Cleveland Browns 101: Waiver wire and practice squad basics

NFL rosters, including the Cleveland Browns, have been cut to 53 players. However, there may still be quite a bit of activity prior to kickoff versus the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1:00 PM at FirstEnergy Stadium.

For those who are interested in following team-building and front office moves, the rules are very complicated, but here is a simplified description of what is happening:

From the time cuts are announced until 12 noon and Sunday, most of the players cut are on the waiver wire. Veteran players with four years in the league do not go through waivers and become free agents when they are cut.

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For example, Britton Colquitt is now a free agent after being cut from the BRowns and does not go through the waiver process because he is a veteran. However, all of the rookie free agents have to go through the waiver process.

All 32 teams have to submit their requests by the deadline. The pecking order for the waiver wire is the same as the NFL draft so that the bad teams get priority, and the playoff teams get the lowest priority. So, for example, if the Browns and the Steelers both claim the same player, he goes to the Browns.

Last year, for example, the Browns claimed five players and were obviously awarded all five since they had a bulletproof 0-16 record and first overall position in the draft. This year they are 17th.

All the waiver wire claims will be sorted out by 12 noon on Sunday, Sept. 1, and the unclaimed players become free agents again, free to sign with any team. At this point, all teams are allowed to establish a practice squad, which consists of up to ten players.

Practice squad players are paid only $8,000 per week. They don’t play on Sunday, but they practice with the team. Each NFL team can have up to 10 players on its practice squad.

These players can be signed by other teams, but they have to be on the 53-player roster for at least three games when they are signed.

Most of the players have zero or one year’s experience, but up to four players can be signed with two years experience. A year of experience is defined as six games. If a player had less than six games on a practice team in a season, it doesn’t count toward the limit.

There is no formal deadline for the practice squad to be formed, and it is never final since players go on and off the practice squad roster from week to week.

Players who are cut and clear waivers often sign with the practice squad of the team that cut them, since that is the system that they know and offers the most likely chance of making a 53-player roster. But in some cases, that may not be true.

For the Browns, the dynamic has changed. It used to be that they could always count on being able to sign a well-regarded quarterback prospect because players looking for a chance to start saw the Browns as a team that would give them a chance. Hence, players like Brian Hoyer, Austin Davis, and Kevin Hogan were eager to sign with the Browns. Not so now, because young quarterbacks do not see a future in trying to beat out Baker Mayfield for a starting job.

By the same reasoning, it might be that the Browns realized that fourth string David Blough was not going to sign with their practice squad, and so it was better to trade him. It will be interesting to see whether a new fourth-string quarterback will be signed to the 2019 practice squad.

Practice squad players are often never heard from again, but some players emerge. Last year’s squad included Dontrell Hilliard, who is now the second string running back and first-string return man. In 2017, Rashard Higgins spent some time on the practice squad also.

Similarly, in the past, the Browns could be certain that players who were cut would certainly be available to re-sign with the Browns. This year they might be lost to other teams. The Browns would like to sign players like Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, J.T. Hassell, Ishmael Hyman, Robert Jackson, and Willie Harvey to the practice squad, assuming they clear waivers.

More than likely, however, some of the Browns players will be claimed. That hardly ever happened in past years because Browns players who could not make the 53 player roster were just not very good.

Next. Players that could interest Browns after cut day. dark

This year will be different. The Browns will see more of their players claimed by other teams, and there will be fewer players from other teams that they want to claim.

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