After two years with Karlos Dansby, the Cleveland Browns had enough and released him. Now, the veteran linebacker is hoping there’s still room for him in the NFL, and would like to end up playing with the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals or the Cincinnati Bengals.
There hasn’t been a market developing for Dansby because he’s quite fresh off a team. After signing a $24 million, four year deal in 2014, Dansby wouldn’t take a paycut (had a $6.5 million cap hit in 2016 and in 2017) which led the Browns to release him, saving $3.5 million in cap space. The inside linebacker played 28 games for the Browns in two seasons (16 in 2015), once again showing his interception ability (three INTs, two returned for touchdowns), making it to six pick sixes in his career.
But while Dansby does have these flashes of pass coverage and ball hawking, he’s a lot less dependable in stopping runs and covering tight ends and receivers roaming in his vicinity. At 34, after 12 seasons in the NFL, that’s understandable.
It’s also easy to see why he would like to go back to the Cardinals. He played in Arizona for about half his career or more (2004-2009, 2013). He was a second-team All-Pro there in 2013, and was part of their Super Bowl run in the 2008 season. He later signed a huge, five-year, $43 million contract with the Miami Dolphins, but played three seasons there before being released.
Maybe Dansby gets his wishes to come true, but either way, even at 34, he’s probably still good enough to at least help out some team in the front seven, although maybe not for three downs each time. He has 180 games in his 12 year career, being one of the more dependable in terms of fitness, coming up with 19 interceptions and 31 sacks over the years. He has seven seasons of over 100 tackles.