CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – JC Tretter takes pride in not missing work.
The president of the NFLPA and Browns center sounded optimistic he won’t be forced to miss his first game since the Browns signed him as a free agent in 2017 when they open the season in Baltimore Sunday.
“Knee’s feeling good,” Tretter said Wednesday morning during a Zoom video conference with reporters. “We’ve done a pretty good pace, doing the right thing, taking it and ramping up the right way, and we’re going to continue that this week and make sure everything’s going the right way and we’ll just continue to progress as this week goes on.”
Tretter, who missed all of training camp, underwent surgery on August 13 after it flared up on him during the strength and conditioning portion of the ramp up to the start of camp.
“You don’t want to miss games, you don’t want to miss plays,” Tretter said. “Myself and Joel [Bitonio] both have a nice little run going together of being out there for every play since we got here together in Cleveland. You just want to take advantage of every chance. You’re not going to play forever. You want to make sure you’re out there taking advantage of all the chances we get.”
Next week’s quick turnaround won’t factor into their decision whether or not to play Tretter against the Ravens according to head coach Kevin Stefanski.
“I think we just want to be smart with all of our players and all the circumstances,” Stefanski said. “We will see how JC looks today and really will not make a determination until later in the week.”
Tretter, who played through a severe high ankle sprain in 2018, admitted the decision to have surgery was difficult but he felt it was the better option rather than trying to play the entire season through it.
“A lot of it’s a pride thing of making sure you’re out there available,” Tretter said. “That’s the one real statistic you can have as an offensive lineman is availability. You always want to be available for your team and help your team win.”
Playing games – Stefanski is off and running in the majoring in the minor sweepstakes Browns head coaches often get themselves wrapped up in by refusing to say who will call plays this week at Baltimore – him or offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
“There is gamesmanship,” Stefanski said smiling. “There’s no preseason obviously, now, you go to a normal preseason and it’s not like you show much anyway but it’s something we’ll announce when we feel is appropriate.”
When asked if he and Van Pelt might call games differently Stefanski replied, “I won‘t speculate.”
Quote of the day – “Silent assassin. Does not speak much, but when he does, it carries weight. He has always been a guy to lead by example. That is just how some guys are. You do not want him to be anybody he is not. We are going ask him to do that, but we do not have to ask him; he does it every day.” – quarterback Baker Mayfield on running back Nick Chubb.
Max protection – This year the NFL not only expanded practice squads from 12 to 16, the league will allow teams to protect four practice squad players per week from being signed by the other 31 teams.
This week, the Browns elected to protect quarterback Garrett Gilbert, safety Jovante Moffatt, kicker Cody Parkey and offensive tackle Greg Senat.
“Andrew [Berry] and I will sit down and take input from the coaches and just think about guys that we want to protect that week and it may vary each week,” Stefanski said.
On Monday the entire squad is unprotected, and the league office is notified which four are protected for the week starting on Tuesday according to Stefanski.
Final spot – The Browns filled the 16th and final practice squad spot by signing running back John Kelly Wednesday morning.
Injury report – DNP: OT Chris Hubbard (knee), CB Kevin Johnson (liver), CB Greedy Williams (shoulder), LB Mack Wilson (knee); LIMITED: C JC Tretter (knee), DB MJ Stewart (hamstring)
