CLEVELAND — Ahead of Tuesday's 4 p.m. ET deadline to do so, the Cleveland Browns have made five roster moves to reduce their roster to 80 players.
As was announced by head coach Kevin Stefanski earlier in the day, the Browns placed kicker Cody Parkey on injured reserve with a quad injury that he suffered in pregame warmups prior to the Browns' preseason victory over the New York Giants on Sunday. As a result of being placed on injured reserve prior to the final roster cutdown to 53 players, Parkey will be ineligible to be designated for return during the 2021 season.
Additionally, the Browns placed linebacker Montrel Meander and tight end Connor Davis on injured reserve, effectively ending their 2021 campaigns. Meander, who Cleveland re-signed last week after initially cutting earlier in the preseason, suffered an Achilles injury that will require surgery, while Davis suffered a shoulder injury on Sunday.
In addition to placing three players on injured reserve, the Browns waived wide receiver Alexander Hollins and offensive tackle Alex Taylor, the latter of which received an injury designation after suffering an ankle injury on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Stefanski discussed the difficulties that he anticipated as Cleveland continued to trim down its roster ahead of the 2021 season.
"We talk about it a lot," Stefanski said of his conversations with general manager Andrew Berry. "We spend a lot of time staring at that depth chart. It's ultimately Andrew's decision and he has some tough decisions to make. But he does a great job of asking really good questions of myself and the coaches so it's certainly a tough process but we've got another week of evaluations here before those decisions have to be made."