Cleveland Browns: Pre-training camp 53-man roster prediction

Special Teams (3): Austin Seibert, Jamie Gillan, Charley Hughlett

It’s so tempting to put Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi on this roster as a return specialist because this kid has an interesting story and can flat-out fly. Picturing him as a return man is fun given his sub 4.40 speed, but until we actually see him taking kicks back in the preseason, we leave him off the roster — especially considering there’s not really any spot we really want to trim in order to keep a return specialist.

With that being said, the return duties will likely be handled by Antonio Callaway and Dontrell Hilliard. That means there will be just three specialists on the team this year.

First is rookie kicker Austin Seibert. Drafted with the selection the Browns obtained in exchange for Josh Gordon, Seibert will compete with Greg Joseph for the placekicking duties. He has a leg up (no pun intended) on Joseph due to the fact that a draft pick was used on him.

He didn’t kick a lot of field goals at Oklahoma since they were always scoring touchdowns, but he was solid when he did get a chance to kick.

As for the punter, Britton Colquitt loses out to another rookie here as Jamie Gillan gets the job in this prediction. Gillan, also known as “The Scottish Hammer,” is a left-footed punter with a powerful leg. Undrafted out of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, he makes the team due to the fact that he makes a little over $2 million less than Colquitt, who can be cut without costing Cleveland any dead money.

Lastly, there’s Charley Hughlett, the long snapper. Hughlett has been with the team since 2014 and has always done a good job. This position isn’t broke, so no reason to fix it.