CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – It appears the Browns lost tight end Stephen Carlson for the season while the team is hoping for better news concerning linebacker Mack Wilson.
Carlson suffered a knee injury during Saturday night’s 23-13 preseason victory in Jacksonville.
Carlson, who was likely the fourth tight end behind Austin Hooper, David Njoku and Harrison Bryant on the depth chart, went down in the second quarter.
Wilson underwent an MRI Sunday on his ailing shoulder that forced him from the game early in the opening quarter.
“It was early in the game, one of the first couple [of] plays,” Stefanski said of Wilson’s injury. “[He] Just dinged that shoulder. Honestly, [I’m] not exactly sure which play it was. I can vividly remember him grabbing it. We’ll see how he comes out of it.”
Wilson was having a strong training camp coming off a knee injury suffered during camp last year that limited him throughout 2020 season, and even had him considering retirement.
Wilson’s shoulder injury could accelerate the timeline for rookie Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who stood out against the Jaguars, to get some first-team snaps with the linebackers.
“As we continue to progress through training camp, we’ll continue to meet as coaches and discuss those types of things,” Stefanski said. "With all of our rookies, we bring them up all on different time frames and some guys are ready for more and some guys aren’t. So we’ll make that on a case by case basis.”
The second-round pick out of Notre Dame led the team with eight tackles – three for loss and a sack – in Jacksonville.
“He did make splash plays,” Stefanski said. “He made good tackles along the sideline. He made a nice play on that screen. He needs to clean up his eye progression, and he understands that, and the coaches are working very hard. To really play fast in this league, it is when you are not thinking. I think he is getting there. With a lot of work, I think he will get there.
Overall, he understands there is plenty of work to be done.”
Cornerback Kiondre Thomas also left Saturday’s game, in the second half, with a hamstring injury. Thomas is the eighth player sidelined by the injury in recent weeks, but Stefanski is optimistic some of those players could return this week.
“A lot of those guys are really close and I am optimistic about it, but I want to get to Tuesday to see exactly where everybody is,” Stefanski said. “Use these next days, today and tomorrow, as part of that rehab, but I am optimistic that we will get some guys back.”