Cleveland Browns promote Elijah Lee to the show

Special teams ace Elijah Lee has earned a promotion to the Cleveland Browns 53-man roster starting with the Houston game.

Elijah Lee of the Cleveland Browns, an outstanding special teams player and backup linebacker, has earned a spot on the 53-man roster starting with the Houston Texans on Sunday.

He replaces linebacker Anthony Walker who is on the Injured Reserve (IR) with a hamstring injury. Walker is a free agent addition who played for the Indianapolis Colts last eason and called signals for the Browns in their first game.

It’s hard to believe, but the 25-year-old Lee has played in five playoff games in his brief career, including the Super Bowl, for San Francisco against the Kansas City Chiefs, and recorded two tackles on special teams.

Lee was cut by the Browns at the end of the preseason and signed to the practice squad. He played in the season opener against those same hated Chiefs, and recorded another special teams tackle.

Under a special rule implemented last season, up to two practice squad players may be temporarily elevated to active status, but are returned to the practice squad at the end of the game without having to clear waivers, as would normally be the case for a player that a team wishes to assign to its practice squad.

Escaping waivers is not as great as it’s cracked up to be, in this writer’s opinion, because the player can still be signed away by another team the next week. The only way to truly protect the player is to promote him to the 53-player roster, which is what the Browns have done for Lee this week.

Lee now has, essentially, a three-game, no-trade, no-cut contract. The Browns are obligated to hold that roster space open for him, no matter what. After that, Cleveland can keep him on the 53-player roster week-to-week, hopefully for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. He may be needed to make a few more special teams tackles.

Lee came to the NFL as a seventh round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2017 out of Kansas State. Gee, it seems like there are an amazing number of ex-Vikings on the Browns including coach Kevin Stefanski.That may not be a coincidence? Lee was waived by the Vikes and picked up by San Franciso. Lee started five games in 2018 and registered 65 tackles.In 2019 he played mostly special teams for the 49ers.

He didn’t receive a restricted free agent tender from the 49ers after the Super Bowl, which made him a free agent. The Lions signed him, but he evidently failed to make a sufficiently positive impression on coach Matt Patricia (note: this writer *automatically* forgives all players who fail to make positive impressions on Matt Patricia, so let’s not hold that against our guy). The Lions used him in only four games last season, and only on Special Teams.

Lee was claimed on waivers by the Browns in late October last year. In Cleveland, he has been a star pupil of special teams coach Mike Priefer, and turned in six tackles in only eight games with the Browns. He added another versus the Chiefs in game one this season.

Priefer needs to hold his unit together after losing Khadarel Hodge, Tae Davis, Tavierre Thomas. Stephen Carlson (IR), Can a player make a living in the NFL based on his ability on special teams coverage? Absolutely.

Lee was on the field for 21 snaps in the first game. That’s not half bad. Lee can also take the field on defense, of course, as he did for a few snaps last season.  He provides another layer of security in case of an injury among the linebacking corps.

He’s in his fifth season, and his third year working with Joe Woods. Woods was the passing game coordinator for the 49ers in 2019, which primarily involved defensive backs, but obviously also involved day to day interaction with linebackers as well.

Welcome back, Mr. Lee. Of course, you never really left!