Today’s moves — two young journeymen were added to the backfield to replace players injured in the early days of training camp.
Fullback Robert Hughes is on his fifth team since going undrafted in 2011 out of Notre Dame. Incredibly obsessive Browns fans may remember the last preseason game of 2011, when he gained 95 yards from scrimmage for the Bears and scored twice. He played in all 16 games for the 2014 Cardinals, starting four.
RB Rajion Neal is the other signee. He’s bounced around several practice squads after nearly surviving the final cutdown with Green Bay last year. More of a third-down back, he started for two seasons at Jimmy Haslam’s alma mater, Tennessee.
They replace DL Dylan Wynn, who was waived/injured with an ankle problem earlier this week, and undrafted rookie fullback Patrick Skov, who was sidelined with a foot injury.
Wynn’s injury is particularly disappointing, as starting DE Desmond Bryant‘s season-ending injury opened up a clear opportunity. Wynn spent much of last season on the practice squad after a solid 2015 camp.
The moves continue the Browns’ early trend of not waiting on fringe players who aren’t physically ready to go. They’ve already replaced LB Jackson Jeffcoat with Jason Neill and OL Conor Boffeli with Cory Tucker.
What’s interesting this time is that they’ve added a running back in place of an injured D-lineman. That might forebode longer odds for incumbent backs Glenn Winston and Raheem Mostert to make the team, or perhaps just a need to share the workload during a camp that has featured more pads and more hitting than we’ve seen in recent years.
Reminder: All changes to the Browns roster are shown in the ever-updated spreadsheet here. It contains more data fields than any other Browns roster page anywhere on the web.