Spencer German reports live from the Browns practice facility in Berea, giving you all the latest news and rumors surrounding the Cleveland Browns.
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00:00 Hey, Browns fans, Spencer German back with you live from Berea with our latest Browns
00:13 practice report as part of Browns Digest.
00:16 Excited to be here with you.
00:17 Another day of practice in the books for the Browns as they turn the corner towards that
00:21 matchup with the Bears coming your way Sunday, week 15.
00:23 It'll be here before you know it.
00:25 It's already Thursday and we start getting ready for the weekend here tomorrow.
00:29 So listen, there's been enough bad injury news to share this week.
00:33 We'll get to all that.
00:34 Who was on the practice field today?
00:35 Who wasn't?
00:36 But I want to actually start with some good news today that broke while we were actually
00:39 in the locker room doing press conferences with some of the players.
00:44 We spoke with Joe Petonio, Amari Cooper, and Jeremiah Uso-Koromoa today.
00:48 But while that was going on, Joe Flacco was signing a deal to officially join the 53-man
00:53 roster for the Browns.
00:55 So no more of this back and forth over should the Browns bring them up off the practice
00:59 squad and avoid him going somewhere else.
01:01 It was never going to happen because Joe Flacco would have had to agree to it.
01:04 He kind of made a joke about that during his little skirmish that formed the little scrum
01:09 that formed around him with some reporters asking him some questions about the deal and
01:14 how excited he was to be on the 53 and all these different things.
01:17 But yeah, so that conversation is kind of over.
01:19 Some details of the deal that we do know from the reports that are out from some of the
01:23 national opponents.
01:24 It's $4.05 million, or $4.05 million I should say.
01:29 It's incentives-based contract, so we'll make about $300K for each of the final four
01:34 games.
01:36 And then it's got bonuses of $250K for winning a wildcard game, $500K for winning the divisional
01:42 round, $1 million for an AFC Championship game win.
01:44 And if you were to go on and lead the Browns to a Super Bowl win, you get an extra $2 million
01:48 on top of it.
01:49 So kind of your standard incentive-based deal late in the season, trying to incentivize
01:53 a guy to give you a little something extra here down the stretch, which is what Browns
01:56 fans are obviously open for as well.
01:58 Again, Flacco asked about the deal.
02:00 He joked about how he doesn't even know how much he's made being on the practice squad.
02:04 He doesn't check his bank statements.
02:05 He doesn't know if the cash has been checking.
02:07 So he doesn't even really know the details of the deal himself.
02:10 He lets his agent handle all that.
02:11 The other thing that I thought was interesting that did come up in that scrum with him, somebody
02:15 asked him about coming back for 2024 and if he'd be open to it.
02:19 And he basically alluded to, like, I'm just taking a day at a time, which has been his
02:23 motto really since he got here to Cleveland and since he's kind of settled in, just trying
02:28 to enjoy the moment and enjoy the opportunity that he has in front of him because he was
02:32 sitting on the couch a couple weeks ago without these opportunities.
02:35 So he seems pretty just very much living by that motto of living in the moment.
02:42 And it's obviously worked out for him so far.
02:43 So that's the good news from Berea today.
02:46 The bad news on the injury front, a number of players not at practice yet again today.
02:51 Ethan Postak was not practicing.
02:53 Juan Thornhill, Joel Batonio, although he's more of that veteran day off.
02:57 David DiGioco, same thing for him.
03:00 Pierre Strong was not out there, which was more of a surprising one that we didn't really
03:03 know where he was.
03:05 And Oboe Okuankwo we know obviously wasn't practicing because we're still waiting for
03:10 word on his status moving forward for the rest of the season.
03:12 There's a chance, as we know from yesterday, that he could be placed on the IR and done
03:16 for the year with a torn pec.
03:18 Also Jordan Elliott not out there once again today as he's in the concussion protocol.
03:21 So a number of injuries, Juan Thornhill still dealing with the calf, Ethan Postak still
03:24 dealing with the stinger.
03:25 We don't know when any of these guys will be back or ready to play for this weekend
03:28 or not.
03:29 But we'll continue to kind of monitor those situations as the week plays out and as we
03:33 get sort of the final injury report coming your way on Friday.
03:37 We're also still waiting to find out if Denzel Ward's going to play.
03:39 He was out there yet again today.
03:40 He was limited yesterday.
03:42 Don't know yet if he was limited again today or if he was a full participant.
03:45 But last week, the vibes around him were that he was going to play just based off of everything
03:50 that he was saying.
03:51 And then he obviously didn't end up suiting up for that game against Jaguars.
03:54 So still kind of a wait and see approach with him.
03:56 But obviously it'd be a big boost for the defense if they're able to get him back, given
03:59 some of the injuries they sustained this week to Grant Delpit, to Maurice Hurst, to Jedrick
04:05 Wills, who's now not coming back off the roster.
04:07 They could use a boost in the form of a player coming back from an injury.
04:11 And Denzel Ward is one of the most important players, obviously, on this defense and on
04:15 this team.
04:16 Along those lines, I thought that Jim Schwartz today, who we talked to early this morning,
04:20 had some very poignant things to say just about the injury situation.
04:23 Here was his commentary on how the Browns have kind of dealt with this whole thing.
04:28 It's something that we work through every single week.
04:31 Early in the year, we were pretty fortunate to be relatively healthy.
04:37 Couldn't play without Denzel for almost a month now also.
04:42 Hopefully we can get him back soon, get him back on the field for us.
04:49 It is what it is.
04:50 The game doesn't care.
04:51 Obviously, the opponents don't care.
04:52 But the game is Sunday for 60 minutes.
04:53 It doesn't care if you're playing rookies.
04:54 It doesn't care if you have injuries.
04:55 It doesn't care if you're at full strength.
04:56 And that's our focus.
04:57 Like I said, I think it's a cliche, of course, the whole "we're going to win this game, we're
04:58 going to win this game."
04:59 But I think it's a cliche.
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08:52 So for them to focus on the now, focus on their responsibility each and every play, I think it's those little things that make it a lot easier.
09:00 I think JOK's comments there are pretty telling of just the vibe in that locker room as a whole.
09:05 It takes some sort of culture to be able to survive the way the Browns have with all the injuries as they continue to pile up and be in a place where they're 8-5 with a chance to make the playoffs,
09:15 sitting comfortably right now in that 5 seed in the AFC with a chance to clinch here in the coming weeks to play off first.
09:21 So certainly a testament to his coaching, Kevin Stefanski's that is, and the culture that he's built here.
09:25 It is definitely a different time and a different day out in Berea for the Cleveland Browns organization when you have a team dealing with this much adversity
09:33 and they're able to kind of continue to overcome it, find ways to win, and put themselves in position to give you, the fans, playoff football here potentially in the next month or so.
09:42 So that'll do it for us from Berea today. We'll get updates on Friday of even more on the injured players.
09:49 Your Juan Thornhill, your Oboe Kwonkwo potentially, obviously Jordan Elliott, Pierre Strong, and Ethan Posick.
09:57 And we'll see what the status of Denzel Ward looks like for the weekend as well.
10:00 But the game with the Bears is just a couple days away now.
10:02 Be sure to follow along with all things Cleveland Browns right here on the Browns Digest YouTube page.
10:07 And as always, over at BrownsDigest.com.
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