Browns release veteran Desmond Bryant

The Cleveland Browns have released ninth-year defensive lineman Desmond Bryant. Releasing Bryant will save the Browns $3M in cap space this year, according to Spotrac.com.
Bryant signed with the Browns as an unrestricted free agent in 2013, where he mostly played as a 3-4 defensive end. He led the team in total pressures every year from 2013 to 2015, but missed the entire 2016 season with a pectoral injury.
The Browns had been listing Bryant as the starter at defensive tackle this preseason, and he played 37 snaps in his team’s two preseason games. He performed well in limited action, especially against the run, where he tallied three stops on 16 run defense snaps, and in his team’s second preseason game against the New York Giants, he achieved the highest run defense grade of the game (82.4).
The Browns selected defensive tackles Larry Ogunjobi and Caleb Brantley in this year’s NFL draft, and their promise has no doubt prompted the move. In their final college seasons, Brantley ranked fourth among the draft class with a pass-rush productivity of 11.7, while Ogunjobi ranked first among all interior defenders in the 2017 draft class in run stop percentage (14.2 percent).