What moves did the Browns make ahead of Sunday’s game at Saints?

NEW ORLEANS — Jedrick Wills Jr. talked this week about reinjuring his knee against the Cincinnati Bengals and the “business decision” it led him to make the next week against the Baltimore Ravens. That moved led to Dawand Jones taking Wills’ spot at left tackle, and the Browns have not looked back, even with Wills healthy for the following week’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Fresh off the bye and a week of full practice participation, Wills was a sudden scratch for Sunday’s game at the New Orleans Saints. The Browns downgraded him to out despite him not having an injury designation when those were first announced on Friday afternoon.
“I wouldn’t categorize it as setback,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday of the issues Wills has had with his knee. “It hasn’t recovered how quickly he would want it to and there’s obviously times that you maybe tweak an injury, or you feel it again and those type of things. But yeah, it’s been a tough rehab for him.”
That leaves Germaine Ifedi as the only other offensive tackle on the active roster behind Jones and Jack Conklin, the two starters. Left guard Joel Bitonio has played left tackle previously, including in Week 3 against the New York Giants after Wills left that game after reinjuring his knee.
Wills explained why he didn’t feel like he was ready to play against the Ravens in Week 8, after having hyperextended his knee on the first play the week before against the Bengals. It goes back to even the ankle injuries he dealt with in 2021 which he initially played through before sitting a couple of games.
“I mean, you wouldn’t want to go out there and put forth 70% of your effort while you’re injured, and then you have somebody else who can go out there and give 100%, you know what I mean?,” Wills said. “I don’t want to be out there the whole time thinking about my knee. I got to focus on my assignment. Like you said, in the past with my ankles, I played and I didn’t play as good, so why would I do the same thing risking a worse knee injury?”
Wills suffered a season-ending knee injury last November that led to arthroscopic surgery in December. He didn’t start practicing this season until Sept. 4, but didn’t make his season debut until Week 3 against the Giants. After leaving that game with an injury, he missed the next week at the Las Vegas Raiders before returning for the next three games, which led to the injury against Cincinnati.
The unexpected offensive line issues as the Browns were boarding for a flight to New Orleans overshadowed another depth concern they had to deal with Saturday. After Stefanski had stressed the possibility of it occurring, the team placed rookie defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. on injured reserve after he suffered a knee injury in Thursday’s practice.
Hall, who was taken in the second round of April’s draft, has only played in four games this season. He was suspended for five games for a domestic violence charge that was later pleaded down to disorderly conduct.
To add some depth to the defensive line, which still hadn’t filled the roster vacancies left by the Za’Darius Smith trade and Quinton Jefferson release, they signed DT Sam Kamara and DE Elerson Smith to the active roster from the practice squad. That will give them eight defensive linemen on the roster, while still leaving them one shy of the 53-man limit due to Hall’s injured reserve trip.
The 6-foot, 272-pound Kamara has appeared in 16 career games since originally signing with the Chicago Bears in 2021. He has appeared in seven games with the Browns since signing with them in 2022, including five this season.
The 6-foot-7, 245-pound Smith is officially in his third NFL season out of Northern Iowa. He was originally a 2021 fourth-round pick by the Giants and has appeared in 13 career games, but none with the Browns.
The Browns finally have brought up former first-round draft pick Kadarius Toney. They originally signed him to the practice squad on Sept. 9.
“Kadarius has worked hard within his role,” Browns wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea said Friday. “Obviously, coming into a new system, you need to learn the playbook. Not only learn the playbook but learn how we run certain routes and how we do certain plays. It could be how we block in the run game. It could be a certain specific route that we teach maybe slightly different than other places he’s been. So, there’s always a work in progress and a transition with players to your organization, and that’s been the case with Kadarius.”
Toney, 25, was originally selected by the New York Giants with the 20th overall pick in the first round of the draft out of the University of Florida. When he came out of college, he was seen as potential a jack-of-all-trades kind of wide receiver who could help both in the passing and running games, but also in the return game as well.
That’s never quite happened for Toney, who was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2022. Over his year-and-a-half with New York, he only made five starts in 12 games, catching 41 passes for 420 yards and no touchdowns, with another five carries for 29 yards.
The Chiefs utilized Toney more on punt returns in the 20 games he played for them, and he averaged 7.4 yards on 16 returns. However, he only had 41 catches for 320 yards and three touchdowns with Kansas City, along with another 16 carries for 90 yards and a score.
Kansas City did not pick up Toney’s fifth-year option by the May deadline this year, and he was released on Aug. 27.
Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