A Cleveland Browns equipment manager carries Cleveland Browns helmets following the National Football League game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns on December 8, 2019, at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, OH.
(Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)
The Cleveland Browns might look to reassess their priorities ahead of the final month of the regular season.
The team has officially been eliminated from playoff contention.
That leaves the door open for some players who don’t usually get a lot of playing time to step up and show what they have.
That’s because eliminated teams usually take things slowly with their veteran stars in the final stretch of the campaign.
According to a report by Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, that might be true with Joel Bitonio and David Njoku.
#Browns Joel Bitonio (back) and TE David Njoku (hamstring) will sit out practice today in prep for the #Chiefs
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) December 11, 2024
The veteran guard sat out Wednesday’s practice with a back injury, while the tight end is currently nursing a hamstring injury.
Cabot claimed that the skipped practice was in preparation for Sunday’s home tilt with the Kansas City Chiefs, although she didn’t offer any further update.
Hamstring injuries are tricky and tend to linger, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see the team decide to play it safe with their star tight end and rule him out of the game altogether.
With the playoffs out of reach already, there’s no point in putting the player’s health at risk right now.
The Browns will still look to play spoiler against the 12-1 Chiefs.
The defending champions must keep winning to secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
However, they’ve looked more vulnerable than in other years, and the Browns have been far more competitive than their record suggests.
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