Case Keenum began Steelers week as the man behind center with the No. 1 offense. (Cleveland Browns)
Tea leaves say Baker Mayfield will miss Steelers game, but Kevin Stefanski not ruling him out yet
You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Takeaways from Browns practice and interviews …
At the onset of Steelers week – the unofficial restart of the 2021 season with the first AFC North game on tap Sunday – the Browns were without their starting quarterback.
Baker Mayfield, whose torn labrum and fracture in his humerus bone on his left shoulder caused him to miss his first start in 53 games Thursday night, did not participate in the Browns’ light practice inside their fieldhouse.
But good luck getting Kevin Stefanski to tip his hand about Mayfield’s availability. It’s only Monday. There could be three more days of guessing until the coach comes clean with the increasingly likely possibility that Case Keenum will get the start against the Steelers.
Stefanski wouldn’t rule Mayfield out, yet wouldn’t even say if he’d be able to practice on Wednesday after the regular players’ off day on Tuesday. He wouldn’t say if Mayfield would benefit from another week off or if the team is considering placing Mayfield on injured reserve and sitting him for a minimum of three games.
On the question about IR, Stefanski said, “I would just tell you, making sure that we are getting better at all of these positions. He is getting his work in, but I am not going to comment on roster status and that type of thing.”
On sitting him another week, Stefanski said, “I would probably be speaking out of turn if I spoke to that. I think that is really a medical type of thing. I would just tell you, I am listening to all of the people that have the degrees, and we will go with what they tell us.”
Does Stefanski want to know his starting quarterback by Wednesday, the first heavy day of work for the Steelers?
“We will see,” he said. “It is hard to say how it is going to play out. I am not in the prediction business. There are a lot of things I want. I think we just have to work through all of it, and the quarterback position really is no different than any of these other positions where guys’ availability you might not know Wednesday and you might not know Friday.
“We have dealt with injuries over the course of time to different guys, and you have seen guys go down in pre-game. It is not ideal to say at any position, but whatever it is, it will be.”
Keenum said something late Thursday evening after recording his first victory as a starting quarterback in two years that could easily be interpreted as he expected to start a second game, at least.
Commenting on the challenge of making his first start during a compressed work week, Keenum said, “There were some times where I was not as accurate as I would like to be tonight, but in the end, we did enough to win. We can work on the rest of that this coming week.”
The tea leaves say Keenum will start the Steelers game.
Now it can be told
If you thought the Browns should have shut down left tackle Jedrick Wills after his initial ankle injury in the season opener in Kansas City, you are not alone.
Wills now agrees.
“I feel like after that Kansas City game, I probably should have sat down for at least a couple of weeks to let it get back to 100 percent, but that is the name of the game. Fought through it and tried to get some wins as a team,” Wills said.
Wills finally looked closer to himself in the 17-14 win against Denver on Thursday – six weeks after the injury.
But listen to what happened while trying to play through the initial injury.
“I had that medial ankle sprain at Kansas City,” Wills said. “Played in the Texans game and got rolled upon. Played in the Bears game and got rolled up on. Played versus Minnesota, I stepped on whoever’s foot and got a new injury on the inside of my ankle. It was stacking on top of each other and did not get a chance to actually let it heal.”
Wills finally was made inactive for the games against the Chargers and Cardinals – both losses, but not directly tied to Wills’ absence.
The silver lining was that Blake Hance received valuable reps replacing Wills when he had to leave Games 2-4 and then starting for him in Games 5-6. Hance’s development allowed him then to slide over to right tackle to replace Jack Conklin against Denver when Wills returned.
Wills was able to make it through all 71 offensive snaps against the Denver – the first time all year he’s played a full game. He won’t declare himself 100 percent back just yet.
“It is hard to tell because that was my first game in three weeks so my body, I am feeling it everywhere right now,” he said. “I am going to try to get some treatment this week, along with practice. Hopefully, it gets back to normal.”
Keep it simple
After rampant miscommunication in the secondary resulted in embarrassing coverage breakdowns in the Chargers game, coordinator Joe Woods said the reason was he added things to the defensive game plan and they weren’t executed correctly. And then there were more breakdowns in the Cardinals game.
Cornerback Greedy Williams disclosed the game plan was simplified for the Broncos and the result was order was restored in the defense’s back end.
“We are working through it,” Williams said. “Every day, we try to shorten the gameplan and make it as simple for us as possible. We did a great job narrowing the gameplan for us to play faster.”
Brownie bits
In addition to Conklin, running back Nick Chubb was back for Monday’s light practice inside the fieldhouse. Also participating was receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who suffered a Grade 3 AC sprain of his right shoulder in the Denver game …
Besides Mayfield, those not participating were tight end David Njoku, receiver Jarvis Landry, safety John Johnson, cornerback Denzel Ward and defensive tackle Malik Jackson. Stefanski said he wouldn’t rule anybody out for the Pittsburgh game.
