DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns News and Notes:

We've made the following roster moves:

Placed on Reserve/Injured:
G Michael Dunn (calf)
CB Robert Jackson (hamstring)

Placed on Practice Squad/Injured:
CB A.J. Green (hamstring)

Signed to practice squad:
CB Donovan Olumba

https://twitter.com/Browns/status/1349054226614386688

I like Olumba in training camp. I was sure he was going to make the team. He is listed as 6' 1" but I thought he was taller than that. I was thinking during the Pittsburgh game that he might have been better against Claypool due to size.

If Bitonio or Teller go down during the KC game who else do we have at guard? Hance? Fabiano?

I’d say Hance or Lamm

I hope we are combing the free agent / practice squad lists for backups.

I have no doubt in this FO when it comes to finding talent that fits what we are trying to do schematically.

At this point anybody we sign wouldn’t be able to play Sunday.

Not sure this is true; from what I've read, if the player has been in the testing program with another team, and they drive to Cleveland instead of flying and using the airport, then they don't have to have the 5-day testing period.

We did this with Hance before the week 17 Steelers game.

I am still peed off that I didn't get a call to fill in as a starter

I thought that there was like a 10 day period but I guess last weeks game proved that to be wrong as Fabiano was on the field on Sunday and he was signed on the 6th. Was he on our practice squad? I do not think so but I may be wrong. I know he was dropped from the Greenbay practice squad on the 22nf of December. Not sure how long between when we signed Hance and Sundays game.

This. That is why we can only sign off another teams Practice Squad and they have to be within driving distance, Then if they test negative they are eligible. The "guy named Blake" was the beneficiary of that for the Steelers game.

This is a fun read. Enjoy!

I only posted the part about the Browns, the rest of the article is in the link

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/01/11/cleveland-browns-nfl-playoffs-fmia-peter-king/

On Heinz Field Sunday night, after Cleveland won its first playoff game in 26 years, wide receiver Jarvis Landry was being shepherded to a post-game radio interview by the Browns’ media man, Peter John-Baptiste. Landry stopped. “Wait!” he said.

Landry said, “I gotta talk to coach. Now. I need to see him.”

After one of the weirdest football games (and surrounding events) in the season of COVID, John-Baptiste dialed up the COVID-positive quarantined head coach of the Browns, Kevin Stefanski, alone in his basement in Cleveland. But not on the phone. Landry wanted to FaceTime with the absent coach. “It’s one of the things I visualized all day—us winning, me talking to Coach so he could share the win with us. I needed to see him,” Landry said later.

Now, on the same field that had been a House of Horrors for Cleveland—the Browns had lost 17 straight at Heinz Field before this redemptive 48-37 win against all odds Sunday night—a surprised Stefanski saw one of the heroes of the night. Once a coach, always a coach.

“Hey Jarvis,” Stefanski said, “put your mask on.” (Love this!)

Then it was Landry’s turn. “Hey! We coming back home with a dub! [W, or win.] Get your ass back in the building! Let’s do it again this week!”

Pleasantries, then Landry had to run. Before they parted, one last message from Stefanski.

“This is the last game I’ll ever watch from this basement,” Stefanski told him.

Wild Card Round - Cleveland Browns v Pittsburgh Steelers

What a weekend. The Bills and the Browns, both in the Elite Eight. We got to know Taylor Heinicke, who, for a while, threatened to send Tom Brady packing. The Rams and Saints marched on with big, bad defense. The Ravens out-emotioned the Titans; man, was that one hot-tempered. But the story of the weekend was the virus-debilitated Browns, with a positive (but asymptomatic) head coach watching from 130 miles away in his basement, putting the Steelers to shame with a whip-cracking performance that seemed like more than a football game. It might have changed the balance of power in the AFC North and made Pittsburgh question the future of the aging Ben Roethlisberger (who threw four interceptions). And it did something else. It proved you can accomplish big things with COVID slapping your organization to the core.

