BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Five defensive starters were unable to practice Wednesday due to injury, which will be something to monitor this week as the Browns prepare to take on the Falcons’ high-flying offense Sunday in Atlanta.
“I am not ruling anybody out on Wednesday,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said prior to practice. “We will kind of do what we always do, which is take in information every single day.”
Defensive ends Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney along with defensive tackle Taven Bryan, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and cornerback Denzel Ward all sat the session out and their availability for the Falcons is to be determined.
“I don't think you can replace those guys,” safety John Johnson III said. “I think you just kind of band together as a team, all 11 guys on defense got to run to the ball, got to do your job, got to execute at a high level. This is the NFL, so at any given moment, your number could be called, everyone has been preparing like starters, even guys that probably will never play, you can't really look at it like that. So I think we're in a good position with guys stepping in but I think it's just going to be a more team-oriented thing, like running to the ball, doing your job and swarming tackling.”
Garrett remained at home recovering from Monday’s car accident in which he suffered a sprained shoulder, biceps strain as well as other minor cuts, bumps and bruises, but is scheduled to return to the building Thursday and his availability for practice will be assessed.
Clowney has been sidelined with an ankle injury suffered in the third quarter of a Week 2 loss to the Jets.
“I really think it is take it day by day on all of these guys,” Stefanski said. “JD in particular, I don’t have a feel yet. As we get later in the week, I will have a better feel.”
Defensive tackle Taven Bryan is dealing with a hamstring injury, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah a groin injury and cornerback Denzel Ward back and rib injuries.
“Just something has popped up,” Stefanski said of Ward’s injuries. “Just normal things for guys. I don’t know that there was a specific play.”
Whatever it takes – The Browns offense is a bit of an NFL anomaly: they have more run yardage (572) than passing yards (564) by a slim margin.
“I don’t care,” Stefanski said when asked if he’s comfortable with that. “Wins and losses.”
Like Stefanski, quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who is completing 66.3% of his passes this season, has zero complaints on the run-pass ratio which is 114 runs to 92 passes.
“I don’t care,” Brissett said. “It is working. Doesn’t matter to me.”
After a rough debut at Carolina, Brissett has completed 43 of 58 passes for 469 yards with three touchdowns and an interception the last two weeks.
“I think we are figuring it out,” Brissett said. “It is still early in the season, and we still have a lot of questions for ourselves that we are answering. It is just finding ways to, like I always say, score one more point than they do.
Along that journey, we are figuring out what type of team we are going to want to be and moving forward with that.”
Cleveland leads the NFL in rushing, led by Nick Chubb, who is tops in the league with 341 yards on the ground and four touchdowns.
“We’re doing good for now, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Chubb said.
Homecoming game – Sunday’s visit to Atlanta is a homecoming for Nick Chubb.
“It will be great,” Chubb said. “I get a chance to go home and see a lot of familiar faces. I played in that stadium before, I’m excited about going back.”
Chubb was born and grew up in Cedartown, Georgia, a city of just over 10,000 and 72 miles northwest of Atlanta.
He’s played at the new Mercedes Benz Stadium, which opened in 2017, and starred for the Georgia Bulldogs.
“It’s great,” Chubb said. “It’s a very nice stadium. Had a lot of wins and losses in there. It will be great to be back.”
Quote of the day – “Since I've been in Cleveland it's been about responding, literally, so we've done a decent job, you can always do better, but that's one thing that I can say we've had practice at is just blocking out the noise, really locking in and weeks like this, we usually go out there and have a good performance, so hopefully we can continue that trend and it's going to take everybody.” – Johnson on the Browns dealing with adversity heading into Week 4.
Injury report – LG Joel Bitonio (biceps), DT Taven Bryan (hamstring), DEs Jadeveon Clowney (ankle) & Myles Garrett (shoulder, biceps), OT Joe Haeg (concussion), LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (groin), CB Denzel Ward (back, ribs), WR Amari Cooper (rest); LIMITED: RT Jack Conklin (knee); FULL: S Ronnie Harrison (hamstring), DE Isaiah Thomas (hand)
Up next – Practice Thursday.