Cleveland Browns place Donald Stephenson on reserve/retired list

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Cleveland Browns have placed offensive lineman Donald Stephenson on the reserve/retired list. Looking back on it, maybe the entire Stephenson experiment was never even worth it. 

On Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news that the Cleveland Browns had put offensive lineman Donald Stephenson on the reserve/retired list.

The NFL offseason can be awfully weird — to put it mildly — sometimes, and Stephenson was just one of those cases.

Many considered him a decent, but not great signing for Cleveland, and from there, everything went downhill for the former Denver Broncos offensive lineman.

Moments after Schefter’s announcement, Cleveland Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot broke the news that Stephenson would be officially retiring.

The Browns brought Stephenson in as an offensive tackle, and he likely would have been in the market to be the starter at right tackle in 2018. However, that was not meant to be as Stephenson looks to ride off into the sunset, rather than face his two-game suspension for not attending minicamp.

All in all, this experiment is a grand failure, but fortunately with relatively few consequences. The Browns are still looking for offensive line depth, yes, but they were looking even when Stephenson was on the roster.

The offseason rolls on for the Cleveland Browns as they look to bolster the offensive line in their first Joe Thomas-less season in over a decade.

Next: Are the Browns still the worst team in the AFC North?

Thanks for coming to town, Donald Stephenson, but maybe your time with the Browns was just never meant to be.