Browns cut WR Cedric Tillman ahead of roster cutdowns

The Browns are cutting bait on Cedric Tillman, and the timing says everything. Adam Schefter broke the news that Cleveland is releasing the veteran wideout with roster cutdown day looming this weekend, closing the book on a three-year run that started as a third-round flier and never quite turned into a true No. 1 option.

Tillman came into the league in the 2023 draft out of Tennessee and put together a modest but real body of work in Cleveland, catching 71 passes for 833 yards and 5 touchdowns across 38 games. Last season he slipped to 21 catches for 270 yards and 2 scores while heading into the final year of his rookie deal, hardly the kind of production that locks up a roster spot when the front office starts spending premium capital at the position.

That's exactly what happened this offseason. The Browns took receiver KC Concepcion in the first round and Denzel Boston in the second round of the 2026 draft, and both rookies reportedly turned heads all camp. Head coach Todd Monken has already made clear how much he wants Concepcion on the field, and that kind of buy-in from the top usually spells trouble for the incumbent stuck in the middle of the depth chart.

It's a brutal but familiar NFL math problem. Teams don't burn back-to-back early picks on the same position group unless they're planning to play those guys immediately, and that usually means someone on the roster bubble gets squeezed out. Tillman, a solid if unspectacular rotational piece, was the odd man out once the numbers stopped adding up.

The move reshapes Cleveland's receiver room right before Week 1, with Concepcion and Boston now expected to soak up snaps as rookies in a wide-open offense. For Tillman, it's on to free agency, where a team looking for a cheap, experienced depth receiver could still find plenty of use for him.