The Lead: Browns Week

A week in the corona-wracked season of the Cleveland Browns begins, actually, on the Saturday before the week started. This was the day before the Cleveland-Pittsburgh regular-season finale, and GM Andrew Berry was worried. Cleveland’s two offensive line coaches, Bill Callahan and Scott Peters, tested positive for COVID-19, and the Browns couldn’t take the chance that the virus would bubble up Sunday and take a player or players off the offensive line.

Berry phoned Jets GM Joe Douglas, a friend, in New Jersey at 9:38 a.m. Berry didn’t want to blindside Douglas by pillaging one of his practice-squad players without telling him. So Berry explained about the line coaches, and his fear that there might be a spread, and he needed an insurance tackle, and he liked second-year practice-squadder Blake Hance of the Jets. The Jets were going to Foxboro that day, and Berry wanted to make sure he could sign Hance before the Jets left for Massachusetts. Douglas understood. In fact, he had Jets personnel coordinator Christina Wedding print Hance’s Jets termination letter and his agreement with Cleveland, so Hance could sign them and they could be filed with the league.

Now for the COVID issue. It’s good that Berry liked Hance—the Browns were going to try to sign him for 2021 camp anyway—because Cleveland needed a player who was within driving distance of Cleveland and had been in a regular team testing program. Huh? If a player flies to a new city, he must test negative for five days while quarantining because of the risk of COVID-contact in an airport or airplane. If Berry had been the Seattle GM, with the nearest NFL city 15 hours away by car (Niners), it would have been totally impractical to get a player on the same day it occurred to a GM to sign him. But there are 11 NFL teams within a seven-hour drive of Cleveland. Hance was on one of them, six-and-a-half hours and 443 miles away by car, and he had tested negative that morning in Florham Park, N.J., home of the Jets. He had a car. After signing the contracts, Hance packed his things, hopped on I-80, and was at the Browns’ Intercontinental Hotel by 7 p.m., ready for virtual meetings with his new team.

In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.

“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.

“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.

Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.

“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.

Blake Hance is going to have a great story to tell his grandchildren one day. Said Berry, who started the wheels turning: “It’s very much a 2020 story.”

Tuesday

5:15 a.m. Phone rings in GM Berry’s home. He’s gotten used to the pre-dawn calls from club infection control officer Joe Sheehan from a busy two weeks of COVID, but now they’ve got to discuss a real gut punch: Sheehan says coach Kevin Stefanski has tested positive for COVID, as well as Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio. They’re out for the team’s first playoff game in 18 years. The head coach. Out.

11 a.m. Words spreads that Stefanski’s out for the game. On the Browns Teamworks app, a message is sent out informing them of the new positive tests, including Stefanski and the longest-tenured and most respected Brown, guard Joel Bitonio. Texts fly from friend to player, coach to player, player to player. “Really shocking,” one player says. “Kevin is so serious about wearing the mask that I have barely seen his face this year. The mask is always on. I think I’ve heard him yell four times all season—once at a ref and three times at players about wearing masks. For him to get it is unbelievable.”

3 p.m. Stefanski, in an all-team Zoom meeting, speaking to 105 players and staff, informs the team there’s been some additional positive tests. “One was me,” he says, as matter-of-factly as if he stepped outside into 70-degree weather and said, “Nice day.” The tone in his meeting surprises more than a few on the videoconference: No grief, not even a sign of disappointment. Stefanski has been a classic flat-liner all season. He’s not going to change now. He tells his players: “You’ve been ready for curveballs all season. This is just another one.”

Wednesday

10 a.m. There were so many tentacles to chase that the league’s contact-tracing team, led by Leah Triola, didn’t finish its work till this morning. No new positive tests overnight, but the facility is still closed.

