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Tyler Huntley

Wednesday NFL Transactions: AFC North

August 27th, 2025 at 5:36pm CST by Sam Robinson

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These Bengals, Browns, Ravens and Steelers moves are noted below.

Baltimore Ravens

Signed to practice squad:

Cincinnati Bengals

Signed to practice squad:

Reverted to IR:

Cleveland Browns

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Pittsburgh Steelers

Signed to practice squad:

Browns Release QB Tyler Huntley, CB Tony Brown

August 24th, 2025 at 2:29pm CST by Adam La Rose

Among the Browns’ first moves toward a 53-man roster is the expected departure of Tyler Huntley. The veteran quarterback is being released, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.

In addition, Schefter notes veteran corner Tony Brown is being let go. Neither move (both of which are now official) comes as a surprise, of course. Huntley in particular has long been seen as a prime candidate to be released given Cleveland’s commitment to carrying four quarterbacks on the active roster.

Joe Flacco will handle starting duties to begin the 2025 campaign, while veteran Kenny Pickett is set to remain in the fold. Rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders are not in danger of being cut or traded, meaning Huntley’s departure represents an expected outcome. The 27-year-old has been with Cleveland for two stints, but he has yet to make a regular season appearance for the team.

Huntley will now hit the open market in search of a backup or third-string opportunity elsewhere. He has made 14 starts in his career, including five last season as an injury replacement for the Dolphins. A return to Miami should not be expected in 2025, but other gigs should be available in the near future.

Brown, 30, spent time with the Packers, Bengals and Colts before his debut Cleveland campaign. The former UDFA made six appearances for the Browns in 2024, playing exclusively on special teams along the way. After logging an 81% snap share in that capacity, his absence could be felt this season. Barring a spot on Cleveland’s practice squad, Brown will join Huntley in seeking out a new team in time for Week 1.

No guaranteed money was included in either players’ pact. As a result, Cleveland will create roughly $2MM in cap savings with these moves without any dead money charges being generated.

Browns Sign QB Tyler Huntley

August 4th, 2025 at 10:10pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

With a few minor injuries hampering their quarterback room, the Browns added some depth on Monday by reuniting with Tyler Huntley, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move is now official.

Kenny Pickett has been nursing a hamstring injury for the last week, and Dillon Gabriel was limited with a similar issue on Monday, per Schefter. Shedeur Sanders has also been experiencing shoulder soreness, so veteran Joe Flacco entered the day as the team’s only fully healthy passer.

The Browns’ first preseason matchup is scheduled for Friday night in Carolina, and neither Pickett nor Gabriel are expected to play, per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. The 40-year-old Flacco played all of six preseason snaps last year, and pushing Sanders to play most of the game with a sore shoulder seems like an unnecessary risk.

Enter Huntley, who spent the 2024 offseason and preseason with the Browns but did not make their 53-man roster. He briefly signed with the Ravens’ practice squad before finishing the year with five starts in Miami. His familiarity with the Browns’ offense will allow him to serve as a camp arm and absorb preseason snaps as the rest of the team’s quarterbacks get back to full health.

He is not expected to factor into the starting competition, which has swung back-and-forth between Flacco and Pickett this summer. Though, this does bring about an interesting development due to Cleveland’s crowded depth chart. Huntley has gone from making five starts a Tua Tagovailoa relief — after making a name for himself as a Lamar Jackson fill-in — to being what could amount to a camp body. It will be interesting to see if this reunion amounts to more than that, as Huntley is still just 27 and has made 14 career starts. The Browns had carried him through past waivers last year but ultimately cut bait shortly after. The Cardinals worked out Huntley in April but did not sign him.

Flacco is atop the Browns’ first unofficial depth chart as Pickett’s absence in camp has set him back in his quest to win the starting job, something he acknowledged this weekend.

“I’m trying to get back out there as fast as possible,” said Pickett (via Cabot). “I’ve never had a soft tissue injury like this, so really a first-time experience in my career.” 

