Nick Chubb's influence on the Browns' season has been palpable since his knee injury in Game 2 in Pittsburgh. (Cleveland Browns)
Story of the Browns season: That which didn’t break them made them stronger
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Jim Brown passed away in May and Joe Thomas was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. Together, these two franchise legends would serve as the inspiration to a Browns season unlike any other in recent vintage.
Remember? That was the storyline of the 2023 Browns season when the team convened summer training camp at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV, in late July.
Coach Kevin Stefanski hoped that nine days and eight nights secluded in the plush resort below the tranquil Allegheny Mountains would lay a foundation for team bonding of a talented, but disjointed, player roster.
Stefanski would later invent other bonding opportunities. He capped off two days of joint practices with the Eagles in Philadelphia with a tour of his old stomping grounds – fabled college sports shrines The Palestra and Franklin Field. In between consecutive December games in Denver and Los Angeles, Stefanski invited NBA legend Jerry West to speak inspiration to his team.
It's arguable whether Stefanski’s best intentions prepared his team for what actually transpired, however.
Devastating injuries, unforeseen distractions, and disruptions to long thought-out plans could have – maybe should have – derailed the Browns from their post-season aspirations.
But that which didn’t break them only made them stronger.
And that ultimately became the story of the 2023 Browns.
It is a team that played -- and won with -- four starting quarterbacks; that lost its most inspirational and beloved player to a gruesome, career-threatening injury and then lost its franchise quarterback after his best game; that had another beloved player nearly burn his face off in a fire accident and refuse to sit out a game two days later; that had 24 players miss the composite of 128 games because of injuries; and that, when all seemed bleakest, captured lightning in a bottle.
This is what the Browns overcame to win 11 games and earn a playoff berth for the first time since the 2020 season.
Crisis on special teams
Two weeks before the season-opener, 2022 fourth-round draft pick Cade York kicked himself off the team with a horrendous preseason and return specialist Jakeem Grant, after a 400-day rehab from an Achilles injury, ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee on his first touch of the ball of the preseason.
It was new special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone’s “welcome to the Browns” moment.
“Things happen in sports and football, and it's how you bounce back, it's how you get back up off the ground, and how are we going to make it right,” Ventrone said. “We got to come back and come back fighting.”
GM Andrew Berry swung a last-minute trade for Dustin Hopkins to replace York and eventually found ex-Raven returner James Proche in November to replace Grant. Hopkins went on to have the best year ever for a Browns kicker, which included four game-winning field goals and a career-best 8 of 8 from 50 yards and more, before suffering a hamstring injury on December 24.
Disaster in Pittsburgh
On the second play of the second quarter of the second game, Nick Chubb’s left knee was bent grotesquely on a hit by Pittsburgh safety Minkah Fitzpatrick as he was gaining five yards on an inside run to the Steelers’ 3.
Chubb, who was respected all week by Steelers coach Mike Tomlin as “Mr. Chubb,” had totaled 64 yards on the ground in virtually one quarter. The image of the injury was so upsetting that ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” crew mercifully didn’t show replays.
Chubb had a similarly severe injury to the same knee at Georgia five years earlier. It didn’t take a doctor to confirm his season was immediately done. Everyone wondered if his career was in jeopardy.
“It’s tough to even speak on it,” quarterback Deshaun Watson said after the game.
The injury required two surgeries – one on September 29 and another on November 14.
The Browns responded by re-signing Kareem Hunt, Chubb’s best friend on the team, who had no NFL offers after his Browns contract ran out in 2022. Hunt proceeded to lead the team with nine rushing touchdowns – a personal high for him.
Prior to the next game against Tennessee, Watson said Chubb told him, “I need it. Go get it.”
The Browns beat the Titans, 27-3. Chubb’s plea – “Go get it!” – would serve as the rallying cry for the remainder of the season.
Chubb continued to rehab in the Browns’ facility but didn’t make a public appearance until he was introduced to the home crowd prior to the pivotal rematch against the Steelers on November 19, and then as the “guitar smasher” in the pre-game hype ceremony before the playoff-clinching victory over the Jets on December 28.
The Browns won both games.
The Watson shoulder saga
Unbeknownst to everyone, Watson suffered an injury to his right shoulder on a hit by Tennessee safety Amani Hooker when Watson completed a run up the middle in the third quarter of the rout of the Titans.
Watson executed a quarterback sneak and tossed a touchdown pass to Amari Cooper before leaving the game with the game out of doubt.
There was no mention of an injury until Watson reported to work on the following Wednesday.
Thus began a 7 ½-week odyssey that resulted in the Browns replacing Watson first with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, followed by practice squadder P.J. Walker, and then another appearance by DTR, before giving the quarterback job to Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP with the rival Baltimore Ravens who was unemployed for 11 months.
Watson’s original injury was characterized as “day to day” and “not long-term." It was termed a “contusion” to his right shoulder. The language changed to a “micro-tear.” He missed another game because of “residual swelling.”
