The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Rookie safety Delpit suffers Achilles injury
The hurts just keep on coming for the Browns.
Grant Delpit, the secondround draft pick from LSU destined to start at safety, suffered what is likely a season-ending Achilles tendon injury in practice Aug. 24 in Berea.
Most Achilles injuries involve no contact, and so it was with Delpit. He backpedaled and jumped to catch a pass in interception drills. He was in pain the instant he landed and was seen pounding his fist into the ground as he lay on his back and trainers checked him out.
Delpit was still in obvious pain as trainers put him on the back of an equipment cart and drove into the fieldhouse.
Losing Delpit for all of 2020 could be a double-whammy at safety for the Browns. Karl Joseph, signed in free agency and projected to start with Delpit, has missed most of training camp with a foot injury. Joseph did not practice Aug. 24. Joseph, however, could be ready by the time the season opens Sept. 13 in Baltimore.
Delpit wasn’t the only player injured Aug. 24. In fact, he wasn’t the only former LSU Tiger injured.
Starting cornerback Greedy Williams, in his second season from LSU, was treated for a shoulder injury and did not return. Williams missed four games as a rookie with a hamstring injury.
Delpit and Williams are being evaluated for their injuries, the Browns announced.
Starting linebacker Mack Wilson suffered a hyperextended knee in practice Aug. 17 and is still out. One week later, Coach Kevin Stefanski said he has nothing to report on Wilson’s health.
“I don’t have an update
on Mack,” Stefanski said. “Hopefully, we will have one soon, though.”
The Browns did not resign free safety Damarious Randall, who started 11 games last year. Randall now plays for the Raiders.
Morgan Burnett, currently a free agent, started eight games at safety. Jermaine Whitehead and Eric Murray also played safety for the Browns last year.
Murray signed a threeyear, $18 million with the Texans in March. Whitehead, a hothead, was cut by the Browns one day after he went on Twitter and allegedly threatened to harm fans who were critical of him for playing poorly against the Broncos on Nov. 3. Whitehead started eight games with the Browns in 2019 and is a free agent.
Here are the other
Browns not already mentioned who missed practice Aug. 24: Wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge (personal), cornerback Kevin Johnson (liver), wide receiver Jarvis Landry (hip), cornerback Terrance Mitchell (knee), tight end David Njoku (wrist), defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (groin), wide receiver Damion Ratley (groin) and center JC Tretter (knee).