The Cleveland Browns terminated the contract of veteran offensive lineman Tyre Phillips on Friday as part of a broader set of roster moves ahead of the NFL’s 53-man cutdown deadline.
Phillips, a 6-foot-5, 330-pound tackle/guard out of Mississippi State, has been in the league since 2020. Baltimore selected him in the third round (106th overall) that year.
He appeared in 22 games with 13 starts over two seasons with the Ravens before moving on to the New York Giants, where he played from 2022 through 2024 (with a brief practice-squad stop with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023).
He later signed with the Washington Commanders in May 2025 and was released in late August of that year. Cleveland signed him to its practice squad in mid-September 2025 and added him to a reserve/future contract in January 2026. Across his career he has played 47 regular-season games with 28 starts.
The Browns announced that they terminated the contracts of four players — Phillips, cornerbacks Tre Avery and Tyler Hall, and tight end Jack Stoll (from injured reserve) — while waiving 12 others.
Those cuts came one day after Cleveland’s preseason finale, a 37-13 win over the New England Patriots. Phillips had seen some preseason action, including time at right tackle.
Roster trimming of this kind is routine at this point in the calendar. Teams must get down to 53 players by the league deadline, and veterans on one-year deals who sit outside the projected starting lineup or primary backup mix are often among the first to go.
Phillips’ 2026 contract carried a base salary of $1.215 million and a relatively modest cap number; terminating it created flexibility without a large dead-money hit.
Phillips’ path has been typical of many mid-round offensive linemen: early starting opportunities, injuries, practice-squad stints, and repeated chances to stick as a swing player.
He started eight games as a rookie in Baltimore and later started nine games for the Giants in 2023 before a quadriceps injury ended that season. Depth and competition along Cleveland’s offensive line, plus the need to evaluate younger or cheaper options, appear to have factored into Friday’s decision.
Whether Phillips draws interest from another club remains to be seen. At 29, with size, experience at both tackle and guard, and a track record of starting games, he remains a candidate for a practice squad or as injury insurance elsewhere.
For the Browns, the move is one piece of the annual late-August roster puzzle as they finalize the group that will open the regular season.