Watson was an 11th hour scratch for the October 1 first game against the rival Ravens, which resulted in Thompson-Robinson’s ill-fated emergency NFL debut. After a start-and-stop in Indianapolis, where Walker rescued a victory when Watson was pulled in the first quarter, Watson returned for the critical rematch with the Ravens in Baltimore on November 12.
The Browns were almost in must-win mode at that point. Against the Ravens, Watson labored through a 6-of-20 passing first half and limped off with a high ankle sprain at halftime. After the intermission, Watson led the Browns back from a 15-point deficit by completing 14 of 14 passes and won, 33-31. It was his finest moment for the Browns since signing a $230 million fully guaranteed contract in March of 2022.
Two days later, the Browns announced that Watson suffered a displaced fracture of the glenoid bone in his right shoulder at some unspecified point in the game. Watson needed immediate surgery, ending his season after essentially five games played.
“I’m still in disbelief,” Watson said the next day.
David Njoku’s fire scare
On the Friday night before the first Ravens game on October 1, Njoku suffered severe burns to his face and hands lighting a fire pit outside his home. Njoku, who later said 17 percent of his body was burned, refused to sit out the game. He played through the pain of his skin being pulled off by his helmet and led the Browns with six receptions for 46 yards. Teammates were in awe.
Njoku went on to his greatest season with the Browns, leading the team with 81 receptions and six receiving touchdowns to earn his first Pro Bowl selection.
He cited the fire accident as a turning point in his life, much less his season.
“I was like, number one, life, no matter what, is a beautiful thing,” Njoku said. “The finer things, like just being able to see and hear, senses and everything. And then as each week went by, I started noticing that I was caring more about what the team needed to win, more so than what I needed to be happy. And by doing that, it also made me happy as well.”
Injuries galore
Here’s a rundown of the injuries to key players that forced the Browns to rely on “next man up.”
August 26: Grant suffers ruptured patellar tendon.
September 10: Right tackle Jack Conklin tears two ligaments in his left knee.
September 19: Chubb tears multiple ligaments in his left knee.
September 24: Watson suffers micro-tears to right rotator cuff.
November 5: Left tackle Jedrick Wills sprains the right MCL and PCL and suffers a bone bruise. The injuries were not described as season-ending, but they were.
November 12: Watson suffers displaced fracture of the glenoid bone in his right shoulder and has season-ending surgery.
November 21: Safety Rodney McLeod is placed injured reserve with a biceps injury.
December 10: Defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo suffers a torn pectoral muscle.
December 12: Right tackle Dawand Jones (knee) and defensive tackle Maurice Hurst (pec) put on injured reserve. Also, Jedrick Wills has season-ending knee surgery (already on IR).
December 13: Safety Grant Delpit (groin) is placed on injured reserve.
December 24: Kicker Dustin Hopkins suffers a left hamstring injury against the Texans chasing a 98-yard kickoff return by Dameon Pierce. Late in the game, quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson suffers a hip injury and is put on injured reserve.
Joe Flacco has been a godsend for the Browns, winning four of his five starts as the team's fourth starting quarterback. (Cleveland Browns)
Flacco Fever
After Watson’s season-ending surgery left the Browns with only DTR and Walker at quarterback, the Browns called Flacco’s agent on November 17 and asked if Flacco would come to Cleveland for a workout. Flacco had never been forced to work out for a team before at any level. He agreed to come. Flacco, whose contract with the Jets ran out in 2022, had spent the entire season working out at his home in South Jersey and throwing footballs to his father and brother while waiting for an NFL team to call. For 11 months, none did until the Browns.
Flacco, 38, made his Browns debut against the Rams on December 3. His fourth-quarter interception with the Browns down, 20-19, led to a 34-19 defeat.
After that first game, Flacco became the first Browns quarterback to throw for more than 300 yards in four games in a row – all wins – as the Browns locked up the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs.
In his four wins against the Jaguars, Bears, Texans and Jets, Flacco passed for 1,362 yards and 11 touchdowns.“He’s like a faith multiplier,” said wide receiver Amari Cooper. “When he came in, [it was] like a weight lifted off of our shoulders. This is a guy we trust in. A lot of guys, they know of Joe, but they haven’t seen him play every game. It’s just his credentials. Super Bowl winner, consistent quarterback, throws a great ball, has a great understanding of the game. So yeah, I think that’s what draws everybody to him.”
After the playoff-clinching win over the Jets in a prime-time Thursday night game, Stefanski reflected on the adversity overcome by his team to secure its second playoff appearance in his four years as coach.
“You know, it’s the greatest team sport there is,” the coach said. “You hate to lose great players, and we lost some great players along the way. But go ask those guys, they tell you it’s a team sport. I know this. Those guys that weren’t with us tonight, they were with us tonight on the field, and they got our back and we got theirs.”
