Browns release linebacker Collins

Jamie Collins had flashes of brilliance with the Browns. Not nearly enough of them, though.

Cleveland released the veteran linebacker Wednesday with two years remaining on his contract. Collins never lived up to high expectations with New England or the Browns, who were in line to pay him $10.5 million this season and $12.5 million in 2020.

The 29-year-old Collins was acquired in a trade midway through the 2016 season from New England in exchange for a third-round draft choice. Collins made 30 starts for the Browns, with 204 tackles, seven sacks and two interceptions. However, the 6-foot-3, 250-pounder wasn’t consistent and drew criticism from fans last season for not hustling.

Collins started all 16 games last season and finished with a team-high 104 tackles, four sacks and one interception. But there were long stretches in which Collins seemed to disappear, and in the end the Browns decided his contract — a four-year, $50 million deal signed in 2017 — didn’t match his value.

Ravens: Six-time Pro Bowl safety Eric Weddle bid farewell to Baltimore on Twitter after apparently being cut by the Ravens. Weddle’s release was reported by NFL Network on Tuesday evening, but not immediately confirmed by the team.

The 34-year-old Weddle started all 16 games in each of his three seasons with Baltimore. He signed with the Ravens as a free agent in 2016 after a nine-year run with the Chargers.

A leader in the locker room and on the field, Weddle made 68 tackles last season but did not have an interception.

Weddle had one year left on his contract, but Ravens first-year general manager Eric DeCosta is looking for younger players and is eager to create salary-cap space.

Rams: Veteran linebacker Mark Barron was released, and the team will not exercise its option on center John Sullivan, according to people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Rams also let the deadline pass for franchise-tagging a player.

Barron, 29, was a key player for a defense that limited the Patriots to one touchdown in the Rams’ 13-3 Super Bowl defeat. But the seven-year veteran also has undergone shoulder and Achilles surgeries in the past two years, and he sat out the first four games of this past season.

Barron was scheduled to carry a salary-cap number of $9.6 million in the fourth year of a five-year, $45 million contract, according to overthecap.com.

Sullivan, 33, signed a two-year, $12.5 million contract before last season that included $3.25 million in guarantees. He would have had a cap number of $6.25 million next season.

Packers: Former Green Bay fullback John Kuhn announced his retirement through the club. Kuhn played nine seasons with the Packers (2007-15) and won the Super Bowl in the 2010 season. Kuhn was a part of Packers teams that won five division titles, finished with at least 10 wins in a season seven times and made the playoffs eight times. He was a first-team All-Pro in 2014, second-team All-Pro in 2011 and was selected to the Pro Bowl three times (2011, 2014-15).

Kuhn finished his career playing two seasons with the Saints in 2016-17. He sat out 2018.

Texans: Cornerback Kevin Johnson has been released. Johnson was a first-round pick in 2015 out of Wake Forest but never lived up to his high draft status in a career that was plagued by injuries. He got a concussion in a preseason game last season and after a second one in the first week of the regular season, he was placed on injured reserve and didn’t return.