Safety Elijah Benton promoted to Cleveland Browns active roster

Elijah Benton was promoted to the Cleveland Browns roster

The Cleveland Browns are short-handed in the defensive backfield against Pittsburgh, and have responded by temporarily promoting safety Elijah Benton from the practice squad to the 53-player active roster. He joins strong safety Jovante Moffatt ( No. 35) who was promoted from the practice squad only on September 29. Those two undrafted rookies are the only backups at safety for the Steelers game, and neither has taken a snap in an NFL game.

The Browns made the announcement about Benton from their website Saturday morning.  Benton is being brought up under a new rule this year, which allows up to two practice squad players to be temporarily promoted, resulting in a 54-player roster (or even 55-player roster if two are brought up) for up to two weeks. Then the player can be returned to the practice squad without being subjected to waivers as would normally be the case in years past.

This is the perfect situation for this rule, because the  Browns will be without both strong safeties, Ronnie Harrison and Karl Joseph. Also out are linebacker Jacob Phillips and guard Wyatt Teller. Of course rookie free safety Grant Delpit is out for the year and no one knows whether Greedy Williams will play again this season. The Browns are just very thin in the defensive backfield right now.

In case you were wondering, any free agent signee has to be brought in on a Monday in order to go through the Covid isolation protocol. So, this late in the week, the only option to go up against Pittsburgh was to promote someone from within. Benton is a free safety rather than a strong safety, but he has been practicing with the team all season and knows the defense, what the heck.

All we really know about Benton is that he starred for the Liberty Flames, an up-and-coming team competing in NCAA Division I FBS. Because of Covid-19, there was no Pro Day, and so members of media have no idea what kind of 40-yard dash time he runs or how much he bench presses or the other usual measurables.

Because Moffatt is a strong safety, he may be the more likely of the two rookies to see game action, since he is currently the only healthy strong safety on the roster. The only healthy veteran safeties are Andrew Sendejo and Sheldrick Redwine. Both are normally free safeties. However, last week Redwine took over Harrison’s responsibilities at  strong safety and will probably do so again against Pittsburgh.

Guys, all you have to do is to take on Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh. This is the toughest game of the year mentally, and you are going up against a guy whose on-the-field accomplishments are probably Hall-of-Fame worthy.

Of course, Big Ben is coming right at you as soon as he sees you, so be ready!