AFC North Cutdown: Cleveland Cut a Holding Machine, Pittsburgh Cut a Cornerback’s Worth of DPI

The AFC North’s cutdown reads like a penalty audit. One team waived the most flagged player to leave any roster in the league this weekend. Another shed pass interference yardage and claimed more of it back the same day. The wire lists the names. The flag ledger explains them.

Baltimore

Seven cuts, none with a penalty sheet worth the ink. Baltimore’s cutdown story is trades: C.J. Okoye to the Giants and tackle Diego Pounds to Kansas City. Center Danny Pinter goes to injured reserve, which matters for the same reason all interior line injuries matter; the snap and the cadence live there, and so do false starts. The Ravens enter the season having changed almost nothing about their flag profile.

Cincinnati

Defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson and safety Daijahn Anthony were both released, and safety Russ Yeast was waived carrying the loudest line of the three: flagged twice for unnecessary roughness in 2023. The rest of the eight leave with sheets too thin to read anything into.

Cleveland

Thirty-eight transactions out the door, the heaviest cutdown in the division, and it includes the single most flagged departure in the league this weekend. Tackle KT Leveston was flagged ten times last season for 76 yards, offensive holding leading the count. Only about twenty players in football were flagged ten or more times last season, and one of them just hit the waiver wire.

Cleveland also waived receiver Cedric Tillman, whose sheet includes offensive pass interference, and claimed cornerback Mekhi Blackmon off waivers from Indianapolis. Blackmon arrives with five flags and 86 penalty yards from last season, almost all of it pass interference. The Browns cut a holding problem and claimed a DPI one. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel goes to injured reserve, designated to return.

Pittsburgh

Twenty-one moves, two trades that will be felt on the offensive line, and one cut that our ledger flags in bold. Defensive back Daryl Porter was released carrying four flags for 53 yards from last season, defensive pass interference at the top.

The trades: tackle Broderick Jones to Dallas and running back Kaleb Johnson to Green Bay. Safety Brandon Hill was released and then re-signed within the window, a paper move that shows up as two transactions and changes nothing on the field. Veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts was also released.

Watch Cleveland’s claim. A cornerback with 86 DPI yards changes a defense’s flag profile all by himself, and the Browns just added one the same weekend they shed a ten-flag tackle. Both moves show up in the team penalty pages in the app the moment the season starts counting.