Cleveland Browns All-Pro cornerback Denzel Ward injured his knee at practice on Thursday. Here's the latest from Berea.
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00:00 Well, hey everybody and welcome to Browns Digest.
00:14 It's our daily practice report as the Cleveland Browns get ready for the AFC wildcard matchup
00:19 Saturday afternoon in Houston, Texas to take on the Texans.
00:24 Brendan Gulick, Spencer German with you.
00:26 Spencer live on site in Berea after we heard from Kevin Stefanski and from Miles Garrett,
00:31 a couple other players in the locker room.
00:33 Spencer the big news of the day in Berea is that Denzel Ward got hurt during practice.
00:37 Nobody seems to know the severity of the injury, but he banged up his knee and he is now officially
00:43 questionable for Saturday.
00:44 That is not great news for Cleveland.
00:47 Yeah, and I'll tell you, Brendan, inside the locker room, the vibes didn't really feel
00:52 great around that situation.
00:53 I did see before we actually jumped on to do our practice report here, Ian Rapoport
00:58 of the NFL Network put out that he's been told Denzel is okay.
01:02 So for whatever that's worth, maybe that means he plays this weekend.
01:05 Maybe that means he's okay in terms of he didn't sustain a long-term injury.
01:09 But we have basically 48 hours here to sort of see what that situation turns into, whether
01:14 or not Denzel plays or not.
01:15 And obviously we know how valuable he is to this Browns defense.
01:18 So better to have him out there than not.
01:20 As this team has done all year, and that was kind of the message in the locker room from
01:24 Greg Newsome and others, they'll just keep stepping up and doing what they've been doing
01:28 throughout the season if he can't go.
01:32 Grant Delpit also officially ruled out.
01:35 I would be normally extremely disappointed to hear that.
01:39 Well, certainly I'm bummed.
01:41 Ronnie Hickman has proven to be a plenty capable replacement.
01:44 Yeah, yeah, he certainly has.
01:48 He's been one of the better stories in terms of guys that have kind of stepped up with
01:52 all the injuries and being able to make some plays for this team.
01:55 In a lot of ways, he kind of feels like he could take on that Rodney McLeod role moving
02:00 forward, not from a veteran standpoint, but from a standpoint of he obviously is playing
02:05 that position so, so well.
02:06 So to become that third safety, I think there's maybe a future for him to do that.
02:10 But yeah, without Grant Delpit, the positive side of that is that he's even practicing
02:15 him back with the team at this point.
02:16 So if he's able to go here in the next couple of weeks, so assuming the Browns win on Saturday,
02:21 that'd be huge.
02:22 I think it's also good news that, well, Juan Thornhill's been out the last couple of weeks.
02:26 He's questionable going into the weekend, but he did practice this whole week.
02:29 So good signs that maybe he's going to be able to play.
02:32 The other questionable player is Mike Ford Jr.
02:35 So secondary still continues to be sort of a paying dub group for this team, but there's
02:38 a chance that these guys could all be out there on Saturday.
02:42 Positive side of the ball, Amari Cooper expected to return practice today, although he did
02:47 not practice the last couple of days.
02:50 Working on recovering from a heel injury and by all accounts certainly looks like he's
02:53 going to play on Sunday.
02:55 I have to imagine one of the big storylines going into this game is the ridiculous single
03:01 game record receiving yards that he had when Cleveland was down there on Christmas Eve.
03:06 I have to imagine that Houston is going to try to do something differently against him.
03:11 But the question is, how much different can you be in a fairly short amount of time?
03:17 Personnel is personnel, and if the Browns could block the way they've been able to hold
03:21 up for Flacco for the most part, I would think Cleveland will want to try to get Cooper going
03:25 again.
03:26 Yeah, and that was asked actually to Amari yesterday and some of the coaches, just how
03:31 difficult is it in one week to basically change your identity?
03:36 Because Houston runs a lot of zone defense.
03:38 They don't do a lot of man to man, and that was kind of Amari's point when we talked to
03:42 him on Wednesday was, yeah, they played a lot of zone against me.
03:45 And so to change up and become a man team isn't always that easy.
03:49 I mean, frankly, we saw that last year with this Browns team with the defense that they
03:53 played last year.
03:55 It was a lot of zone.
03:56 And we all I think there was questions about, well, guys like Newsome and Denzel have said
04:01 they like playing more man.
04:02 And the fact that they didn't change up is part of the reason why you bring in Jim Schwartz
04:05 and do some things differently this year.
04:07 But that's been the Browns identity all season.
04:09 Houston's different.
04:10 So, yeah, there's going to be an emphasis on getting in the ball.
04:12 It was good to see Cooper back in practice today.
04:15 He was catching passes from Flacco.
04:18 And he called Flacco's throwing poetry in motion earlier this season.
04:21 It was poetry in motion, seeing those guys out there again.
04:24 And I'm sure that'll be a point of emphasis for this offense yet again.
04:28 Anything else we're missing other than those main storylines there?
04:32 I did want to bring up real quick, because this has been a topic all week with the Texans.
04:36 Bill Anderson, Jr. and Green Greenyard are both practicing today for Houston.
04:43 So there's there's a chance that both of those guys or it looks like those guys are both
04:47 going to be out there.
04:48 So that's a little bit different.
04:49 Two guys that the Browns didn't see a couple of weeks ago.
04:53 So on the defensive side of things, a little bit more of a headache to worry about.
04:56 But I do think we've talked about it a lot.
04:59 The fact that this Browns team has kind of lived by this go one and old mentality all
05:04 season, I think that's going to carry so much weight for these guys.
05:07 I think they seem laser focused on the task at hand.
05:10 And you feel pretty good about Joe Flacco, who's got the second most road playoff wins
05:13 in the history of the NFL.
05:14 If he wins one more by the or he's actually I'm sorry, he's tied for the most.
05:18 If he wins this weekend, he passes only Tom Brady.
05:22 No big deal there.
05:23 So you know, you're going to get composure from him.
05:25 You know, he's going to come ready to go.
05:27 And I feel pretty good about the Browns situation, aside from the Denzel Ward injury news that
05:31 we got today going into this game on Saturday.
05:34 And from here, it's just lacing them up and going to play some football.
05:37 We'll see what Saturday afternoon brings.
05:39 Certainly help Brady that he played a lot of games at home.
05:41 That's that's what I think.
05:42 They did win some other.
05:43 I agree.
05:44 They were they were in Foxborough quite a bit during those those dynasty here.
05:49 Well, on a day where the Bill Belichick news is the biggest news around football, the Cleveland
05:55 Browns are pretty focused on trying to win a playoff game here this coming weekend.
05:59 It is awfully nice to be in a position where we're not talking about, you know, Black Monday
06:04 in the NFL with coaches being fired or general managers being fired.
06:08 This is a team that has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations and their journey starts on Saturday.
06:13 Spence, thanks for all the latest, man.
06:15 Absolutely.
06:16 I know you'll be out there covering us in person.
06:18 So looking forward to connecting with you and obviously people keep on following along
06:23 at BrownsDigest.com.
06:24 Thanks.