Estime Is Active. Sampson and Sanders Are Not. The Backfield Keeps Reshuffling.

Audric Estime is active, which is worth noting mostly because of what surrounds him. Dylan Sampson is on injured reserve. Raheim Sanders is on injured reserve. The depth chart at running back currently lists Jaret Patterson, Benny LeMay, and Jaleel McLaughlin — none of whom logged meaningful production last season — as the top three at the position.

Estime's presence gives Cleveland a body, and that's not nothing on a roster that has been patching holes since August. But this is the third or fourth version of the Browns' backfield in recent months, and each iteration has arrived not through design but through attrition. Sampson was the most versatile piece they had — 175 rushing yards and a receiving role that gave Watson an outlet — and he's been shelved. Sanders lasted four games before landing on IR. The roster news article from earlier this month noted the Browns had waived a UDFA running back while adding a free agent, which is about as clear a sign of triage as you'll find.

My read is that the backfield isn't the team's most urgent problem — the grounding is clear that linebacker depth and the receiver corps are the higher-order concerns — but it is the most visible example of how Cleveland is operating right now. They're not building a depth chart; they're filling a depth chart. Estime is active. That's where things stand.