BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was not on the field for the final practice of the season Friday morning due to an illness.
Beckham is listed as questionable for Sunday’s season finale in Cincinnati.
Head coach Freddie Kitchens said he was unaware if it was the flu.
“It just started today so I have not gotten much info from that standpoint. It started today, and I got a report from the doctor,” head coach Freddie Kitchens said. “We will go from there. We will see how it goes.”
Beckham has played through hip and groin injuries all season and it’d be surprising if an illness sidelined him.
“You never know how sick you are,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “I’ve been sick were you can’t move before and that’s tough to do. You’re traveling down there, it’s tough. But he’s really toughed it out this year. I know he’s been banged up and we’ll see. We’ve got 48 hours or so before kickoff so we’ll see what he can do and see if he can get healthy.”
Beckham, who has 71 catches and three touchdowns, is 46 yards shy of hitting 1,000 on the season.
Looking ahead – Running back Kareem Hunt will be a restricted free agent in March but hopes to remain with the Browns.
“Ain't no place like home, and this is home for me, so I would live to be in my hometown playing for a long time, maybe finish my career,” Hunt said Friday. “That would be something special. You never know. I’m just excited to do whatever it takes. They’re going to get a ballplayer.”
Hunt has averaged 4.1 yards per carry and caught 34 passes for 253 yards in seven games since returning from an eight-game suspension.
“I feel like I’m a difference-maker on the field,” Hunt said. “I feel like I could’ve helped win a couple more games and that’s how I feel personally.”
Hunt made it clear he has no problem sharing the backfield with Nick Chubb and he’s anxious to see what they can do together for the offense in a full season.
“I’m a team player,” Hunt said. “Whatever I can do help my team, whatever team I play for, I’m going to do it. You never know. Whenever my number is called, I have to be ready to play. I’m content with whatever, as long as we win.”
Chubb leads the NFL with 1,443 yards rushing, which ranks fourth on the all-time Browns rushing list.
“I don’t know a lot of backs who can say they won a rushing title, and it’s hard to do,” Hunt, who won it as a rookie in 2017, said. “You’ve got to be consistent; you’ve got to come ready to play every game, and Nick deserves it. He’s a workhorse type of guy, a good person and I can’t be happier for him. He deserves the rushing title, no doubt. And I believe he’s going to get it.”
Njoku or no – It didn’t sound like tight end David Njoku will play Sunday.
Njoku has been a healthy scratch the last two weeks and Kitchens sounded non-committal about his status this week.
“We're going to play the people I think gives us the best chance to win every week,” Kitchens said. “Depending on what that is, we'll see how it goes Sunday.”
So, you’re saying there’s a chance – Defensive end Olivier Vernon has missed six of the previous seven games with a knee injury and has been questionable the last few weeks.
“Yeah, there is definitely a chance,” Kitchens said. “He is trying to work through it now, and we will see what we get on Sunday.”
Not fine – Defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson said he was fined $42,000 for shoving Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Richardson, who plans to appeal, was flagged on the play for unnecessary roughness.
Richardson won an appeal earlier this year for a personal foul on Broncos quarterback Daniel Jones and had another fine for hitting Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota reduced.
Road woes – After winning their first two games on the road in September, the Browns haven’t won away from home since.
“First of all, it is hard to win on the road in the NFL,” Kitchens said. “We were fortunate enough to win our first two road games, but we have not won a road game since. That is one of our challenges this week is to go to Cincinnati and play better than we have played recently on the road.”
Another sad milestone – The Browns need to score 24 points at Cincinnati Sunday to average 21.0 points per game this season.
It would mark just the fourth time in 21 years the franchise averaged 21 or more points per game in a season (2002, 2007, 2018).
Injury report – OUT: None
QUESTIONABLE: WR Odell Beckham Jr. (groin/illness), TE Ricky Seals-Jones (illness), T Kendall Lamm (knee), TE Pharaoh Brown (illness), C JC Tretter (knee), DE Olivier Vernon (knee)
EXPECTED TO PLAY: WR Jarvis Landry (hip), WR KhaDarel Hodge (neck), RT Chris Hubbard (knee), DT Sheldon Richardson (back), S Damarious Randall (foot)
