Hours before the NFL’s roster cutdown deadline, the Cleveland Browns made a flurry of moves that fans probably expected but didn’t want to let themselves believe.
The first was keeping all four quarterbacks — starter Deshaun Watson, backup Shedeur Sanders, third-string Dillon Gabriel, and developmental rookie Taylen Green — on the initial 53-man roster, which was first reported by Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot on Sunday.
That decision may have burned Luke Floriea’s chances of making the team, though.
Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Floriea, the Mentor, Ohio, native and fan favorite who had a monster preseason with three touchdown catches and a 15.8 yards-per-reception average, will be among the team’s cutdown day casualties. Like offensive lineman KT Leveston, he’ll hit the waiver wire with a chance to sign back with the team on the practice squad over the coming days.
The question Browns fans will be asking is a fair one: Why risk losing a young receiver who seemed to earn his spot in favor of carrying an extra quarterback who likely won’t see the field in 2026?
The Browns chose to protect their quarterback future at the expense of a player who earned his spot
Players like Floriea are so easy to root for that it’s easy to forget they were a longshot to make a 53-man roster from the start.
The harsh reality: As soon as the Browns added both KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston in the 2026 draft, Floriea’s chances of winning a spot on the 2026 roster declined considerably.
Floriea just hasn’t had enough reps on special teams to be a serious contender at this point. While he consistently shined on offense during the preseason this year with 95 yards and three scores on six catches, he only played four total snaps on special teams — all in Game 1 against the Bears.
The NFL world can be brutal, in that highlight-reel touchdown catches can matter less to coaches than gunner reps on special teams. The Browns signed veteran Tylan Wallace to fill their depth No. 5 wideout and core special-teamer role. The numbers game likely would have made Floriea a weekly healthy inactive as long as Cleveland’s top four of Jerry Jeudy, Concepcion, Boston, and Isaiah Bond stayed healthy.
Floriea’s chances of making the team were slim at the start of camp. The decision to carry all four quarterbacks into the regular season essentially took those chances from slim to none.
Making sense of Cleveland’s decision to carry four quarterbacks
The majority of Browns fans will likely point to the wrong quarterback while trying to reconcile the first major roster decision of the Monken era. Gabriel’s near-perfect QB rating against the Patriots in Week 3 of the preseason all but locked up his spot. After that performance, the only remaining question was whether Cleveland would risk subjecting Green to waivers.
We just got that answer, and it was probably a good decision if the Browns believe in Green’s ability to develop as a passer. The 23-year-old and early sixth-round draft pick almost certainly would have been claimed on waivers by a QB-needy team.
Green flashed his game-breaking talents in the Patriots preseason game, rushing for 66 yards on eight carries. Given that he received only a handful of meaningful reps behind Watson, Sanders, and Gabriel throughout camp, he certainly showed enough upside to justify a spot on one of the NFL’s 32 active rosters.
The quieter concern is Green's propensity to put his head down and scramble at the first sign of pressure. He only attempted seven passes for 27 yards in the second half against the Patriots, and there may not be a more meaningless stat than preseason scramble yards, when the competition is suspect and the defenses aren't game-planning or even adjusting for a rushing quarterback.
If we learned one thing from Thursday’s preseason finale, it was that Gabriel remains miles ahead of Green in terms of running a pro-style offense. Green remains a work in progress as a passer.
In the end, the Browns decided that the rookie's future was too valuable to risk losing on the waiver wire — and fan-favorite underdogs like Floriea got the short end of the stick in that regard.
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