Browns claim Dolphins’ 2020 draft pick Weaver

The Miami Dolphins spent all of 2019 poaching players from other NFL’s team’s rosters and practice squads, and on Tuesday they had a team poach a draftee from theirs.

Miami placed former Boise State defensive end Curtis Weaver on waivers with a foot injury on Monday hoping it could put him on its injured reserve list a day later. But the Cleveland Browns claimed the Dolphins’ fifth-round pick in April’s draft off the waiver wire, and added the injured player to their 80-player training camp roster.

The Dolphins could have kept Weaver on their roster until training camp concluded, and then placed him on the 53-man regularseason roster for one day before moving him to injured reserve. That’s the approach Miami took with fellow linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel last season when he suffered a similar foot injury during training camp.

That approach would have prevented a team from poaching Weaver, but Miami instead preferred the roster spot, which the Dolphins used to re-sign linebacker Trent Harris.

As a result, the

Browns claimed the

Mountain West Conference 2019 defensive player of the year.

Weaver, who recorded 38 sacks, 128 total tackles, 47.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, six pass deflections and a forced fumble in his collegiate career at Boise State, was considered by many NFL draft evaluators and pundits a late-round steal when the Dolphins selected him with the No. 164 pick.

However, he had a quiet first week of training camp with the Dolphins, sparingly making an impact on Miami’s defensive line before getting injured.