny Shelton, Nate Orchard, Duke Johnson, Randall Telfer, Joel Bitonio and Christian Kirksey.
Add in the 0-for-5 that former team president Joe Banner and general manager Mike Lombardi put up in 2013, and the Browns only have six players to show for three draft classes that should be making up the major core of this team.
And there are still people who struggle to understand or accept just how much work needed to be done with the current rebuilding effort.
As for Smith, he was originally a sixth-round selection by the Bengals in the 2015 NFL Draft out of Fresno State. He played in 31 games with Cincinnati, but did not make a start. Smith had missed Cincinnati’s last four games while dealing with an ankle injury.
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The Bengals released Smith over the weekend as they needed a roster spot for kicker Marshall Koehn and signed him to their practice squad on Tuesday. But Smith apparently had enough of playing with Bengals and terminated his contract for the chance to come north to play for the Browns.