CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
The NFL injury report is the most honest document in professional football. Sometimes. Usually. Maybe more so since Belichick is out of the league.
Coaches fib. Agents spin. Anonymous scouts say whatever gets them quoted, and power rankings are written by somebody with a deadline and a bag of Doritos. The injury report has fines attached, though, so teams mostly tell the truth on it. Which makes it the one piece of paper every week that has to be accurate.
It's also a scouting report you're required to hand the other team. Free of charge, every practice day.
The Browns' version this week has 17 names on it. The Ravens have 21, so nobody in this game is exactly fresh. Seven Browns didn't practice Thursday, as we showed on Twitter: Derek Barnett, Kalia Davis, Mason Graham, Mike Hall, Teven Jenkins, Quinshon Judkins and Carson Schwesinger. That's down from nine on Wednesday, which in Week 6 counts as a good day.
Jesse Minter's staff has read every word of it. So let's read it the way they are, asking what each one breaks and whether the Ravens are built to take advantage of it.
Here's my ranking. Worst first.
NO. 1, THE MIDDLE OF THE DEFENSIVE LINE: Mason Graham hurt his knee and ankle in Pittsburgh, missed the Jets game and hasn't practiced since. Our Rumor Central update isn’t hopeful. Mike Hall Jr. hurt his ankle in that same game and hasn't practiced since either. Kalia Davis (quad) got in one practice last week and none since. Maliek Collins had his foot stepped on a couple of times by the Jets, sat Wednesday, came back limited Thursday, and the Browns expect him to play.
Four defensive tackles. The only one I'd bet on for Sunday is Collins.
Now look at what's coming. Derrick Henry has 476 rushing yards and 262 yards after contact, third most in the league, per the team site. Baltimore runs for 164.4 yards a game, third in the NFL. The Browns give up 117.4, and that was with Graham for most of it. Jared Verse: "He's the size of a D-end. He's a very strong back and he has the speed of a running back... He's probably going to break a tackle or two, so we have to keep pursuing the ball."
There's a nice story in the reinforcements. Sam Kamara, elevated for the first time this season, played 40 snaps against the Jets and got his first NFL sack after six years of bouncing between the practice squad and the roster. "Better late than never," he said. Kamara, Adin Huntington and Collins combined for eight of the team's 17 pressures on Geno Smith, per PFF.
Good for Sam. But those were pressures on a quarterback. Henry is 252 pounds coming downhill, and stopping that is a different bit of work.
That's why this is No. 1. Lamar or Tyler Huntley, it doesn't matter. Baltimore can hand the ball to Henry 25 times and lean on the part of our defense that's in the training room. This is the injury that doesn't care who plays quarterback.
NO. 2, THE LAMAR PROBLEM, IF THERE IS ONE: Lamar Jackson sat out practice Wednesday and Thursday with his ankle. Cabot doesn't think it matters much: "We all know Lamar Jackson well enough from covering him all these years that if there's any way that he can play, he will be out there on Sunday. He's a warrior. He's a gamer." Alright.
So assume he plays. The usual answer for a running quarterback is a spy, and the candidates on this roster, per cleveland.com, are Schwesinger, Quincy Williams and Grant Delpit. Schwesinger turned his ankle against the Jets and has been wearing a boot, with a decision late in the week. Delpit has a sore shoulder and now a knee to go with it, though he's expected to play.
Then there's Zay Flowers, Todd Monken's old guy in Baltimore, who has 318 receiving yards from the slot, the most in the NFL per PFF. The Browns rank 25th against slot receivers. One small mercy. Flowers was added to the Ravens' report Thursday as limited with a toe, and their other starting receiver, Rashod Bateman, was downgraded to did not practice on Thursday (shoulder, knee). Baltimore has a sick bay too. I'll take it.
If Lamar can't go, this item drops a few spots. I'd bet the Ravens make us wait as long as the rules allow to find out.
NO. 3, THE BACKFIELD, NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS: Quinshon Judkins turned his ankle against the Jets, and it's the same ankle he had surgically repaired last season after the dislocation and the broken fibula. He's been in a boot, and our latest is that his availability "isn't looking promising." Raheim Sanders is on IR with his hip.
Dylan Sampson practiced Thursday for the first time since hurting his knee in the opener. Monken would love to have him, and the Browns are willing to evaluate him right up through pregame, but as of our What We've Been Told (VIP) things are in doubt. That leaves Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime, who's been a Brown since Tuesday.
This was already the 21st-ranked running game in the league.
And the healthiest room in the building? Quarterback. Watson is healthy. Shedeur is healthy and now has an agent. Dillon Gabriel has been practicing with no setbacks from the back injury that put him on IR. Every quarterback in the building is healthy. The one position group with no injuries is the one everybody wants to argue about.
