When you build a good roster in the NFL, you can’t keep everyone you want to when it comes time to cut down. Cleveland Browns are faced with that, likely many teams around the league.

Just a few years ago, you could book it so that anyone that excelled in the preseason and training camp would make the Browns roster. That is not enough now, alone, since they’ve improved their roster emphatically.

As it currently sits, I see the Browns cutting a 2020 draft pick that was once in line to be the starter.

Nick Harris was drafted out of Washington in the fifth-round in 2020. Unfortunately for him, the Browns just drafted Luke Wypler out of Ohio State at the same position.

Wypler has already proven he is worth investing in at the center position and he’s played some guard this preseason too. So far in the preseason, Wypler has held his own and isn’t giving up pressure on the quarterback.

As mentioned with Wypler, he has played some guard this preseason and it’s gone well. With Harris, you have a player that just isn’t cut out to play guard. In 2020 as a rookie, Harris was forced to play some right guard and hasn’t been put in that position since. During that stint, Harris allowed two sacks and four pressures, in less than 150 offensive snaps.

As a center alone, Harris can be a good player. He showed that in 2021 against the Green Bay Packers when he stepped in and had an excellent showing against a solid Packers’ interior defensive line. Overall, with the Brows, Harris has played in 23 total games.

Prior to the start of the 2022 season, Harris suffered an injury that would keep him out for the entirety of the year. Then, Ethan Pocic stepped in for him and looked like a top-10 center. Harris had been in line to be the likely starter and it all changed.

That is the unfortunate thing with injuries, they’re often untimely. For Harris, it looked to be career-changing. He went from being the likely starter at the position going forward for the Browns, to now fighting to make the roster as depth.

There is an outside shot that the Browns keep both due to Wypler’s ability to possibly play guard, though I don’t think it’s a good idea. Churning Wypler to be the center of the future following Pocic’s contract seems like it makes more sense.

Don’t be surprised if GM Andrew Berry parts ways with a player he picked back in 2020. Harris will quickly get another shot and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was claimed. 

Browns 53-man Roster Projection: A surprise cut comes about as cut downs near

Tough cuts are soon to come for the Browns and we have one in this projection.

Featured image via Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports.