Cleveland Browns: 5 players who could still surprisingly be cut
By Sam Penix
4. TE Stephen Carlson
An increase in 11-personnel, and thus more opportunities for the wide receivers, will come at the expense of targets for the tight ends. Cleveland kept four around for 2020, and while they could do the same this season, Stephen Carlson will have to fight for his spot in that event.
The former Princeton wide receiver is on the slighter side and doesn’t provide much as a blocker (though it isn’t due to effort). He was targeted just once all year, despite Spero Dedes’ claim that he was “slowly being more involved in the offense” after that target occurred.
Carlson is a core special teamer, his 371 snaps second to only Tavierre Thomas. This is where he’ll need to excel in order to remain on the roster, but he doesn’t really add anything on offense, and that’s the concern.
He’ll be competing with Jordan Franks and Connor Davis in training camp, and Davis is the most interesting of the group. He listed at a massive 6-8 and 271 pounds, and while his pro day testing wasn’t very impressive, he apparently put in a huge amount of work to improve his athleticism with tangible results.
While Davis is a long-shot, he would give the team something that no other TE can. That’s unfortunately not something that can be said for Carlson, but he’s overcome the odds before.