Dawgs By Nature
The NFL’s cutdown day is this Tuesday, August 26, at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern). Teams can have up to 90 athletes in their training camp, but pare down to 53 players on Tuesday.
Who will the Browns cut? Who will they keep?
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One player who has placed an exclamation mark on his proven roster spot is undrafted rookie defensive lineman Adin Huntington.
Huntington (6’-1”, 281 pounds) hasn’t shifted his availability to being one of the starters, but he certainly has gotten everyone’s attention that he deserves a roster spot despite being undrafted this past April.
Defensive tackle, or defensive end? Yes. Special teams guy? That, too. Inserted into the offense on jumbo packages? Why not?
Huntington could become one of the four DTs this coaching staff will retain, and then become a rotational player. Or, he may be included in the five DEs that will be kept, and then find himself listed on the depth chart and enter games as needed.
He can be listed at either position because he can play anywhere on the defensive line. He is fast enough to be on the kickoff and punt teams and has proven to be a sure tackler.
Where did he come from? Glad you asked.
He played for Tulane and is a pandemic athlete. He played for three college programs and was on the Senior Bowl watch list, although he never received an invite. Huntington played five seasons: Kent State (2020-2022), Louisiana-Monroe (2023), and then Tulane (2024). He had 8.5 sacks in his junior year and 15.5 for his career, along with 29 tackles for loss and 138 total tackles.
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Huntington went undrafted in this year’s April NFL draft. He did not have stud numbers in sacks or pressures, or total tackles. Tulane had a heavy defensive line rotation, which cut down his defensive snaps. He doesn’t even warrant his own Wikipedia page, which almost every athlete is featured on. He was just a quick guy who wasn’t taken by any NFL club in the draft, set to fill a roster spot on the Browns during training camp.
Huntington was also one of the most athletic UDFAs signed after this year’s NFL draft.
But lo and behold, he has lit up the preseason.
Now granted, the majority of his defensive snaps have been against mostly second-team guys. We get that. But during his playing time, no matter who he was up against, he shone. Brightly.
He runs a 4.64 in the 40 with an astounding vertical jump of 38 inches.
In the first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, Huntington tied fellow rookie LB Carson Schwesinger with a team-high six total tackles. He also had one sack, one tackle for loss, and two QB hits with 24 snaps. His only stat in the second preseason game versus the Philadelphia Eagles was one QB hit, as other defensive linemen were given more playing time. Huntington had just 16 snaps.
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