After the Browns quadrupled Brian Price‘s practice squad salary, it was only a matter of time before he was brought up to the varsity squad. On Thursday, the Browns did just that by moving Price to the 53-man roster (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). To make room, fellow defensive lineman Devaroe Lawrence was waived. 
The Cowboys and Packers expressed interest in reuniting with Price recently, prompting the Browns to give him a taxi squad pay bump from $7,600 a week to $37,058 a week. That salary is roughly in line with the league minimum for rostered players, which shows how much he was valued in Cleveland.
Price went undrafted in 2016, but that was due largely to red flags, including the time he threw an official to the ground in college. If not for that incident, Price could have heard his name called early on in the draft. Last year, he appeared in eight games for the Cowboys before being placed on IR.
Rapoport notes that Lawrence has some fans around the league, so it’s possible that he will get claimed off of waivers on Friday afternoon.
If Price is on the 46-man active roster this week, he may get to make his Browns debut against the Ravens on Sunday.
Can someone please explain to me why the NFL has 7 inactive players every game?
Don’t they have to pay them anyway?
Every professional sports team has players under contract that do not get activated to play. In the NHL and MLB these guys usually get assigned to the an affiliated farm team. Of course the NFL doesn’t have that kind of tiered system so the inactive guys have to grind it out on the taxi squad hoping they can get promoted when injuries start mounting.
But I thought the taxi squad was separate from the 53 man roster? Anyways, it’s all about saving a few bucks eh?
The average Joe would be pretty happy to get $7600 a week I think. Taxi squad duty isn’t glamorous but it beats working at Walmart.