Before the Rams game, the Browns cut ties with RB and signed a familiar face.
The Cleveland Browns are still making incremental improvements to their roster, with an emphasis on the offensive line.
On Tuesday, November 28, Scott Petrak of Browns Zone revealed Cleveland’s most recent roster changes, which included trading out running backs on the team’s practise squad.
Browns sign RB again Petrak wrote, “RB Kenyan Drake is released from the practise squad and John Kelly Jr. is added to it.” IR was waived for CB Thomas Graham Jr.
Throughout the season, Kelly has come and gone from Cleveland’s practise squad multiple times. Throughout the previous two years combined, he has played in five games for the Browns and was a mainstay of the preseason roster. According to Pro Football Reference, Kelly saw one offensive snap in 2021–22 and played 43 regular-season snaps on special teams for Cleveland.
The week before, the Browns hosted a workout for the former Baltimore Ravens running back, Drake, and on October 31—the NFL trade deadline—the team signed him. During the course of his eight-year NFL career, Drake appeared in 103 games and started 44 of them, giving him a more noteworthy NFL history than Kelly. Drake has accumulated 3,866 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns in that time.
The fact that Kelly, 27, is two years Drake’s junior and has more offensive and locker room experience with the Browns probably contributed to the team’s decision to go back to its original roster structure.
The Browns’ roster moves on Tuesday aren’t overly significant, though the addition of Kelly could end up mattering down the stretch run in a couple of different ways.
Starter and second-year running back Jerome Ford has appeared in all 11 of Cleveland’s games in 2023, though he has dealt with injuries that had the potential to sideline him. Backup Kareem Hunt has also navigated injury issues since returning to the team following the loss of Nick
Chubb to a season-ending knee injury.
Pierre Strong Jr. is the Browns’ third-string running back and has served reasonably in that role, with 1 touchdown and an average of 4.4 yards per attempt on 35 carries. However, if any of Cleveland’s top three backs go down, the team will need a serviceable replacement, as that player is likely to see some snaps based on Strong’s offensive usage to this point.