So, to summarize, the middle of the defensive line, the linebacker behind it, and, on the offensive side, the running back are the worst hit (they aren’t alone).
Baltimore's whole offense is built on going straight through the middle of people. Henry does it on purpose. Lamar does it whenever he feels like it.
Am I worried? Yep.
Is it over? Nope. The Ravens have 21 guys on their own report, their top two receivers are banged up and their quarterback hasn't practiced all week. The Browns are 3-2, and a win could put them in first place in the AFC North. I have faith.
I'd just feel better if the faith could play nose tackle.
This and that from the actual football team...
MINKAH, APPEALING: The NFL fined Minkah Fitzpatrick for the hit that knocked out Concepcion, and he says he'll appeal. "It was a football play, in my opinion." Then: "When you look at the league rules, they say you can't hit a defenseless player. I really don't know what that means." Um, obviously. Asked about his 2023 hit on Nick Chubb: "I'm over that issue." Good for him. Some of us aren't.
$70 MILLION, HOLD THE MYSTERY MEAT: The Browns are putting $70 million into the locker room, cafeteria and meeting rooms in Berea. The team's announcement is here. Grossi points out that the NFLPA report card gave the Browns a D+ for food and an F for the locker room. That might be the first time this year anybody in Berea got a worse grade than the offensive line. Somebody please ask whether the training room is in the budget. It's been busy.
DAVID BELL: Former Browns receiver David Bell is suing a surgeon and more than a dozen others for more than $300 million. His suit says a May 2025 core muscle surgery severed his femoral artery, nearly killed him and ended his career. Bell caught 41 passes in 32 games for us after the Browns took him in the third round in 2022. The Browns aren't defendants, and his attorney says the team has "been a source of support." Jefferson, the health system named in the suit, categorically denies the allegations. Football injuries are one thing. This is something else. I hope he gets his answers.
QUICKLY: Fred Greetham's defensive preview has Rutenberg calling his defense "under construction," which this week is more literal than he wants. Our trade values piece puts Jerry Jeudy not exactly valued at a Day 2 pick and makes the case for keeping him, because the alternative is making do with Bond, Corley or Wallace "if they get an injury." This week, that argument wrote itself. Fred also has his practice check-in on the OBR YouTube channel. In Ask the Insiders, one subscriber wants to know if we're in for a rough Sunday, and another wants to know which of the DNPs actually play.
SMALL MARKETS, BIG OCTOBER: The Brewers swept the Dodgers for their first National League pennant and first World Series trip since 1982, and the Guardians lead the Rays 2-1 in the ALCS. Front Office Sports notes the Guardians have the second-smallest payroll in baseball at $92.6 million. Meanwhile, the owners, who say small-market success like this isn't sustainable, want a hard salary cap and are expected to lock out the players in December. Milwaukee and Cleveland might meet in the World Series. I’d say more, but the NFL salary cap confuses me enough, and baseball’s issues are some other webdork’s problem.
BROADCAST BOOTH INJURY REPORT: John Ourand's sources say Greg Olsen is headed to Monday Night Football, and Troy Aikman sounds like he believes it: "It just seems to be where they're going." No talks, no negotiations, contract up in March. Every veteran on a one-year deal in Berea knows the feeling.
And finally. In the Watercooler, a signed Carson Schwesinger football finally arrived at one member's door after what he calls an "odyssey." So one Schwesinger has shown up so far this week.
We'll find out about the other one late Friday.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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Cleveland Browns Trade Values Including Jerry Jeudy & Potential Tight End Targets
Winning Streak Snapped, the Cleveland Browns Prepare for the Baltimore Ravens: What We've Been Told (VIP)
Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 10/15/26: Have Your People Call My People
FROM THE FORUMS
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Ask Ethan: What should humanity's message to the Universe be? - A reader asked astrophysicist Ethan Siegel what he'd broadcast to the aliens if the world made him "Transmitter In Chief." His answer is that the message barely matters. Prime numbers, a Fibonacci sequence, a song, anything a natural process can't produce gets the point across. What matters is sending it on long-wavelength radio, aimed at the metal-rich stars near the galactic plane where planets are likely, and then never stopping, for centuries. Personally, my message would be “Help us, we’re not that smart, and we might eventually be eaten by squid or something.”
Our big attempt so far was the 1974 Arecibo message, which ran for three minutes. Three minutes, then we hung up. In my house we call that a pocket dial. Sending a signal into the dark every morning for decades and hoping somebody out there answers? I've been at it since 1998. Around here we call it a newswire.
WRAPPING UP
When not filling out his own daily injury report (knees, back, hair, general disposition), Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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