1 p.m. With no practice, the coaches, including the feeling-fine Stefanski, put the players through a two-hour virtual walkthrough. It’s a crazy thing. After a morning Zoom meeting to install part of the game plan, the offensive players reconvene (as does the defense on a separate call) to go through the plays. Some players stand and simulate what they’ll do on the play. Some sit and go through it mentally. On the screen, the defense Cleveland projects Pittsburgh to be in for the play is drawn on the screen, and quarterback Baker Mayfield calls the play, along with which Steeler is the Mike (the middle linebacker). One by one, each of the 10 players goes through his assignment, verbally; the linemen, for instance, might say which gap they’re protecting and their footwork. “Doesn’t replace the physical work,” Stefanski says, “but it’s the next best thing.”

4 p.m. Some players have home gyms or significant home workout equipment—Myles Garrett and Jarvis Landry, for instance—and can work out in them. Most players have resistance bands and some weights at home; the strength staff has issued some of that in this season of occasional home-confinement. Case Keenum has his 14-month-old son, Kyler. In his house, Case Keenum does squats holding Kyler Keenum. Up and down, up and down. Kyler is very pleased when Dad does his workout at home.

Thursday

Facility still closed. Morning install meetings, afternoon virtual walkthrough. No on-field practice for the second straight day.

11:50 a.m. Big week for offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. All of a sudden he’ll have the pressure of play-calling for his first time in Cleveland—no pressure, just the franchise’s first playoff game in 18 years, and against the mighty Steelers D. What’s more, he has to do the play-calling trying to think exactly as Stefanski would think. NFL rules forbid Stefanski from having any contact with the team once the game starts Sunday night. Van Pelt said he’ll channel his inner Stefanski working the play sheet, but he says to reporters: “Nobody calls it the same. My hope is, there’s not too many times he’s yelling at his TV, going, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ “

2:45 p.m. Seven players, six coaches on the COVID list, no practice. A sign that Stefanski’s message is getting through? Jarvis Landry, in a break from a workout in his home gym, says: “Coach Stefanski talks about it all the time. We gotta hit the curveball. We’ve been thrown another one. Been tough for us, but at the end of the day we gotta answer the call. It is what it is. It’s 2021, but it feels like 2020 still.”

3 p.m. Strange sight in a backyard in Westlake, a Cleveland suburb. “I did something my 10-year-old self did all the time,” Keenum says. “I played football in the backyard. Now it’s my 32-year-old self going through all the plays in the game plan.” Keenum calls a play, visualizes it, calls the signals for it, and simulates it, play after play.

Friday

8 a.m. Could there finally be some good news? The Browns began testing every player and coach with both the more reliable PCR test (flown to a lab in New Jersey with the results coming back overnight) and the less-reliable rapid tests. Starting strong safety Ronnie Harrison tested negative on the PCR test Thursday, but positive on the rapid test, called the MESA test. So he’s out for Sunday . . . unless he tests negative on both tests for three straight days, which would make the league rule the Thursday positive rapid test a false positive. With their best corner (Denzel Ward) and part-time starting corner Kevin Johnson both out with the virus, Cleveland needs Harrison against the potent Steeler passing game. Will the Browns have him? The Saturday and Sunday tests will tell.

4 p.m. With the league ruling the danger of spread among active Browns players to be low enough, the Browns open their facility, sort of, for players and coaches to return in three shifts of 10 minutes each for practice. Players cannot go to the locker room. Rather, there are chairs set out, spread apart, on the team’s indoor field, with helmets and jerseys and shoes at each chair. Players will dress in the chilly fieldhouse, then practice for about 90 minutes, their first time together in five days.

5 p.m. On the field during practice, Keenum is not close to Mayfield. Maybe 15 feet away most often, or further. In fact, Mayfield’s not near anyone for any length of time. Wouldn’t the two quarterbacks want to share thoughts on this play or that, or tips on facing the dangerous T.J. Watt? “I need to stay as far away from Baker as I can,” says Keenum. “If there’s any two people who shouldn’t be close, it’s me and Baker.” Inference: One, at least, always needs to be COVID-free.

