Former Nebraska Standout Gets Ditched by NFL Team

Former Nebraska Cornhuskers tight end Jack Stoll is looking for his next NFL home after the Cleveland Browns terminated his contract Friday, releasing him from injured reserve with an injury settlement.

The move came eight days after Cleveland placed the 28-year-old on IR with an undisclosed injury and signed undrafted rookie Drew Biber in a corresponding roster shuffle.

Stoll had signed a one-year deal with the Browns on March 11, joining the club as a blocking specialist behind emerging tight end Harold Fannin Jr. He never appeared in a preseason game for Cleveland.

For Husker fans, the transaction is another chapter in a familiar story: a tough, assignment-sound tight end who carved out a six-year NFL career after going undrafted out of Lincoln.

Stoll arrived at Nebraska from Regis Jesuit in Aurora, Colorado, and redshirted in 2016. Over the next four seasons he became a fixture in the tight-end room, starting 25 games and finishing with 61 receptions for 657 yards and six touchdowns in 43 appearances.

He led the Huskers’ tight ends in catches as a sophomore (21 for 245 yards, three scores) and junior (25 for 234 yards). He landed on the John Mackey Award preseason watch list three times and was known as much for his work in the run game and on special teams as for his modest receiving numbers.

Injuries limited him to seven games as a senior in 2020; he declared for the draft rather than use extra eligibility.

Philadelphia signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2021. Stoll was the only UDFA to make the Eagles’ 53-man roster that year and spent three seasons in green, including a Super Bowl appearance after the 2022 season.

He later bounced through the Giants, a second Eagles stint, the Dolphins, and a productive 2025 with New Orleans (six catches, 46 yards, his first NFL touchdown in 15 games) before landing in Cleveland.

Career NFL totals through 2025: 28 receptions, 239 yards, one touchdown in more than 70 games. Blocking, not box-score production, has always been the selling point.

That profile made him a logical depth piece for a Browns offense that wanted a reliable in-line tight end. The injury cut the experiment short. Stoll is now a free agent and can sign with any team.

Roster-cut weekend often produces practice-squad opportunities; a return to Cleveland’s practice squad is possible, as is a call from a club that needs a veteran blocker who already knows how to survive the league’s margins.

Husker alums have a long history of sticking in the NFL as complementary pieces rather than stars. Stoll fits that mold. He never became a featured receiver in Lincoln or the pros, but he kept finding work because coaches trusted him on the edge.

Whether Friday’s release is a brief pause or the start of a longer search, the former No. 86 has already outlasted most of the tight ends drafted ahead of him in 2021. Nebraska fans will keep an eye on the waiver wire.