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Kyle Lauletta spent a hot minute with the Cleveland Browns last season and won’t be coming back any time soon after he was selected by the Pittsburgh Maulers with the No. 7 overall pick in the inaugural USFL draft on February 22.
Lauletta was with the Browns during the 2021 preseason but did not make the active roster and was waived August 31, when Cleveland gave the quarterback spot on its practice squad to Nick Mullens — who had previous experience as an NFL starter.
The United States Football League is a new eight-team league that will play a 10-game regular-season schedule starting April 16 in Birmingham and the postseason in June in Canton, Ohio. Training camps will open March 21. All regular-season games will be played in Birmingham.
Lauletta, who will turn 27 on March 17, looked sharp in his first preseason game, tossing two touchdowns and no interceptions, registering 212 yards on 19-of-27 passing. However, he threw a pair of interceptions in his final preseason performance.
On December 17, he re-signed with the Browns to back up Mullens in Week 15 after starter Baker Mayfield and backup Case Keenum tested positive for COVID-19. Lauletta did not play in that game. His only two appearances in NFL games came in 2018, when he was with the New York Giants. He completed no passes in five attempts.
While most of his time was spent with the Giants, he also spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. Lauletta had a solid college career at Richmond, completing 63.5% of his passes for 10,465 yards and 73 touchdowns and 35 interceptions.
Browns Have Own QB Situation to Figure Out
The Browns have their own quarterback situation to worry about. Baker Mayfield is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract and the former No. 1 overall pick has little clarity about his long-term term future with the Browns.
After guiding the Browns to the postseason and a wild-card win in 2020, it seemed likely that Mayfield would be extended. However, a Week 2 shoulder injury limited Mayfield during the 2021 season and the result was mixed, at best.
Mayfield completed just over 60% of his passes last season for 3,010 yards, 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions as the Browns stumbled to an 8-9 record, missing the postseason.
Mayfield had surgery in January to repair his shoulder and the Browns expect him to be back behind center as the starter next season.
“We fully expect Baker to be our starter and bounce back,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry told reporters in January. “Generally speaking, we are looking forward to Baker obviously getting healthy in the offseason and then putting good work into the spring and with his coaches for having the type of season we know he can have moving forward.”
Browns Have Decision to Make With Case Keenum
The Browns’ decision at quarterback goes beyond Mayfield, with the team also needing to sort out what they want to do with backup Case Keenum. If Keenum is released after June 3, it would save the Browns more than $7.1 million.
Keenum started two games last season for the Browns, passing for 462 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. However, the Browns didn’t seem to have much faith in Keenum with Mayfield looking much less than 100% for most of the year.
The Browns could opt to sign a more competitive backup — like Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota — to push Mayfield.
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