Saturday

Travel day. Perhaps the strangest travel day in the august history of the Cleveland Browns. The trip from the Browns facility to downtown Pittsburgh, in light traffic, is one hour, 55 minutes—about 128 miles. It’s always a bus trip. Not this year. “This year,” GM Berry says, “the idea is to create more space, with people not in enclosed spaces for long.” So on this day, two planes, a 161-seat Boeing 737 and a 280-seat Boeing 777, ferry about 60 players and staff per plane on the 26-minute flight to Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

That’s not all, because those 120 passengers don’t comprise the whole team.

To be even safer, all 19 coaches who will be available for the game (five on the COVID list will miss the game) are picked up at their homes by drivers from a Cleveland car service, with a plexiglass divider between front and back seat, and driven to the team hotel in Pittsburgh. Everyone from acting head coach Mike Priefer to coaching assistant Ryan Cordell (pressed into service to coach the offensive line) are transported by car.

To be even safer, five players, including Ronnie Harrison (suspected false positive) and tackle Jack Conklin (non-COVID illness) were also picked up at their Cleveland homes in five private cars with plexiglass dividers and driven two hours to the Pittsburgh hotel.

Cost for the 24 limo rides: $445 per coach and player; $10,680 total. Plus tip.

“Anything,” Berry says, “to decrease the risk of transmission.”

7:35 p.m. One Browns employee told me the Stefanski-Berry combination has been good to handle this crisis. “Because nothing bothers either one of them. They’re the guys you want around you in a storm,” the employee said. Before settling in for an evening of work at his hotel, Berry, friends with Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti, was asked about the team’s approach to a week a reporter termed “a bad dream.” Berry said: “I don’t consider this a bad dream. We’re in the NFL playoffs. That’s a great opportunity. Sam Presti told me, ‘How you define a professional is his ability to perform at the highest level in the toughest circumstances. This week has made me think of that.”

9 p.m. Brief team meeting, as there is every Saturday night before a game. This might seem weird to the outside world, but it wasn’t weird to the Browns. The meeting is a videoconference, with every player and coach joining from his hotel room at the Westin Pittsburgh. Except this time, everyone was in the Westin but the head coach. Stefanski joined from the basement of his home in Cleveland. Stefanski’s not a fire-and-brimstone speech guy. On this night, he told his team that turnovers would be huge in this game. They had to win the turnover battle. Ben Roethlisberger has a lot of passes tipped at the line, and Stefanski said, in so many words, I see a tipped ball and an interception in this game for us.

8:16 p.m. Cleveland 7-0. Browns safety Karl Joseph falls on a Steelers fumble in the end zone 14 seconds into the first quarter.

8:27 p.m. Cleveland 14-0. Browns wideout Jarvis Landry catches a TD pass 5:14 into the first quarter. This is actually a significant play in the Mayfield development. Keenum, after the game, pointed out Pittsburgh played the same coverage when the two teams met earlier in the season in Pittsburgh, and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick read Mayfield and made a pick-six. This time, Mayfield threw it over the fluid Fitzpatrick, and Landry had a 40-yard catch-and-run TD. “That’s a big one for Baker,” Keenum say.

8:40 p.m. Cleveland 21-0. Browns back Kareem Hunt scores on a TD run 10 minutes into the first quarter. The key play was a stoning of Steeler back Derek Watt on third-and-one by Mr. False Positive, safety Ronnie Harrison. Just after noon, Harrison’s Sunday morning tests results came in negative. After quarantining most of the week, Harrison regained eligibility in time for the playoff game.

8:51 p.m. Cleveland 28-0. Hunt for another TD run 13 minutes into the first quarter. Al Michaels: “Twenty-eight is the most points ever scored in the first quarter in any postseason game in NFL history.”

9:19 p.m. So Stefanski foresaw a tipped pass-turned-interception. Did he mean one per quarter? Safety Sheldrick Redwine had one in the first quarter, and now, in the second quarter, defensive end Porter Gustin made a diving catch of a second one. For the game, Cleveland won the turnover battle, 5-0. Unheard of.