The former Steelers first-round pick is still ahead of his rookie teammates, with Gabriel listed as the third-stringer and Sanders behind him. That ranking reflects the snap distribution between the two rookies. Gabriel gets on the field before Sanders and takes more reps, but the latter has been more accurate this summer, according to The Athletic’s Zac Jackson. While neither is expected to start early in the season, Jackson suggested that Sanders’ rapid development could get him on the field later in the year.

QB Tyler Huntley Works Out For Arizona

April 11th, 2025 at 9:04pm CST by Ely Allen

After getting a chance to play near his hometown in Miami last year, backup quarterback Tyler Huntley could get a chance to play near his alma mater in 2025. According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, Huntley worked out for the Cardinals today.

Originally an undrafted free agent out of Utah, Huntley signed with the Ravens to open his NFL career. Huntley served the next four seasons as the team’s backup to Lamar Jackson. After not seeing much action in his rookie season, Huntley closed out the 2021 and 2022 seasons as a starter for Baltimore as Jackson ended each year injured.

In those two years, Huntley appeared in 13 games, making eight starts. He completed just under two thirds of his pass attempts for five touchdowns and seven interceptions over that time, but his rushing abilities allowed him to continue running a similar style of offense as Jackson. He added 331 rushing yards for three touchdowns over those two years, though he also had seven fumbles. His second stint filling in for Jackson earned him Pro Bowl honors, thanks to in large part to the fan vote and injuries to other candidates.

He signed with the Browns in 2024 and made the 53-man roster, but after Cleveland was unable to muster up any trade interest for Huntley, he was released and signed back with the Ravens‘ practice squad. His 2024 season took a turn when the Dolphins signed him off Baltimore’s taxi squad due to a concussion to starter Tua Tagovailoa. After three starts, Huntley was placed on injured reserve, though he did return to start the final two games of Miami’s season.

In Arizona, Huntley would have some tough competition for the backup job behind Kyler Murray. The Cardinals already roster Jacoby Brissett and Clayton Tune as backups. While Brissett has far more experience than Huntley, Huntley more closely matches Murray’s playing style and could make for a more seamless transition in the case of an injury.

Dolphins To Prioritize Backup QB Job

January 8th, 2025 at 12:02pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

Despite Tua Tagovailoa‘s history of concussions, the Dolphins did not upgrade at backup quarterback in 2024, sticking with Skylar Thompson and releasing Mike White before the start of the regular season.

Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said on Tuesday that the team was pursuing “a couple of top-flight backup QBs,” during last offseason, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, but couldn’t finalize any signings due to salary cap constraints. Instead, they had Thompson and White compete for the backup job in training camp.

White lost and joined the Bills’ practice squad, forcing the Dolphins to scramble in Week 2 when Tagovailoa went down. They signed Tyler Huntley off the Ravens’ practice squad and Tim Boyle off the street, though neither represented a serious improvement over Thompson.

Grier is determined to have more success finding a new backup after Huntley, Boyle, and Thompson went 2-4 as starters this season. The three combined for a 78.67 passer rating across their appearances, which would rank third-worst among qualified quarterbacks.

The annual quarterback carousel will give Grier plenty of options this offseason, though the Dolphins remain strapped for cap space. They’re already in the red for 2025 with just 37 players under contract, per OverTheCap. The usual array of cuts and restructures can free up some money, but Miami will still need to fill and upgrade their roster if they want to make the playoffs in 2025. Grier will have to balance his desire to shore up his quarterback room with his need to improve other areas of the team.

Dolphins Likely To Start Tyler Huntley In Week 18; Tua Tagovailoa’s Status For Playoffs Uncertain

January 5th, 2025 at 11:45am CST by Sam Robinson

JANUARY 5: Offering further context on Tagovailoa’s injury, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that the passer’s hip muscle could tear further if he continues playing, which is why he has not been medically cleared (video link). As such, even if the Dolphins secure the AFC’s final playoff spot today, it is uncertain whether their QB1 would be under center in the wildcard round.

