The Browns have released guard John Greco, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.
The release of Greco concludes a long tenure in Cleveland for the 32-year-old, who was a starter for the team over the previous six seasons. Greco, who entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Rams in 2008, joined the Browns prior to the 2011 campaign and ultimately started in 66 of 85 appearances with the club. He started in all 12 of his games during an injury-shortened 2016 and ranked an impressive 18th in performance among Pro Football Focus’ 75 qualified guards.
Greco became expendable to the Browns thanks in part to the signings of guard Kevin Zeitler and center J.C. Tretter in free agency. In cutting Greco, the Browns saved his entire $3.075MM cap hit for 2017.
I’m biased because I went to Toledo but I think he could’ve been a quality back up in the case that anyone went down with an injury