A big worry kicked into place for the Cleveland Browns on Monday when starting defensive end Za’Darius Smith was carted off of the field with what was an unknown injury at the time. Later the Browns updated his status to it being a knee contusion and that he would undergo more testing on Tuesday morning.
That testing brought good news for the Browns and Smith was gifted some good news on the injury. According to Mary Kay Cabot, the injury is indeed just a knee bruise. Anytime a player exits the field with the help of a cart, a lot of the time it is not good news. Cleveland will gladly take the result of dodging anything serious.
In the meantime, Cleveland has signed defensive end Marcus Haynes . Haynes has yet to play in an NFL game and has spent time with multiple NFL practice squads over the last two seasons.
Smith only had 5.5 sacks for the Browns last season but he was very disruptive with 60 pressures and was what the Browns needed across from Myles Garrett. Smith signed for two more seasons in Cleveland and gave the Browns a solid plan for at least the near future. With any time missed, it will benefit players like Alex Wright and Ogbo Okoronkwo. Both players provided quality depth for the Browns last season.
Cleveland’s defense has the mold to be great and will go as their star defender Garrett goes. He has stayed primarily healthy over the course of his career outside of some minor injuries that hampered him for weeks at a time at most. Still, Smith is important to the defense and provides versatility to be able to slide outside in.
The Browns are already trying to get cornerback Greg Newsome II and defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson back to health for Week 1. Add Smith to that list of players working on getting healthy and that is a major point of emphasis after how last year went.
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