Tylan Wallace #16 of the Baltimore Ravens has signed with the Cleveland Browns
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Tylan Wallace #16 of the Baltimore Ravens has signed with the Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns have completed, for now at least, their offensive line makeover, as they’ve added three new players, all projected to be starters in 2026. Now, though the market is considerably sapped, the Browns front office is turning its attention elsewhere, and certainly, adding to the mix in special teams must now be a priority.
The Browns earlier added tight end Jack Stoll, who has been an accomplished special teams player for all three teams he played for in his career, and now have added a receiver with chops as a return man–Tylan Wallace, who has spent the past five seasons with Baltimore and has an obvious familiarity with Browns head coach Todd Monken, the former Ravens offensive coordinator, and new Browns OC Travis Switzer, who was an offensive quality control coach and run game coordinator in Baltimore.
The news was reported on Wednesday night by Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, who wrote on Twitter/X, “#Browns have agreed to terms with former#Ravens WR and ST contributor Tylan Wallace, source tells clevelanddotcom.”
Tylan Wallace a Depth Option With Potential
The Ravens made Wallace a fourth-round pick in 2021, and he never made a big splash in the receiver room. In 68 career games, he has caught 22 passes, for a total of 305 yards and two touchdowns, one of which was a 15-yard catch from Lamar Jackson in the Ravens’ first win over the Browns last season.
More important for the Browns is that he has returned 12 punts for 194 yards in his career, with a 16.2-yard return average. He was used in the kick return game most frequently last season, when he returned five kicks for 123 yards, and a long of 33 yards.
The Browns struggled in the return game last season, with both their kick returns and their punt returns. The Browns ranked No. 28 in kickoff returns last season, and were 20th in punt returns.
Browns Reshaping Special Teams
While there is a chance that Monken has seen something in Wallace that made him want to give him a shot as a receiver with the Browns, it’s more likely that Wallace will mostly be a special teams contributor.
That figures to be more of an emphasis this season, after the Browns tried to string together a young an inexperienced special-teams group last year, and watched them get killed by mistake after mistake.
Tylan Wallace Could Bring ‘Competition’ to Browns
Browns new special teams coordinator Byron Storer said the return game can be turned around quickly. He’ll consider players who were in those roles last year, but would like to see competition, too.
“I think that the most important thing for me is putting players in positions to succeed. And I think that whoever our returner is, I want to play to their strengths and also the strengths of our personnel that’s available to us,” he said.
“The two guys that I have, that we have now back there, Malachi Corley and Dylan Sampson, I feel pretty good about those guys, we’re going to get vertical and then we have Gage Larvidan, who’s our punt returner, or was last year. He’s got a full year of experience now, so I expect him to get better, you know, and so there’s things that are here that we have to work with. And if a competition presents itself and people get beat out, then that’s probably what’s best for the team.”