Browns elevate Elijah Lee and Chris Naggar from practice squad

The Cleveland Browns elevated two players from the practice squad on Saturday, adding kicker Chris Naggar and linebacker Elijah Lee to the active roster for Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

These types of moves are normally just to provide some additional depth at the end of the game-day roster, but in the case of Naggar it might be a bigger issue.

Kicker Chase McLaughlin, who won the job somewhat by default after Cody Parkey suffered a quad injury, hurt his hamstring in practice on Friday. He is questionable for Sunday’s game, so adding Naggar provides insurance if McLaughlin can’t answer the bell.

If that happens, the Browns will be relying on an undrafted rookie who did not make the cut with the New York Jets this summer before landing in Cleveland. Naggar kicked in college at Texas from 2016 to 2019 before transferring to SMU for the 2020 season. He did well enough that year with the Mustangs, earning AAC Special Teams Player of the Year honors after converting 17-of-21 field goals (81 percent) and 43-of-46 extra points (93.5 percent).

Lee was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings. He has played in 50 games, including eight with the Browns last season, and has 53 career tackles, two forced fumbles, a sack and a fumble recovery.

He had six tackles with the Browns last season while mostly playing on special teams.

Once again this season teams are allowed to add up to two players from the practice each week to provide for a larger group to select the game-day roster. Players activated this way immediately return to the practice squad following the game.