When it comes to tight ends, the Cleveland Browns can boast one of the brightest young talents at the position in the league, second-year player Harold Fannin, who caught 72 passes for 731 yards and six touchdowns last season as a rookie. After that, though, the team’s tight-end group gets very thin very fast.
Third-year veteran Blake Whiteheart is listed No. 2 on the depth chart, but has mostly been a blocker and a special-teams player in his career. He has a grand total of eight catches to his credit. Jack Stoll is similar, a special-teams ace and very good blocker who has 28 catches in 78 games in his career.
Carsen Ryan is listed as the No. 4 tight end, but he has mostly played fullback in training camp, and suffered a foot injury at practice this week. Fifth-round pick Joe Royer has yet to come to camp, apparently excused with a personal reason, and Brenden Bates was injured in the first preseason game and waived on Monday.
Browns Struggling to Find Tight Ends
So, it’s not going great for Browns tight ends these days. There was another blow when Dae’Quan Wright, a UDFA whom the team claimed off waivers last week, was granted eligibility to go back to college at Mississippi, and decided he would do so.
In response to that, the Browns had in some new candidates for the position for a tryout.
Wrote Daniel Oyefusi, beat writer for ESPN, “The Browns worked out tight ends Drew Biber and J.J. Galbreath, according to the NFL transaction wire. The position has been hit hard in training camp; only four tight ends were available for today’s practice.”
Tight Ends Biber, Galbreath Worked Out
The Browns are not bringing in top-tier candidates. Biber had been a four-year player for Purdue before transferring to Minnesota for his senior season. In five years in college, he caught 33 passes for 271 yards and one touchdown. He’d been signed by the Packers in training camp, but released.
Galbreath had been with the Steelers‘ practice squad for part of last year after signing as a UDFA from South Dakota. He was in camp with the Steelers before he was waived earlier this month.
Browns Could Miss Carsen Ryan
Monken did mention the other day, even before Ryan was injured, that he still has another blocking tight end on his wish list by the time Week 1 arrives for the Browns. It’s hard to believe they’ll find a useful one on the waiver wire, but it is something to monitor when cut-down day comes and other teams must let some more established tight ends go.
The injury to Ryan does hurt. He was a seventh-rounder, and Monken made clear that the team can’t expect too much of him, but he does have the versatility the coach likes.
“He’s still a work in progress. He’s a rookie, we’re asking him to do things in the backfield as a fullback, which he didn’t do. I think he’s willing, I think he’s physical, but he’s learning to get his pad level down and strike and then have movement with moving targets,” Monken said. “He’s a developmental player in a lot of areas, and I’ve been really impressed with his work.”
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