Cleveland Browns admit John Dorsey mistake, move on from Chad Thomas

One surprising cut made by the Cleveland Browns was Chad Thomas

As the Cleveland Browns prepare their final 2020 roster cuts have been announced all morning.  One of the more surprising moves thus far is the release of former third-round pick Chad Thomas.

Although the statistics weren’t there yet, the former John Dorsey pick in 2018 was expected to finally turn on the jets in 2020.

While Thomas wasn’t going to compete with Myles Garrett or Olivier Vernon for starting time at defensive end, there was a thought he would be a tremendous backup option along with Adrian Clayborn. The release of Thomas further solidifies the over hype of previous general manager Dorsey.

While Browns fans were finally excited to have some real talent on the roster, Dorsey often didn’t worry about character issues or depth, which new general manager Andrew Berry is now tasked with.

In two seasons with the Browns, Thomas had eight starts and four sacks. When the Browns traded Genard Avery, the belief at the time was Thomas would overtake that position. Unfortunately, the only thing that happened was fans became enraged that Avery was ever traded.

With Thomas now a free agent, look for Porter Gustin to be the backup defensive end along with Clayborn. Gustin was a former five-star college recruit at USC who ended up going undrafted in 2019 to the New Orleans Saints before ending up on the Browns practice squad after the suspension of Garrett.

Gustin has been a strong performer this year at training camp, and with the Dorsey administration now out, the third-round pick spent in 2018 means nothing to Berry nor Stefanski. With the final rosters due today, stay tuned for any other breaking news from the Browns or around the NFL.