Former Florida Gators edge rusher Tyreak Sapp was released from the Cleveland Browns’ practice squad Monday, a brief NFL chapter ending just as the regular season begins. The Browns announced the move on their team website.
The Fort Lauderdale native and St. Thomas Aquinas product signed with Cleveland as an undrafted free agent in May after five seasons in Gainesville.
He survived training camp long enough to land on the practice squad after final cuts Aug. 30, then was let go Sept. 7 so the Browns could add veteran defensive tackle Zion Logue, a former Georgia and Buffalo player with a handful of NFL games.
For Gators fans, Sapp’s path is familiar: a homegrown lineman who stayed in-state, grew into a starter, and chased the next level without a draft-day call. He redshirted in 2021, then played 49 games.
His peak came in 2024, when he led Florida with 13 tackles for loss and seven sacks while adding two forced fumbles. Production dipped in 2025—34 tackles, 3.5 TFL, one sack—as the defense shuffled around him, but the motor and physicality that defined him at The Swamp never left.
Sapp arrived at Florida as a high-school star from one of the state’s premier programs.
At Aquinas he piled up more than 100 tackles and 21.5 sacks. In Gainesville he became a three-year starter, lining up as an edge or tight end in a four-man front and making his presence felt against SEC tackles. He forced turnovers, set the edge, and embodied the kind of high-effort, stocky rusher Florida has long tried to develop.
Cleveland listed him as a defensive tackle on the practice squad even though he played mostly as an edge at Florida—a reminder of how NFL teams often ask college rushers to add mass and slide inside.
At 6-foot-2 and 273 pounds, with 32-inch arms and a 28-rep bench at the combine, Sapp had the frame scouts liked. The Browns simply decided experience mattered more for Week 1 depth.
Releases like this are common for undrafted rookies. Practice-squad spots turn over quickly, especially on a defensive line where veterans and scheme fits get priority. Sapp is still only 23. He can sign elsewhere, land on another practice squad, or wait for injury replacements as the season unfolds.
From a Florida standpoint, the story is less about one roster move and more about another Gator trying to convert college production into an NFL foothold. Sapp put in the years in orange and blue.
The next team that needs a physical, high-effort lineman may give him another shot. For now, the Browns have moved on, and so has the brief Cleveland chapter of a South Florida kid who once owned the edge in The Swamp.
