BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski had good and bad news on the injury front Sunday afternoon.
First, the good.
Safety Grant Delpit and right guard Wyatt Teller are fine.
“[They were] Held out, precautionary,” Stefanski said. “In a normal game they would’ve gone back in.”
Delpit suffered a hip injury and Teller walked off with a knee injury in the first half of Saturday night’s 21-20 loss to the Bears.
The bad news, defensive end Chris Odom, who was carted off in the third quarter, suffered a torn ACL according to Stefanski.
“He will mis the season,” Stefanski said.
“He was doing a really nice job. Was a very, very good pass rusher. Had a knack for it. Did a nice job in practice. Had some good moments in these preseason games. Very, very disappointed for him. We talked about it last night, injuries are a very, very unfortunate part of this game that we play and coach, and we hate to see guys lose a year.”
Stefanski also indicated he expects to get a few more injured players, who had been sidelined, back on the practice field this week. Safety Ronnie Harrison Jr. and cornerback A.J. Green are both expected to be ready for Week 1.
Standing by Schwartz – Receiver Anthony Schwartz is not in danger of being cut. That’s the perk of being drafted by the current GM despite a dreadful camp and preseason full of dropped passes.
“Anthony had a tough stretch – I think everybody understands that – but we support our players,” Stefanski said. “We support our players when they are going through a tough stretch and it can be anything, and it is easy to do with a guy like Anthony who is very, very accountable and he works very, very hard. That is what I will continue to do. That is what we will continue to do.”
Saturday night, Schwartz, a 2021 third-round pick, had at least two drops. He failed to get under a deep ball from Jacoby Brissett and caught just one of six targets for eight yards.
Made his case – Undrafted rookie safety D’Anthony Bell forced his second fumble of the preseason Saturday night and has made the fourth safety job a tight competition between him and Richard LeCounte.
“It is great. I do not believe we have had an undrafted player make our roster the last couple of years, which means it is a very competitive roster,” Stefanski said. “In this case, it is going to be no different this season. D’Anthony has done a nice job. He has flashed getting the ball out there last night, and he did that back at Jacksonville. It is a competitive battle to make one of these 53 spots.”
Conklin update – It is unclear if right tackle Jack Conklin will be ready to go for Week 1. Conklin has been in an out of practice as part of his rehab program since being activated from the PUP list after passing his physical.
“I think what we have done with Jack is make sure that we are progressing at an appropriate pace,” Stefanski said. “I think we have done that. We will work through the next four days of practice to see where he is and continue to give him more. He has done a very, very good job with everything that we have given him. He kind of has hit all of those mileposts, but past what we are going to do tomorrow, it does not really serve me to think about what he is going to do a week from now or six weeks from now. Really focused on the next four days.”