WR Nate Burleson to join Browns

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Cleveland Browns have reached an agreement with free-agent wide receiver Nate Burleson on a one-year deal, a source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.



Burleson took to Twitter to thank his new fanbase in Cleveland.



What up Cleveland! I'm excited about this upcoming season...Go Browns! S/O to @dawgpound_des for the... http://t.co/JNKYg22wCL



- Nathaniel E Burleson (@Nate13Burleson) April 7, 2014Burleson, who was released by the Detroit Lions in a salary cap move, finished his 11th NFL season in 2013, catching 39 passes for 461 yards and a touchdown in nine games for the Lions. He had one of the highest reception rates in the NFL, catching 73.6 percent of the passes thrown to him by Matthew Stafford.



He has played in 135 regular season games between Minnesota, Seattle and Detroit, catching 457 passes for 5,630 yards and 43 touchdowns after being a third round pick of Minnesota in 2003 out of Nevada.



Besides his on-field play, he was one of Detroit's most vocal players in the locker room and often gave the team's pre-game on-field speeches in the team's huddle. He was also one of the Lions' most consistent spokesmen in 2013.



The 32-year-old will be 33 by the time the 2014 season begins and he has had major injuries the past two years. He sat the final 10 games of the 2012 season with a broken right leg and missed seven games in 2013 with a broken forearm suffered in a car wreck caused by Burleson reached to save a falling pizza box in his car while on Interstate 696 in suburban Detroit.



Burleson parlayed the accident into a year's supply of free pizza from DiGiorno. He also has a clothing company, Lionblood, which launched last year.



ESPN.com Lions reporter Michael Rothstein contributed to this report.



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