JANUARY 3: Mike McDaniel poured cold water on any Dolphins hopes of having Tua Tagovailoa available for Week 18. Miami’s starting quarterback is unlikely to play against the Jets on Sunday.

A second straight Tyler Huntley start is now expected, ESPN.com’s Marcell Louis-Jacques tweets. This will deal a blow to the Dolphins’ chances of making a third consecutive playoff berth, though the team would need both a win and a Broncos loss to a Chiefs team resting starters to qualify. Sunday will be Huntley’s fifth start this season; the Dolphins are 2-2 with their backup at the wheel.

Tagovailoa is battling a hip injury, one that kept him out of Miami’s Week 17 game in Cleveland. The fifth-year QB is in line to miss his sixth game of the season, with the first four coming because of the concussion the talented passer suffered in Week 2. The Dolphins enter their regular-season finale at 8-8, with their quarterback’s injury trouble heavily factoring into that .500 record. This would mark the second time in three seasons Tagovailoa will have failed to finish a season; the former No. 5 overall pick’s 2022 concussion issues sidelined him to close out that campaign.

McDaniel described Tua’s injury as a “unique muscle issue,” rather than a bruise, via the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s David Furones. Surgery is not in play, McDaniel added (via the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson), as this is rather a rest-and-rehab situation. Even so, it is still notable the former No. 5 overall pick could be shut down before season’s end. Tagovailoa dealt with injuries prior to his concussion-marred 2022 season, missing time in 2020 and ’21 — after he came into the league with a hip injury.

The dislocated hip Tagovailoa sustained in November 2019 affected the two-year Alabama starter’s draft stock, though Joe Burrow‘s dominant 2019 had plenty to do with where the 2020 draft’s QB prospects went. McDaniel has said this issue is unrelated to the college setback, which also involved a posterior wall fracture. That said, the Dolphins committed to Tagovailoa — via a four-year, $212.4MM extension — this summer. That preceded another concerning season on the injury front.

Between another concussion and another hip injury, Tagovailoa will enter the offseason with more doubts about his long-term stability. The southpaw QB has played well when healthy, leading the NFL in QBR in 2022 and pacing the league in passing yards (4,624) last season. Injuries have unfortunately been a significant part of Tua’s NFL career, and until he can show sustained health, questions in this area will persist.

Signed off the Ravens’ practice squad following Tagovailoa’s September concussion, Huntley has also needed an IR stint this season. The former Lamar Jackson Baltimore backup is a free agent at season’s end, but Miami wants to keep him around beyond that point. If the Broncos slip up against Chiefs backups Sunday, it will be Huntley playing the lead role in determining who the Bills’ first-round opponent will be. A Dolphins-Bills wild-card encounter would bring familiar territory, as a Tua-less Miami squad trekked to Buffalo with Skylar Thompson at the helm two years ago. Based on the information we have, Tagovailoa would be far from certain to play against the Bills if the Dolphins were to qualify this time around.

Tua Tagovailoa Uncertain For Week 18

January 2nd, 2025 at 9:46am CST by Sam Robinson

JANUARY 2: McDaniel’s latest update on Tagovailoa’s situation notes that Huntley remains on track to start (h/t ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques). Changes could take place over the coming days, but an increased practice participation on Tagovailoa’s part will likely be needed for him to suit up in Week 18.

DECEMBER 30: Although the Bengals kept their season alive by beating the Broncos in overtime Saturday, the Dolphins are ahead of the AFC North team in the wild-card pecking order. It will still take the Broncos losing to a Chiefs team prepared to sit starters in Week 18, but the Dolphins would advance if they won and Denver’s losing streak hit three.

Miami’s chances of winning in Week 18 do involve a Jets team that did not account itself well in Buffalo on Sunday, but the Dolphins are far from certain to have their quarterback available in their regular-season finale.

