Cameron Thomas and James Houston added while Elerson Smith heads to waiver wire
The Cleveland Browns head into the back part of their season mostly looking toward the future even if we are holding on to hope of a miracle to make the NFL playoffs. Instead, the future is the primary focus while having a chance to play spoiler with a bunch of playoff-caliber teams on their upcoming schedule.
The NFL draft is a huge part of that future but the Browns roster has a number of young players to be evaluated as well. In typical Andrew Berry fashion, the Cleveland general manager continues to make adjustments to the Browns roster to build that young base.
Wednesday, Cleveland was awarded DE James Houston after the Detroit Lions waived him. Houston became expendable when the Browns traded DE Za’Darius Smith to the Lions:
So: The #Browns traded Za’Darius Smith to the #Lions, crowding the edge group and helping lead to the release of James Houston… who lands via waivers with the #Browns. https://t.co/54P6tAIsJA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 27, 2024
A sixth-round pick in 2022, Houston is in his third season in the NFL. As a rookie, Houston exploded on the scene with eight sacks in just seven games but has only one in just 10 games since then.
The Browns were also awarded DE Cameron Thomas off of waivers. Thomas was waived by the Kansas City Chiefs and was a third-round selection of the Arizona Cardinals in 2022. In 36 games, Thomas has 40 combined tackles, seven QB hits, six tackles for loss and three sacks.
Cleveland waived DE Elerson Smith from their roster to make room.