Defending Duke: Kitchens says pulled hamstring wasn’t a ploy
Freddie Kitchens CLEVELAND — defended Duke Johnson over speculation that his pulled hamstring may have been more about muscling his way out of Cleveland than an actual pulled muscle.
“Do not question Duke’s professionalism,’’ Kitchens said of the injury that’s sidelined him since the third day of camp. “Duke had a pulled hamstring. As an organization, you do not want him come back on a pulled hamstring and he pulls it again he is out for a month.’’
Johnson underwent an MRI on the hamstring recently and it was determined he’d need some time.
“We were trying to get him ready for the season,’’ said Kitchens. “We weren’t trying to get him ready to play tonight. I would not question Duke’s professionalism if I were you.”
Johnson, who asked the Browns to trade him in February after they signed Kareem Hunt, was dealt to the Texans for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2020 that’s likely to bump to a third. If he’s active for 10 games, the Browns get the higher pick.
And although Johnson’s replacement, Dontrell Hilliard, had an up and down game Thursday night complete with some nice catches but a fumble on the goal-line, Kitchens still believes the trade was prudent. With running backs devalued in recent years, the Browns managed to get a likely third round pick for Johnson, his original draft round in 2015.
“Duke was a good football player,’’ said Kitchens. “It’s hard to let good football players go, but we did what was best for the organization and the Cleveland Browns. What (General Manager) John (Dorsey) did felt like what we needed to do. It truly did. Duke was drafted in the third round so it was a good opportunity to help us out down the road in the future. We wish Duke nothing but the best. Well wishes.”
Mayfield, who said publicly during minicamp in June that Johnson’s plight with the Browns was ‘self-inflicted,’ didn’t seem upset about the trade.
“That’s obviously not my call,’’ he said. “We talked about it. We wanted people that are going to be there and Duke was there. Unfortunately he got hurt and then the decision was made to trade him away. We’ve got to have the next-man-up mentality. And so tonight, you saw a lot of Dontrell Hilliard, and we’re going to be counting on guys to continue to step up and see who can fill that void because Duke was obviously a huge part of our offense last year.’’
Mayfield connected twice with Hilliard on short passes that went for 14 yards on his blistering opening TD drive, and loves the Johnson-style third-down weapon he is.
“Just being a receiver out of the backfield, that can be lethal for an offense to have when the defense wants to double-team receivers like we have. We’ve got to have somebody out of the backfield at all times who can catch the ball,’’ he said.
Dorsey said on the local pre-game show that the time was right.
“Right now, I’m very comfortable,’’ he said. “I do want to wish Duke the best. With regards to that, we sat, we waited, we were patient and at the right time there was a deal on the table that we probably should have taken.’’
He was noncommittal about adding another back.
“I’m very comfortable with what we have in the running back room right now, but what we do is we look all the time for all types of players,’’ he said. “We will not rest until we find the best 53 we possibly can.”