After earning all-league recognition in the United Football League’s 2025 season, former Auburn tight end Sal Cannella has signed with the Cleveland Browns, the NFL team announced on Thursday.
Cannella had 44 receptions for 474 yards and one touchdown during the Arlington Renegades’ 10-game season. Cannella ranked second in receptions and sixth in receiving yards in the UFL for the 2025 campaign.
To open a slot on its roster for Cannella, Cleveland waived Tre McKitty, a tight end with 36 games of NFL experience.
Cannella joins four other tight ends on the Browns’ offseason roster. David Njoku had 64 receptions for 505 yards and five touchdowns for Cleveland last season. But the Browns’ No. 2 tight end, Jordan Akins with 40 receptions for 390 yards and two touchdowns in 2024, remains a free agent.
Cleveland added Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin in the third round of the NFL Draft on April 25. Blake Whiteheart had six receptions for 51 yards and one touchdown in 11 games for the Browns in 2024. Brenden Bates played in two games last season without a reception.
The Browns’ rookies report for training camp on July 18, with the veterans coming in on July 22 at the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea, Ohio.
After Cannella closed his Auburn career with a 37-yard touchdown on a pass from quarterback Bo Nix against Minnesota in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2020, the tight end played two years in the Spring League, then earned All-USFL recognition with the New Orleans Breakers in that league’s Birmingham-based revival in 2022, after a short stay in the NFL at the Miami Dolphins’ 2021 training camp.
Cannella had 34 receptions for 368 yards and two touchdowns in 10 regular-season games with the Breakers, then had 12 receptions for 154 yards in a 31-17 loss to the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL semifinals.
After the 2022 USFL season, Cannella went to training camp with the Green Bay Packers. He caught three passes for 31 yards in the Packers’ final two preseason games, but Green Bay waived him as it reduced its preseason roster to the regular-season limit of 53 players.
In 2023, Cannella played with Arlington in the XFL’s comeback season. In the Renegades’ 35-26 victory over the D.C. Defenders in the XFL Championship Game, Cannella had four receptions for 71 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown catch.
Cannella got a late look in the Seattle Seahawks’ training camp in 2023 but was waived by the NFL team before the start of the regular season.
Cannella returned to the Renegades in 2024, but now as a United Football League team after the merger of the USFL and the XFL. Cannella led the UFL with six touchdown receptions in 2024. He finished third in the league with 53 receptions and fifth with 497 receiving yards.
After that season, Cannella spent training camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had two receptions for 16 yards in the preseason. But he was waived before the start of the NFL regular season.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.