11:42 p.m. Craziest thing. With about 10 minutes to play, the backup playing for Joel Bitonio, Michael Dunn, left with an injury. And here came Berry’s New York Jets insurance policy, Blake Hance, who’d raced from New Jersey to Cleveland eight days earlier to fill a roster hole. And in this game, Blake Hance, who’d never played in an NFL game and just met most of his teammates on this weekend, lined up to block four-time Pro Bowl tackle Cam Heyward on the first snap of his NFL life. And he did so. He actually played 15 snaps. No sacks allowed. No hits on Mayfield allowed. Very clean uniform.


So in his post-game interview with Michele Tafoya, Mayfield said: “We had Michael Dunn step in at left guard for Joel Bitonio, and then Michael got hurt, and then a guy named Blake that I introduced myself to literally in the locker room before the game stepped up in the fourth quarter.” When the emergency guy who’d driven 443 miles to join the team rushes onto an NFL field for the first time and blocks Cam Heyward, you get this strong feeling: Things might be turning for the Cleveland Browns.

Monday

12:03 a.m.: Acting head coach Mike Priefer sits in a chair outside the Browns locker room to do a Zoom press conference with the Cleveland media. Born in Cleveland in 1966, he grew up worshiping the Sam Rutligliano Browns. One of the first things he does is thank the fans of Cleveland after the first Browns playoff win since 1994 “because I grew up one of them, so I know what this means.” Then he got choked up and couldn’t continue for several seconds. This morning, northeast Ohio knows exactly how he felt.

I'm 1/4 way through and have to make diner ! Will finish.

It made me think of an article in the Athletic that I read. I doubt I can post it all - but one paragraph is so good I gotta share:

""And I want to call a timeout here and say something: I loved that last Steelers timeout with all the Takitaki in my soul. It might have been my favorite moment of the entire day. It was so pitiful, so futile, so pointless that it made my heart soar. After all these years of the Steelers bringing utter misery into my life — with so much more, no doubt, to come — the sheer gorgeousness of Mike Tomlin calling a timeout down two scores with a minute left and the Browns kneeling on the ball felt overwhelming. Katie does this “one second a day” thing where she takes a one-second video every day of something that makes her happy.

I could watch a one-second video of Tomlin calling that timeout every day for the rest of my life.""
https://theathletic.com/2315903/2021/01/11/browns-steelers-playoff-rivalry-posnanski/

If I need to take this down or not share let me know.

Great article - thanks for posting that.

This speaks volumes about how deep this FO digs, and how far in advance. So, when folks are wondering if we're looking at waiver wires or searching other teams' practice squads. Yes. Definitely, yes.... and farther out into the future than I think any of us ever imagined.

Yep, that's where I read it! It was a great article!

BrownsZone with Scott Petrak

Blake Hance tweeted Monday for only the fourth time since the NFL season started.
He couldn’t resist.
“#NewProfilePic,” he tweeted with a photo of him in a No. 62 Browns jersey. “AGuyNamedBlake”
Hance was unknown to even the most diehard fans before he was forced into action at left guard in the fourth quarter Sunday night as the Browns finished off the 48-37 victory over the Steelers, the franchise’s first playoff win in 26 years. Baker Mayfield made sure everyone knew Hance’s name during an on-field interview with NBC’s Michele Tafoya.ADVERTISEMENT
“A guy named Blake — that I introduced myself to literally before the game — stepped up in the fourth quarter,” Mayfield said while discussing the contributions from reserves.
“It was a true story,” Hance told The Chronicle-Telegram on Tuesday in a phone interview. “Just walked past each other in the locker room and was kinda like, ‘Oh, by the way, nice to meet you.’”
Was there more to the conversation?
“No, that’s pretty much it,” Hance said. “We were both getting ready in our own way for the game. Just a quick hello. ‘By the way, nice to meet you.’”
Mayfield and Hance (6-foot-5, 310 pounds) will probably spend more time together in the coming days, at least early in the practice week.
Michael Dunn, who started Sunday night in place of Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio, was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with the calf strain that knocked him out Sunday. Bitonio remains on the COVID-19 reserve list after testing positive Jan. 5 and isn’t expected back until Thursday, at the earliest.
Guard Michael Dunn, cornerback Robert Jackson placed on IR after starting in playoff win over Steelers

