4 offensive sleepers Cleveland Browns should sign in 2021 free agency

2. Kyle Rudolph, Tight End

This one is definitely filed under the ‘unlikely to happen’ category, but it’s worth looking at for one reason — the player has reportedly expressed an interest in joining the Cleveland Browns. Former Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph was released earlier this offseason and apparently would like to re-join Kevin Stefanski who was his offensive coordinator at one point in Minnesota — as touched on by our own Sam Penix.

"“The Minnesota Vikings released tight end Kyle Rudolph on Tuesday, and while the Cleveland Browns don’t have a need at TE at the moment, Rudolph reportedly is very interested in playing for his former offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski once again.” — Penix, DPD"

As Penix also said, the Browns don’t currently have a strong need — or any need at all — at tight end. Having said that, there’s a caveat with all of this, including Rudolph’s desire to play in Cleveland. Originally reported by Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Rudolph is really only interested in playing for the Browns if David Njoku still wants to leave.

Last season, Njoku asked to be traded and while he hasn’t come out and said he still wants to leave, not much has changed. In fact, the only real revelation is that the big role he was promised ahead of 2020 turned out to be a much smaller role than it should have been.

Njoku was the best tight end on the roster last season but still found himself playing third fiddle. For that reason, he could very well still want to play elsewhere in 2021 and if the Browns allow this to happen, it would make Rudolph an interesting option.

Still, there are a lot of dominos that need to fall for this to take place, but it isn’t impossible.