BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Welcome to Week 6 of Deshaun Watson watch 2023.
Here’s our top Brownie Bites from Watson’s limited return to practice Wednesday.
Here we go again – Watson was limited as we go through yet another week of not knowing his availability for Sunday due to his strained right rotator cuff. Unlike last week, Stefanski wants to wait to see how practice this week plays out. “I'm not making any game day decisions today,” Stefanski said. Stefanski did the same thing leading up to the Colts game. “I think every week's different when you're working through an injury, every week is different and how you feel day to day,” Stefanski said. “So this week's just completely different in my perspective.” In between throws, Watson moved his right shoulder and even shook his right arm as it rested beside him several times. Watson took last week off to rest and rehab the shoulder after he departed in the first quarter of a 39-38 win at Indianapolis. “He's making progress,” Stefanski said. “He's working through it, working very hard, both in this building, out of this building, really, around the clock. So I think all of the time, all of the rehab continues to make a difference.” P.J. Walker remains the No. 2 QB behind Watson and he will start again if needed Sunday against the Cardinals.
Who will it be now – The Browns enter the week not only not knowing who will be starting for them against Arizona but they have no idea who will start for the Cardinals – Kyler Murray or Clayton Tune. “We don't expect to know until 90 minutes before or if they decide to name somebody,” Stefanski said. “So you prepare for everybody. You prepare for Jeff Driskel, who's on their roster now as a practice squad player. So we do our homework on all of them. There's tape on all of them. Obviously [we] understand Kyler Murray is a great football player. I've seen him firsthand. He's great. Tune is a kid that we did a lot of work on coming out. Can make every throw, athletic, good decision maker. So we have to be prepared for all of them.” The situation presents quite the challenge, and headache for the defense this week. “Whoever steps on the field the first play—we got to be ready for both,” linebacker Anthony Walker said. “Unique opportunity, obviously with Kyler coming back from injury and then the rookie quarterback. We just got to be ready to play against whoever shows out on the field.”
No hard feelings – Following Sunday’s 24-20 loss in Seattle, running back Kareem Hunt expressed frustration over not getting any fourth quarter touches – especially on the fateful third-and-3 from the 41 that resulted in an interception. Hunt met with Stefanski and the two had a productive conversation. “We talked a little bit and it's no hard feelings,” Hunt said. “We both, we want to win.” Hunt carried 14 times for 55 yards but his last touch came late in the third quarter and Stefanski keeps discussions with players private. “I'm not going to add much to my conversations with our guys,” Stefanski said. “Kareem's a pro. He's doing a good job for us.”
Stand pat – Aside from sending Donovan Peoples-Jones home to Detroit, the Browns stood pat at the trade deadline irking some fans. “I like our team, I like our guys, I like our locker room,” Stefanski said. “There's things that I know we all can do better, and we will. Andrew and the personnel department, they work on those things. It's a 365 day thing that they're working on, so that doesn't change. But I would tell you, I do like our roster.”
Opportunity knocks – The trade of Peoples-Jones, who had just 18 targets through seven games, opens the door for rookie receiver Cedric Tillman. “He does and, you know, obviously, you guys saw the trade with Donovan, a guy that we all love,” Stefanski said. “Having seen him grow up in this building, had some really great moments for us. So, wishing him the best. But it does open up an avenue towards playing time for Ced and for some other guys as well.”
Scaling back – The trip to Seattle combined with the volume of injuries, Stefanski decided to push the schedule back and scale practice back to 7-on-7 and slower team work Wednesday inside of the Casey Coleman Field House. A total of 18 players were listed on the Wednesday injury report.
Salute to Service – Player personnel and football operations process manager Joy Tapajcik was named the Browns nominee for the “Salute to Service Award.” Finalists for the award are scheduled to be announced in January. The recipient will be recognized at the NFL Honors awards show, which is set to air the week of Super Bowl.
Quote of the day – Linebacker Anthony Walker is not taking the 1-7 Cardinals lightly. “A team’s record doesn't paint the whole picture. If you look at six games, they've had the lead in each game, right? Deep into the game or it's a one-score game where they have a chance to take the lead or tie the game. So we can't take that mindset that they were supposed to be bad or they're a 1-7 football team. They're a good football team, right? They're the NFL. They have NFL players. Their offense, obviously…the quarterback situation, very unique, but one thing they do very well is run the ball really well. Right? James Conner being the great back, he is obviously out with injury, but the other backs run really hard as well. Again, right now I'm pretty sure they're looking at our tape the two weeks we haven't stopped the run with a s***, so we need to change that right now and we got a big task out of us.”
Injury report – DNP: WR David Bell (knee), WR Amari Cooper (rest/knee), DE Myles Garrett (rest/shoulder), Dawand Jones (shoulder), CB Greg Newsome (groin), David Njoku (ankle), DE Za’Darius Smith (rest/neck), DE Alex Wright (knee), LT Jedrick Wills Jr. (foot/ankle) LG Joel Bitonio (rest); LIMITED: S Grant Delpit (ankle/shoulder), RB Jerome Ford (ankle), CB Mike Ford Jr. (ankle), LB Sione Takitaki (hamstring), LB Anthony Walker (shoulder), QB Deshaun Watson (shoulder); FULL: LB Tony Fields (shoulder), CB Cameron Mitchell (shoulder)