With top backup Chris Hubbard done for the season following knee surgery last month and rookie fifth-round pick Nick Harris on IR with a knee injury, Hance is likely to open the week as the first-team left guard. Veteran tackle Kendall Lamm is another option but he could be at right tackle after All-Pro Jack Conklin left the game Sunday in the second quarter with a hamstring injury. Coach Kevin Stefanski referred to him as day-to-day.
Hance, who turned 25 Monday, played the final 14 snaps against the Steelers. They were the first of his NFL career after he was undrafted in 2019 out of Northwestern and made the transition from left tackle to interior lineman.
Hance said he has a lot to improve on, especially in the run game, but he impressed his new teammates.
“Blake, comes in and you give a lot of credit to him working hard this week, getting up on all of his calls, getting up on the plays and the coaches taking extra time after meetings to work with him and make sure he is ready to play, and steps in there and plays well, too,” center JC Tretter said Monday.
Commentary: From coach to QB to resilience to results, these certainly aren’t the same old Browns

Hance was “bummed” for Dunn that he got hurt in his first NFL start after playing so well but didn’t have time to think about the magnitude of the situation when he was pressed into service.
“Immediately got called over by JC Tretter and just pretty much told me if I had any questions at all, just ask, he doesn’t care what they are,” Hance said. “So he was real helpful, made that easy, too.
“He told me, “It doesn’t matter if they know what we’re doing as long as you know what we’re doing. So I’ll tell you exactly who to block at the line if you need me to.’”
Hance’s self-described “whirlwind” began Jan. 2 when the Browns signed him to the active roster off the Jets practice squad. The COVID-19 issues had started for the Browns, along with injuries along the line, so general manager Andrew Berry went looking for a depth acquisition who could drive to town and quickly be available given the league’s COVID protocols. Hance had a tryout with the Browns at the start of the season and spent time with veteran line coach Bill Callahan last season in Washington, so he made sense.
“Thought I was 24 hours from the season being over and getting into the offseason,” Hance said of being with the Jets. “Obviously having the season extended has been great. And getting a chance to come onto a team in the playoffs and then get a big win in the first round and moving on, it’s exciting. It all happened fast but just trying to stay focused on the next opponent.”
That’s the Super Bowl champion Chiefs on Sunday in Kansas City, Mo. The Browns hope Bitonio is back, but Hance knows he’ll have to be ready again just in case.

“Whether you’re on practice squad or the last reserve or whatever, you have to prepare like you’re going to play, because as we’ve seen all year, things change quickly and you might play,” he said. “Preparing like the starter is really the only way to do it.”
Hance’s time in town has been spent nearly all in his hotel. He lifted weights a couple of times in the hotel weight room last week when two practices were canceled and worked on footwork in his room.
“It was wild,” he said. “But the mental part was definitely the biggest part.”
Hance, who grew up in central Illinois, was All-Academic Big Ten at Northwestern multiple times, earning his bachelor’s in economics and completing a one-year master’s program in management studies at the Kellogg School of Management.
Hance originally signed with the Bills after going undrafted, then spent time with Washington and on the Jaguars practice squad last year. He stayed with Jacksonville until he was cut after training camp this year and wound up with the Jets.
He’d like to stick in Cleveland.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” he said. “I’ve already moved around a lot in two years, so it definitely seems like a great place to be. Very passionate fans and the team obviously is doing really well and hoping to keep going.”

Hance said outside of the linemen and Mayfield, he hasn’t met too many teammates or coaches. That includes Stefanski, who missed the playoff game with COVID-19.
“I am looking forward to it,” Stefanski said.

Really good.

Love it

Amazing articles!!

