Chad Thomas, Donovan Olumba among cuts not returning to the Browns practice squad

There are only 16 spots on the practice squad for the Cleveland Browns. As of Monday morning, 14 of those are filled. And the two open spots appear destined for DT Eli Ankou and TE Pharaoh Brown, who were waived on Sunday when the Browns signed Joe Jackson and Vincent Taylor.

The Browns stuck close to home in filling out the practice squad. All but one of the 14 members of the initial practice squad spent training camp in Cleveland. The other, PK Cody Parkey, was the team’s kicker in 2016.

But there are some notable omissions from the practice squad list. Defensive end Chad Thomas is the biggest.

Thomas entered training camp as the No. 3 DE, or at least competing for that role with newcomer Adrian Clayborn. After a promising second season where he bagged four sacks and played well in Myles Garrett’s absence down the stretch, the arrow was pointing up for Thomas. He didn’t fare badly, not by any account from Berea. But he did fall behind Porter Gustin, one of the surprise standouts of training camp.

There didn’t appear to be interest on either side for the relationship to continue,

The same is true for CB Donovan Olumba, another training camp standout. He was cut earlier in the week and still has yet to latch onto another team. Olumba was the most surprising cut from the 53-man roster in my eyes, and it sure seemed a given he would return to the practice squad given the myriad injuries in the Browns secondary. He too remains a street free agent, unsigned as of yet.

It seems the Willie Harvey experience is also done in Cleveland. Harvey made the 53-man roster in 2019 as an undrafted rookie, but he failed to recapture the magic in 2020. He’s another unexpected omission from the list. Safety J.T. Hassell, who played capably as an undrafted rookie late last year, is another.

Maybe the team was looking for something different with these players or those positions. That certainly seems the case with Thomas, a John Dorsey pet pick that doesn’t fit the new Andrew Berry/Kevin Stefanski scheme or structure all that well. Or maybe the player(s) decided to seek out greener pastures elsewhere.