Daily Dawg Tags: Browns sign three players
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns may have missed out on quarterback Alex Smith, but the club did sign some players on Wednesday.
The Cleveland Browns signed three players on Wednesday.
No, Kirk Cousins, the Washington Redskins quarterback who will hit the free agent market now that the Redskins have a deal in place to acquire quarterback Alex Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs, was not one of them. (And it is important to note that teams can’t, wink, wink, contact unrestricted free agents and work on contract details until March 12.)
Rather, the Browns signed tight end Devon Cajuste, defensive back Denzel Rice and offensive lineman Christian Schneider.
The team announced the transactions on its website.
Cajuste spent the majority of the 2017 season on the practice squad of the Green Bay Packers. He was initially an undrafted free agent with the San Francisco 49ers after playing college ball at Stanford. (Apparently the 49ers are cool with giving the local kids a look.)
Cleveland Browns
The 6-foot-3 and 242-pound Cajuste was a wide receiver with the Cardinal, finishing his college career with 91 catches, 1,596 yards and 14 touchdowns in 53 career games.
Rice has bounced around the league for three years, playing four games with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 and three games with the Houston Texans in 2016 before spending time in 2017 on the practice squad of the Indianapolis Colts.
The 5-foot-11 and 185-pound Rice originally joined the Eagles as an undrafted free agent from Coastal Carolina.
Finally, Schneider was a participant in the Green Bay Packers rookie minicamp in 2017. The 6-foot-5 and 304-pound Schneider played collegiately at UC-Davis, where he was the Aggies right tackle for four years.
In news about a player the Browns did not acquire, the club reportedly offered one of its second-round selections in the 2018 NFL Draft to the Kansas City Chiefs for quarterback Alex Smith, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.
The Browns were reportedly not willing to give Smith a big-time contract extension, however, and the Chiefs ultimately decided to trade him to the Washington Redskins for a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller.
This could go down as another “missed opportunity” by the Browns, but the fact that the Chiefs took potentially less from the Redskins is probably more of an indication that they wanted to reward Smith by sending him to a team willing to give him a better contract.
With Smith no longer an option, the Browns can now turn their attention to singing their latest “bridge quarterback” to help the rookie quarterback they will select in the upcoming draft, which is a plan that Browns fans are intimately familiar with.
Cleveland Browns news:
Examining the A.J. McCarron possibility
The Cleveland Browns have a massive hole at quarterback. Alex Smith, one of the top options this offseason, is now heading to Washington. Could Cincinnati backup A.J. McCarron be the answer the Browns are looking for?
Kirk Cousins top priority may leave Browns looking elsewhere (ohio.com)
"The Browns could conceivably outbid every other quarterback-needy team in the NFL for soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Kirk Cousins. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to sign him. Remember, nothing is ever easy for the Browns."
Alex Smith trade leaves Browns situation muddled (ESPN)
"So much for assumptions and the ideal scenario. News that the Kansas City Chiefs will trade Alex Smith to the Washington Redskins leaves the Cleveland Browns in another of what seems like a never-ending string of “now what?” situations at quarterback."
NFL news:
Bills seem unlikely to target Kirk Cousins (Buffalo News)
"Mark Gaughan wrote Wednesday that Bills fans should be happy to have missed out on Alex Smith, who is an improvement over Tyrod Taylor but still an expensive bridge quarterback. What about Kirk Cousins, whom Smith is replacing in Washington? Cousins is expected to be too pricey for the Bills, and “nothing about his history suggests he’s a lift-a-modestly-talented-squad-on-his shoulders player,” Gaughan wrote."
Dolphins should find a quarterback they believe in (Miami Herald)
"The Miami Dolphins’ Quarterback Crossroads — and if the situation isn’t seen as that, it ought to be — got a heck of a lot more interesting this week."
Alex Smith trade prompts Donovan McNabb flashbacks (Washington Post)
"If the news of Tuesday’s blockbuster trade bringing Alex Smith to Washington and paving the way for Kirk Cousins’s departure left you with an awfully familiar, if not just plain awful, feeling, that’s because it’s not the first time Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid has dealt a 33-year-old veteran quarterback to the Redskins."
Philadelphia’s Nick Foles playing himself into an attractive option (azcentral.com)
"Eagles quarterback Nick Foles is a bright young man who is on his fourth stop in the NFL, including his second in Philadelphia. So he knows his performance in helping the Eagles to Super Bowl LII will make him an attractive trade target to maybe half the NFL, including the Arizona Cardinals."