Some guy named Blake!!!!

Tretter!!! Love that line!!

Doesn't matter if they know what we're doing as long as you know what we're doing!!

Sucks Billy dunn had to go on IR. I really liked how he played

Inspiring stuff.

That post needs to be framed. have little use for Tomlin; it was great to see him scowling and in misery after all the no-class nonsense his group has served up. You are welcome.

I must have read that a dozen or may times - and I smile a big grin every time.

Browns notes: Coach Kevin Stefanski, receiver KhaDarel Hodge back from COVID-19


When coach Kevin Stefanski returned to Browns headquarters Thursday morning after isolating for 10 days due to COVID-19, his backup quarterback welcomed him back with some humor.

"Case Keenum told me he hid something in my office, and he asked if I smelled it yet," Stefanski said Thursday on Zoom. "But I don’t because I lost my sense of smell."

The Browns also activated wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge from the reserve/COVID-19 list early Thursday afternoon. They hope to activate three-time Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio from the same list later this week.

Stefanski said three assistant coaches remain out due to the virus: tight ends coach Drew Petzing, pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach Jeff Howard and assistant offensive line coach Scott Peters.

Stefanski learned the morning of Jan. 5 he had tested positive for the virus. As a result, he was forced to watch his team's 48-37 AFC wild-card playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers from his basement Sunday while special teams coordinator Mike Priefer served as the acting head coach and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt called the plays.

Stefanski said he won't set foot in his basement again for a while.

"Those walls were closing in on me," he said. "So I'm enjoying this big building.

"On a professional level, [I missed] just being around the team and being around the coaches and the players. And then isolating from my family is no fun."

Stefanski revealed Monday he has experienced "very, very mild symptoms" of COVID-19. He had expected to rejoin the Browns (12-5) in person Thursday as they prepare for a divisional-round showdown against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (14-2) Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

"Anytime your leader comes back to the building and is going to lead us into battle this weekend, I think it's a great thing for our football team," Priefer said.

"It’s huge," Van Pelt said. "He’s such a presence around the guys. He was greatly missed while he wasn’t here, so having him back is big for us."

Hodge, Bitonio, Petzing and Howard received their positive test results the same day as Stefanski. All of them were unavailable to face the Steelers. Bitonio's return is highly anticipated by the Browns because it would mean their longest-tenured player can appear in his first career NFL playoff game.

"Getting Joel back, obviously, would be big, and hopefully that'll be the case. We'll see here later in the week," Van Pelt said. "Joel's a huge part of our success offensively on that left side, and to plug him back in there would be huge for us."

Browns injury updates
Starting right tackle Jack Conklin (hamstring), tight end David Njoku (hamstring) and starting linebacker B.J. Goodson (shoulder) will sit out practice for the second consecutive day, Stefanski said.

"But they're all making progress," Stefanski added.

Goodon told reporters Wednesday on Zoom he'll play Sunday.

“If he said that, it makes me feel good, too, but I'll just let this thing go day by day and take information from those guys and from the [athletic] trainers," Stefanski said.

Fired up Browns defense
The Browns won the turnover battle 5-0 in their wild-card triumph over the Steelers, with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger throwing four interceptions. Nine-time Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey fired a shotgun snap over Roethlisberger's head on the first play from scrimmage, and Browns safety Karl Joseph recovered the fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.

"When we create takeaways, it's put us in position to win games throughout the year, so when it started, it was just like a frenzy," Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. "It was just like everybody wanted to get in on it."

Woods likes the vibe he's getting from Browns players this week.

"I feel like we have an attitude of like, 'We can do this. We're deserving of being in the playoffs. We won a game.' And I feel like it's given them more confidence," Woods said. "The NFL, week to week, it's about matchups, but I just feel like we have more confidence just being able to go to Pittsburgh and find a way to win against our rival. So they're fired up."

‘Something we’ll never forget’
Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer will cherish the opportunity to serve as acting coach Sunday night at Pittsburgh.