Tua Tagovailoa missed Week 17 with a hip injury, and although the Dolphins navigated a Browns team starting the potentially overmatched Dorian Thompson-Robinson at QB, the AFC East club may have secured a playoff spot by now had Tagovailoa not landed on IR earlier this season. Mike McDaniel‘s club fared poorly while its starter missed time due to a concussion, and the hip injury he sustained recently is not healing as the team hoped.

McDaniel said Tagovailoa’s status is in a “gray area” for Week 18 and that he was not medically cleared to play in Cleveland, via NFL.com’s Cameron Wolfe. The Dolphins started Tyler Huntley against the Browns. After a 22-for-26 performance that included 225 yards and a touchdown, he may hear his number called once again.

Miami is now 2-4 in games Tagovailoa did not finish due to injury this season, falling toward the bottom of the league in offense during the starter’s initial absence. Huntley started both wins, with Skylar Thompson also at the controls in a Dolphins loss this season. The former multiyear Ravens backup, Huntley has enjoyed more time to get up to speed in McDaniel’s offense since Tua’s concussion-generated IR trip. But this is becoming all too familiar territory for the Dolphins, who are now committed long term to their southpaw starter.

Tagovailoa has missed five games this season, this coming after he missed six (counting a wild-card game) in 2022. The former No. 5 overall pick also missed time due to injury in 2020 and 2021, and his draft status was affected by the significant hip injury he suffered to close out his Alabama career. Tua played all 18 Dolphins games last season, helping him secure a four-year extension that came with $93.2MM guaranteed at signing and $167.2MM guaranteed in total. This season, however, has not brought the Dolphins much comfort on the availability front.

If the Broncos do slip up against a diminished version of the two-time defending champs, the prospect of Tagovailoa’s playoff ability would stand to come up. For now, the fifth-year passer has some time to recover. But the nature of this injury brings cause for concern given his past.

Dolphins Want To Re-Sign QB Tyler Huntley

December 29th, 2024 at 4:58pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Dolphins entered Sunday’s action still alive in the AFC wild-card race, but a steep path to a playoff spot still remains. If Miami falls short of the postseason, the team’s play on offense (particularly in the games without Tua Tagovailoa in the lineup) will be responsible to a significant extent.

Under head coach Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins have generally enjoyed success on offense when Tagovailoa is healthy (with exceptions against some of the league’s top defenses, to be fair) but their play on that side of the ball has notably regressed with other quarterbacks in place. That trend has largely continued in 2024, a year in which midseason signing Tyler Huntley has seen notable playing time. The Dania Beach native recently revealed he is on the Dolphins’ radar with respect to a contract for 2025.

“I got a good feeling I’m going to be home for a little bit,” Huntley said (via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald). “I’m going to be down here in Miami in a little bit. It’s all God’s plans, but I’ve got a good feeling I’ll be home for a little bit.”

Huntley added his agent has been informed of the Dolphins’ desire to work out a deal keeping him in place beyond the rest of the campaign. The former UDFA spent considerable time with the Ravens as their backup, although he also made a total of 10 regular and postseason starts during that time. Baltimore elected to keep Josh Johnson in place for the QB2 role this offseason, leaving Huntley to sign with the Browns. He wound up being cut, however, and shortly before the start of the season he returned to the Ravens via a practice squad deal.

Not long after Tagovailoa suffered his most recent concussion, Huntley was added to Miami’s active roster and he made three starts before going down with a shoulder injury of his own. Now back in the fold and in the starting lineup for today’s must-win game as Tagovailoa deals with a hip injury, the 26-year-old is in position to help his free agent stock down the stretch with a rebound from his initial time atop the Dolphins’ depth chart (during which he posted a touchdown-to-interception ratio of only 1:1 and a passer rating of just 73.9).

As Jackson adds, Miami is expected to bring in other options for the backup gig this offseason. Tagovailoa inked a massive extension this past summer, but his history of concussions makes quality insurance at the QB2 spot something of particular importance for the Dolphins. Former seventh-rounder Skylar Thompson joins Huntley as a pending free agent, and the possibility remains both could be playing elsewhere in 2025. For the latter, though, it would not come as a surprise if he were to receive an extended opportunity to earn the backup role.

