Browns Release Brian Hartline
The Cleveland Browns have parted ways with veteran receiver Brian Hartline having just completed one season with his hometown team.
The Cleveland Browns released veteran wide receiver and former Ohio State alum Brian Hartline today. Hartline was signed last season to a two year deal to provide a solid veteran presence to the team, but struggled in his first and only year with the Browns. Last season, Hartline racked up just over five hundred yards and two touchdowns. The lack of production last year, along with his age (29), and amount of cap space Cleveland saves (roughly 3 million) makes this move understandable.
The Browns drafted four receivers in the draft last month making either Hartline or Andrew Hawkins seemingly expendable. With Hawkins and Coach Jackson having an established relationship during their time in Cincinnati together, it is no surprise that Hartline was the odd man out.
Reading deeper into the move.
Maybe it has to do with the amount of faith the team has in the young players added to the roster recently. With OTA’s being the first opportunity to show the new regime what they could do, perhaps the coaching staff decided they saw enough out of the rookies to move forward without Hartline. The other side of the coin is that this move might have had nothing to do with the rookies and everything to do with Hartline. Hartline has had a few nagging injuries during his career which might be starting to catch up to him and slow him down. If the new regime did not think that Hartline could make this roster in the fall after seeing him on the field last week, than this moved should be praised for doing right by the veteran.
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Let’s just hope that this decision to part ways with Hartline was not just another business decision the team made late in the process. The Browns already got criticized for the late release of Donte Whitner earlier in the offseason, and to do it again to another veteran would not be a good look for the new regime.
No matter the actual reasoning behind the move, Hartline making this team was already a long shot. Hartline is a veteran who underperformed on a team that is looking to get younger. Hartline will now have time to latch on to a team before the start of training camp.
Hartline joins Whitner, Dwayne Bowe, Randy Starks, and Karlos Dansby as veteran players the Browns opted to release this offseason.
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