Anthony Fabiano, gone since 2016, returns to Cleveland Browns

Anthony Fabiano, who had played five games with Indianapolis in 2017 as his only official NFL game action since being cut by the Cleveland Browns after the 2016 season, finally made it back to the team and saw action versus the Steelers in the playoff game last week. Welcome back, Anthony, you were just in time to play in one of the greatest games in Browns’ history, now get set for Part Two.

Fabiano is yet another incredible story. You might remember when the Browns were trying to figure out what to do with first-round draft pick Cameron Erving, and they tried him at tackle, then guard, then center.

Finally, for the last game of the season, they thought maybe they should move him back to right tackle. That gave Fabiano the chance to start at center.

The problem with Erving was that he was never given a chance to develop at one position long enough to get really good at it. Even in college, he started out as a defensive lineman, then moved over to offensive tackle and became a center. When he was drafted, he was determined to play all five offensive line positions when he lacked the skill to play even one position. At any rate, Erving improved when he left Cleveland. and went to Kansas City.

As for Fabiano, he got decent reviews as an NFL center, even though he was not a center in college. He had a bad snap to Robert Griffin III and looked raw, but overall observers were impressed. Still, the next season he was cut in favor of J.C. Tretter and Austin Reiter (who would also wind up starting in Kansas City), and Fabiano moved on to Washington, the New York Giants, and New England Patriots, but did not make the regular-season roster.

Finally, he latched on with Indianapolis and started a game for the Colts, but was waived after the 2017 season. The Browns brought him to training camp in 2018 again, but he did not make the team, but he did make the Eagles practice team. In 2019 he made the Tampa Bay practice team and in 2020 he was on the Green Bay practice team, and the Browns signed him. With Nick Harris on Injured Reserve with a bum knee, Fabiano might be needed if J.C. Tretter, God forbid, is unavailable.

Paradoxically, Fabiano has been around the team longer than almost anyone. Cody Parky and Joel Bitonio are about the only Browns who are left from the 2016 debacle. Note also that Fabiano’s re-appearance in summer camp 2018 is not insignificant. Why? Fabiano was working on the second team that summer and has probably snapped the ball to Baker Mayfield a few thousand times in practice.  That is definitely in his favor.

Some of the things not to like about him were that he had a foot injury in college which might have slowed him down, and he is also an Ivy Leaguer (Harvard). Yech! That is sort of a running gag around the NFL. Somehow it is all right to be from Stanford or Rice, but Ivy Leaguers are certain to take some abuse. Still, he has J.C. Tretter and Stephen Carlson to look out for him, so perhaps they can help him live down the stigma of being labeled an intellectual.

Fabiano is a bit like a Coelacanth (“see-la-canth”), a species of prehistoric fish thought to be extinct for 50 million years, until they started turning up in fishing nets off the coast of South Africa in 1938 for absolutely no reason. Similarly, the Browns class of 2016 was thought to be almost totally extinct, until Anthony “The Coelacanth” Fabiano reappeared. 2016 was not 50 million years ago, but it seems like it.

Fabiano has had four years to perfect his craft and has been fighting for his shot to represent an NFL team. Now, here he is, back where it all started. This is like a scene from a movie.