Dolphins Activate QB Tyler Huntley, Place OLB Tyus Bowser On IR

November 28th, 2024 at 6:00pm CST by Adam La Rose

Tua Tagovailoa will handle starting duties for the Dolphins tonight, but a different backup quarterback option will be in place. Tyler Huntley has been activated from injured reserve, per a team announcement.

[RELATED: Dolphins Decline To Activate Shaq Barrett]

A shoulder injury led Huntley onto IR in October, just as Tagovailoa returned from his concussion. The latter has remained healthy since, helping guide Miami to three straight wins as part of the team’s push for the postseason. He will of course continue operating as the Dolphins’ starter, but now Huntley will be available to serve as the backup.

The former UDFA began the season on the Ravens’ practice squad, but in the wake of Tagovailoa’s concussion he joined Miami’s roster. That move allowed Huntley to make three starts for the Dolphins prior to suffering his own injury, and in that span he did not put up notable production through the air or on the ground. Expectations will be tempered if the 26-year-old sees the field again in 2024, but he could take over from Skylar Thompson in the QB2 role. This move leaves Miami with three IR activations on the year.

In a corresponding move, edge rusher Tyus Bowser has been moved to injured reserve. Bowser made a pair of appearances with the Seahawks this season, his first regular season action since the 2022 campaign. The 29-year-old took a deal to join Miami’s active roster in October, though, reuniting with former Ravens staffer (and current Dolphins defensive coordinator) Anthony Weaver in the process.

Bowser has been a key figure at his position since arriving in Miami, logging a defensive snap share of 52%. He will now be sidelined for at least the next four games, and his absence will be felt given the team’s other injuries along the edge. Jaelan Phillips is out for the season, while Bradley Chubb has yet to suit up in 2024 as he continues rehabbing the ACL tear which ended his campaign last year. Chubb could suit up at some point this season, and with Bowser now out of the picture he could immediately step into a significant role.

Dolphins Place QB Tyler Huntley On IR

October 25th, 2024 at 5:26pm CST by Adam La Rose

Just as the Dolphins are set to get Tua Tagovailoa back in the lineup this week, they will be without Tyler Huntley for an extended stretch. The latter was placed on injured reserve Friday, per a team announcement.

Huntley is dealing with the shoulder injury which forced him out of Miami’s Week 7 contest. As a result of today’s news, he will be sidelined for at least the next four games. Of course, Tagovailoa’s return lessens the impact of losing Huntley, but his absence will still leave Miami short on depth options under center. The former Raven made three starts while filling in for the team’s injured starter.

Signed off Baltimore’s practice squad not long after Tagovailoa’s concussion, Huntley quickly became the Dolphins’ preferred QB option despite being unfamiliar with head coach Mike McDaniel‘s scheme. Former seventh-rounder Skylar Thompson did not fare well during his 2024 opportunities, nor did veteran Tim Boyle. The Dolphins’ offense has regressed considerably compared to last year in the wake of Tagovailoa going down, and the team ranks last in the NFL in scoring (11.7 yards per game).

Huntley spent much of his Baltimore tenure serving as Lamar Jackson‘s backup, and he made 22 appearances (including 10 starts) between the regular and postseason during that time. He joined the Browns in free agency as one of their depth signal-callers, but he was ultimately let go ahead of the roster cutdown deadline. That paved the way to a Ravens reunion, but by virtue of joining the team’s practice squad he was eligible to take a different opportunity on an active roster elsewhere.

The former UDFA managed just 377 yards and one touchdown (along with one interception) on 59.1% passing during his time atop the Dolphins’ depth chart. While Huntley added 67 yards and another score on the ground, his audition period with Miami will likely not yield a strong free agent market during the spring. With Tagovailoa back in the fold, Thompson and Boyle will be used as the team’s other signal-callers while attempting to rebound from a 2-4 start.

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