Hogan, Kessler make cut to 53; receiver Coates added via trade

The Browns have the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL in DeShone Kizer, and after the 53-man roster was announced on Sept. 2, they can also say they have the youngest quarterback group in the league.

The contract of veteran Brock Osweiler was officially terminated, leaving second-year players Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan as the only quarterbacks behind Kizer. The 21-year-old rookie from Notre Dame was named the regular-season starter last week.

“Our young guys were playing good and we needed to continue to grow them,” Coach Hue Jackson said in a statement. “The only way you can do that is by keeping them on your roster and giving them a chance to keep getting better behind DeShone.”

The bottom of the depth chart on the offensive line, wide receiver and secondary will likely change after Sashi Brown, executive vice president of football operations, scours the waiver wire. But for now, 25 offensive players, 25 defensive players and three specialists comprise the roster.

The Browns, by virtue of finishing with the worst record in the league last year (1-15) have the first claim on every player waived.

“You never quite know,” Brown said in a statement. “Waivers and claiming a player sounds really nice, but you don’t have a familiarity (with a player claimed) versus a guy you’re going to have to get rid of on your roster, so there’s some risk involved.

“We do a lot of diligence. Our pro groups are always tremendously wellprepared and organized, so it’ll be a long night and morning but hopefully we can find some young guys who can help us on our roster.”

Earlier in the day, the Browns acquired 6-foot-1 wide receiver Sammie Coates and a 2019 seventhround draft pick from the

Steelers for a 2018 sixthround draft pick.

Coates, a third-round pick by the Steelers in 2015, played in 20 games with five starts over the last two seasons. He has 22 catches — 21 of them as a rookie in 2015 — for 446 yards and two touchdowns.

The sixth-round pick going to the Steelers was acquired from Pittsburgh last year for cornerback Justin Gilbert, who currently is not on an NFL roster.

Brown followed up the Coates trade by cutting 2016 fifth-round draft pick Jordan Payton, plus Jordan Leslie and Rannell Hall at wide receiver. Leslie and Hall played well in preseason, but not well enough to make the final roster. One or both players could end up on the Browns practice squad.

“Never a good feeling getting released, but everything happens for a reason,” Leslie tweeted. “Just have to keep out-working everyone.”

The moves leave Corey Coleman, Kenny Britt, Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins and Coates as the five wide receivers the Browns chose to keep.

Twenty-eight of the 53 players were drafted by

the Browns – 20 of them by Brown over the last two years. One of them was kicker Zane Gonzalez, a seventh-round pick from Arizona State and the first kicker drafted by the Browns since they took Jeff Jaeger in the third round in 1987. Gonzalez narrowly beat out Cody Parkey to win the job.

“We could’ve went either way, to be very honest with you, because Cody has done some good things here.

“But Zane came in and proved that we did a great job in making the selection in drafting him,” Jackson said. “He held his own, guy obviously nailed a 53-yarder the other night (in Chicago) and he’s done a great job thus far in camp and kicks the ball out of the end zone whenever we need him to do so.”

Twenty-one players are new to the Browns — 11 on defense and 10 on offense. The biggest concentration of turnover is on the offensive line with starting center J.C. Tretter, starting right guard Kevin Zeitler, plus backups Marcus Martin (a guard) and tackles Rod Johnson and Zach Sterup.

Johnson is out indefinitely with a knee injury. Sterup spent all of 2016 on the practice squads of the Chiefs, Jets and Browns.