In this July 2019 file photo, Stephen Carlson walks off the Cleveland Browns practice field in Berea, Ohio.
P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

Jamestown native Stephen Carlson has made the Cleveland Browns’ 53-man roster.

The official announcement was made Saturday afternoon on the team’s website.

Carlson, who was signed as an undrafted free agent in April 2019 out of Princeton University, is coming off a rookie season in which he played in nine games and caught five passes, for 51 yards, including one for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also a fixture on special teams. With a year under his belt, the 2015 Jamestown High School graduate felt even more confident during a conversation with The Post-Journal earlier this summer.

“Last year coming in, changing positions, being an undrafted guy from a smaller school, I didn’t know exactly what I was capable of,” said Carlson, who now weighs 250 pounds, up seven pounds from last year. “I kind of doubted myself a little bit here and there. Now, after going through a season, I can hang with everybody in the league and I’m confident in my abilities. … I learned so much in that one season and I have so much to build off of. I know exactly what to expect, I know exactly what I have to do to get on the field. I think I have a very narrow mindset of exactly what I have to do. I’m willing to do whatever to achieve those goals to make the team again.”

To this point, the Browns apparently have liked what they’ve seen from No. 89, one of five tight ends who made the final cut. Joining him are Austin Hooper, David Njoku, Harrison Bryant and Pharoah Brown.

“We always take and evaluate all the training camp practices, evaluate every snap, every rep and really try and get as good of a feel for our guys as we can,” said General Manager Andrew Berry on the team’s website, ClevelandBrowns.com. “We worked closely with our coaches and solicited their feedback as well as from our pro staff and our scouts. We really spent a lot of time on our roster. Where it’s a little bit different is you don’t get the preseason games, but we feel like we had enough information, enough film to make informed decisions on all 53 guys who made the team based on the practices we had throughout this month.”

According to the website, of the 53 players, 33 are returning members of the 2019 team. The remaining 20 came to Cleveland via free agency (11), the 2020 NFL Draft (six), trades (two) and waivers (one).

“We share a vision of how this team is going to play, but also, we went into this process very open-minded and wanting to keep the best 53 players,” Head Coach Kevin Stefanski said on the website. “We didn’t have any hard, fast rules of how many we were keeping at any given position. The way the roster shook out is based on the performance of those players.”

Berry added: “We want to be deep at positions that an offensive and defensive system emphasize, but it’s a credit to the players at those spots. They’re good football players and they had strong camps and they earned those roster spots for the time being.”