2023 Cleveland Browns Roster: The 3 most surprising moves

As of 4 PM Tuesday, the Cleveland Browns and all other 31 teams had to have their roster down to 53 players. While there is still some maneuvering for teams to be done with injured reserve (IR) and the practice squad, a vast majority of cuts have been made.

The cutdown day is always the hardest on the general manager and coaching staff as there are so many factors that need to be accounted for. It isn’t just who is the best player, it’s does the player fit the scheme? How many seasons does the player have left? How is the player compensated? And many other factors when deciding the final roster.

It seems like every year at least one fan favorite from the preseason is cut and at least one veteran you expect to make the team is released. Unfortunately, it was no different for the Browns in 2023, but here are three of the bigger surprises. 

Cleveland Browns Surprise Move No. 3 – Cade York

Believe me when I say I’m happy that Andrew Berry found a better option than Cade York at kicker, but I’m still a bit surprised he pulled the trigger on a trade for Dustin Hopkins.

It’s clearly an upgrade but also shouts from the rafters that this organization is all in for the 2023 season. I know he’s just a kicker and it was just a fifth-round pick, but we’ve seen Berry in the past give worse players more of a chance to work out of the funk.

The Browns ended the preseason at 1-2-1, and all three games that weren’t a win could have been won if we had even an average kicker. York became the “elite speed” wide receiver who can’t catch the ball. It doesn’t matter if you can kick the ball 100 yards if you can’t put it between the two yellow posts.

While I’m sad York couldn’t get things figured out and will lose sleep if he signs elsewhere, I’m thrilled to see Berry fixed the problem before letting it cost the team a game in the regular season.