Priefer said he called his wife Debbie and their four children, who were all in the stands, from the locker room, then phoned his parents.

“My mom was asleep,” Priefer said. “My dad, he woke her up so she could congratulate me.

“The fact that I got to talk to my wife and all my kids, that was very emotional and meant a lot to me. It’s something we’ll never forget as a family. An opportunity that the Browns organization and Kevin and [General Manager] Andrew [Berry] and the Haslams gave me to be in charge for that three-hour period was something I’ll never forget.”

Those emotions were short-lived, though.

“There’s really no time to reflect on that game right now,” Priefer said. “When you wake up Monday and you grade the tape ... and then you start watching Kansas City tape you come down to earth real quick.”

— Marla Ridenour

Denzel Ward ready for more
The Browns activated cornerback Denzel Ward off the reserve/COVID-19 list Wednesday after he missed two games. A 2018 Pro Bowl selection, Ward was enthusiastic in his return to practice.

“We had to hold him back a little bit, a rep count. We wanted to be smart in terms of how we’re bringing him back," Woods said. "He looked good, moved around good, so I feel like he’ll be ready to go."

— Marla Ridenour

Steelers shake up coaching staff
In the aftermath of their loss to the Browns, the Steelers announced Thursday they will not renew the contracts of offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett and defensive backs coach Tom Bradley.

Fichtner spent three seasons as the Steelers' offensive coordinator and had coached on Mike Tomlin's staff since 2007.

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.

I actually think having Hodge back helps as well ... he’s a good blocker, provides some speed, and has made some key catches for us. He’s kind of an unheralded role guy

It would be nice to get Chris Hubbard back, Hubbard was such a part of earlier season success.

Chris Hubbard tore his ACL.

Still would be nice to get him back...

:-p

This is what it looks like when the shoe is on the other foot.

And, this is being said without an ounce of schadenfreude. Well, maybe an ounce or two. But this was bound to happen sooner or later. It happens with all teams (*coughPatscough*) after a time.

Still it's a pretty sizable purge. It will be interesting to see who they get and how quickly they might get back to form. They still have an established culture, so making good decisions speeds the integration process. Interesting turn of fates, tho.

I wonder if Stoolz fans have started their draft threads yet...

I think that culture has left the steelers building. There was a time where even in the down seasons you just knew they were going to reload and be back the next year (even if you didn't want to believe it). Now you have players whining in the media with sour grapes, your top players crying on the bench, a coach questioning his own decisions, a team that just gave up on the field, lack of discipline off the field, etc. That stuff wouldn't have been tolerated a few years ago.

Not all the culture has left. We still have the culture exhibited by JuJu and Claypool. That is still evident.

Our threads would be done by now LOLetc. We have a lotta practice, neh?

My compliments! It is almost impossible to work 'schadenfreude' into casual conversation; lordy knows I have tried. But it is edifying, especially so, to pair it with the Stoolers. I may have more than an ounce or so (I may be over the weight limit!). Satisfying. But I think they have a deeper problem with many issues like you listed. Canning a few scapegoats won't right this ship. I am ordering a couple more pounds of that "S" world today.

My hat is off to Clem again.

The core of their defense (off the top of my head) is young and very talented. It's going to be a unit they can lean on for a long time. If they can pick up an Olineman or two and some complementary pieces to the run game, they could make James Connor or the next no-name back a bigtime run threat until they find their next QB.

With that D in place, I don't see their rock-bottom being all that low.

I have an inkling they’re going to try and draft a RB very early

That's fine by me, as Connor has proven he can carry the load (or maybe he was just injured all this year). If they load up, it should be at Oline and/or TE to help with blocking (or load up at coaching position to put the ball in the hands of the RB).

This was a decision that came from the owner,and one he has made more that once in recent memory.
They had gotten away from running the ball,that will change next year,Ben or no Ben.
Look for them to get a big back and more physical olinemen.That defense will keep them in alot of games,running the ball and minimizing mistakes will win them alot of games.