The Cleveland Browns went through training camp with several key offensive players missing for various injury reasons. Quarterback Deshaun Watson only had his expected full complement of receiving options for three practices, and the offensive line was shuffled multiple times.
As the Browns head toward Sunday’s season opener against the Dallas Cowboys, the offensive line is set in four spots — and indications are that Jack Conklin, the team’s starting right tackle when he’s been healthy since 2020, will likely start at left tackle.
Conklin just passed his physical and was activated from the physically unable to perform list last week. He’d been rehabbing from a significant left knee injury that included his second torn ACL that he suffered in last year’s season opener. Conklin was rarely seen on the practice field for the early part of camp. In one of the only two times he was seen, he was going through a scripted workout with Cleveland’s medical staff in late August, he was taking left tackle drops.
Longtime starting left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. was also activated from the PUP list last week, but he has yet to return to practice after he had knee surgery last December. James Hudson III, who’s mostly been the backup right tackle for the last three seasons, played left tackle with the No. 1 offense for most of the spring and summer before suffering an ankle injury in the second preseason game. Hudson is expected to practice fully this week, but it appears the Browns prefer to go with Conklin at left tackle until Wills can return.
GO DEEPER
Browns will have Jack Conklin and Jedrick Wills on active roster, but uncertainty remains
What happens after that? What happens in the future with Wills and Hudson only under contract for 2024 and Conklin’s guaranteed money done after this season? For now, the Browns are just trying to get to and through the first game. And to get Conklin, a two-time All-Pro, back to full health.
“I’m ready to be on the field whether it’s left or right,” Conklin said. “If left is where I’m going to play, I’m excited for the opportunity. … I feel like I can still play at the same high level when I’m healthy.”
Conklin, who turned 30 last month, revealed last week that he tore the ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus in his left knee last September.
“It was the whole shebang,” Conklin said. “Any knee injury is not easy to come back from. I knew what it took to come back, unfortunately, but fortunately, I always knew I’d have a chance to play again.
“It’s never easy. But after going through it before, you know the steps and the process. It sucks, but it’s football. A 280-pound guy falls on your leg and there’s no rehab or strength (exercise) that’s going to stop that from blowing out your knee.”
Conklin, who also tore the patellar tendon in his right knee in 2021, returned to practice last Tuesday. He was given last Wednesday off as part of his rehab plan, then he was back in practice on Thursday. The Browns will practice in pads later this week, and assuming Conklin participates, that will be the closest to live action he gets ahead of the opener.
The Browns’ other options at left tackle would include potentially rushing Wills back this week, though there’s been no indication that he will play until at least later this month. Hudson has seen spot duty at left tackle before, and the Browns also brought veteran Germain Ifedi back via their practice squad after he finished the preseason as the No. 1 left tackle. Ifedi has been almost exclusively a right tackle and guard in his seven NFL seasons. Dawand Jones, who replaced Conklin as the starting right tackle last year, remains there and did not take any training camp reps on the left side.
Conklin was a left tackle for three seasons at Michigan State, but the Tennessee Titans made him their right tackle after drafting him in the first round in 2016. Per Pro Football Focus, Conklin logged 41 left tackle snaps as a rookie and 26 on the left side in 2017 in jumbo personnel packages, but he’s only played on the right side since.
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“Going back to the left is a little odd but not foreign,” Conklin said. “It’s something I did for a long time at a high level. … I think I’m (feeling) good. Really, we’re just seeing how the knee reacts. I haven’t lost a step. It’s really just getting out there and getting going again, just getting out there and doing it.”
Conklin is signed through 2026, but he has $5 million in guarantees this season and no further guarantees. The Browns could save as much as $16 million on next year’s cap if they release Conklin after the season with a post-June 1 designation.
Conklin and the Browns could at any point agree to a reworked deal, but that would be contingent upon Conklin staying healthy and playing his way back into the team’s long-term plans. The Browns signed Conklin to an extension late in the 2022 season that included $31 million guaranteed, but he has played in just three games since signing that deal.
Over the season’s first month, the Browns will face some of the NFL’s marquee pass rushers in a stretch that includes Micah Parsons of the Cowboys, Josh Hines-Allen of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Brian Burns of the New York Giants and Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders. So while the offense continues to go through the paces of getting Watson healthy and comfortable with his receivers, finding stability and solid play at left tackle is also a high priority.
Running it back, but when?
One of Conklin’s rehab partners was running back Nick Chubb, who remains on the PUP list while also working his way back from multiple knee injuries. Chubb is out at least four games, and a team source told The Athletic the Browns are eyeing a potential return for Chubb in mid-to-late October. Publicly, the Browns have put no timetable on Chubb’s return, and no decisions will be made until the team gauges his progress later in September.
The Browns knew they wouldn’t have Chubb to start the season, but they were counting on running back Nyheim Hines to be one of their kickoff returners and to play in the running back rotation. Hines told reporters in May that he planned to return from his torn ACL in late July or early August, but he remains on the non-football injury list.
That leaves Jerome Ford as the No. 1 running back, with Pierre Strong Jr. and D’Onta Foreman next in line. Strong figures to be one of the team’s two kickoff returners, but the second kick return job is unsettled. Foreman could be in the mix, or the Browns could promote wide receiver James Proche II from the practice squad to handle both punt return and kickoff return duties.
Jerome Ford, who started 12 games in 2023 in Nick Chubb’s absence, will begin the season as the Browns’ No. 1 running back. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Getting healthy?
No decisions on any of the team’s special teams rotations or active/inactive lists will be made until later in the week because of injury uncertainties. The Browns are also just getting defensive starters Dalvin Tomlinson (knee), Greg Newsome II (hamstring) and Jordan Hicks (undisclosed) back to practice, and wide receiver David Bell has been out since August 10 with a quad injury.
Newsome said last week that he’s “1,000 percent” going to play in the opener and that he felt ready to return before last week. Newsome was injured during a summer workout at Northwestern University and needed surgery to repair a tear in his hamstring, but he was back with the team for the entirety of camp and was seen on the field every day for camp’s final three weeks.
With Denzel Ward having cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol from what’s his fifth known concussion since 2018, the Browns are positioned to have their full cornerback group back this week. Ward said last week he is not considering retirement despite his concussion history and feels healthy and ready to play his seventh NFL season.
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In February, the Browns restructured Ward’s contract to guarantee more up-front money for the three-time Pro Bowler and push the salary-cap hits to future years. That’s been common practice for Cleveland in recent years, and not just with Watson’s contract. Last week, the team exercised its right to restructure Watson’s contract and lower his 2024 cap hit by about $35 million from $63.9 million, which would have been a record cap number.
Though that move gave the Browns a league-high $51.3 million in cap space for 2024, per Over the Cap, most of it is for cap rollover for future years in the way Ward’s restructure and others have. The Browns have flexibility if they need to make in-season additions to the roster, but they’re mostly working ahead on what all involved expect to continue to be a rising cap.
The Browns guaranteed Newsome’s fifth-year option of more than $13 million for 2025, but that doesn’t guarantee that Newsome will be with the Browns for the long haul. Martin Emerson Jr. is extension-eligible after this season, and with Ward still carrying high-dollar guarantees, the Browns will have to explore all options if they end up giving Emerson a top-of-the-market deal.
(Top photo: Lee Coleman / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)
