Sometimes in the NFL when a player on your team suffers a serious injury, there is no immediate route to addressing the issue and teams have to sort of come up with a temporary fix. That was not the case for the Browns with a recent injury they were dealt.
Cleveland lost backup center Luke Wypler for an extended time in the first preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Wypler suffered an ankle injury that required surgery and the Browns lost their projected backup center.
It did not take much time for Cleveland to address the issue. The Browns went with a familiar player who just happened to be available on the trade market after spending the previous four seasons with Cleveland.
“There’s guys that come in and play for you and work with you and give you everything they got and Nick was one of those guys,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said on C Nick Harris being back with the team. “When he leaves, you wish him well, but you don’t love to lose a guy like Nick, just from what he means in the locker room as well. And then with the injury to Luke (Wypler), I know Andrew (Berry) worked pretty quickly on that one and get a guy in here that as coaches we know well, obviously his teammates know him well and we’ll get him up to speed on some of the new things.”
Stefanski saying that Berry acted quickly to get the fix confirms a suspicion that the Browns had targeted Harris immediately after the injury. Harris was someone that the Browns were plenty familiar with since drafting him late in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Losing Wypler is a tough blow since he is on his rookie contract and just a second-year player that the Browns were working to develop. The ankle injury will be a jump in the road and slow that development, but by no way should it derail it. I would not rule out Wypler being the guy of the future still after starting center Ethan Pocic.
Harris has played in 40 career games with four starts for the Browns. The Washington product missed all of the 2022 season with a knee injury but played in all 17 games last year with a pair of starts made. Now, all chips are in on Harris being the backup with the Browns. Cleveland traded a sixth-round pick to receive back Harris and a seventh-rounder.
Bringing back Harris was a move that made too much sense and as expected it was one that Cleveland targeted and acted on quickly.
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