NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Cleveland Browns left tackle Dawand Jones fractured a bone in his lower left leg and was carted off the field wearing an air cast in the first half of Sunday's loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said the injury will require surgery and end Jones' season.
“He knew it right away, and I feel bad for him,” Stefanski said following the Saints' 35-14 win. "I felt he was doing some decent things over there.”
Jones appeared to be telling Browns medical personnel that he thought his ankle was broken while they treated him on the field.
Jones' injury came at a particularly inopportune time for Cleveland.
On Saturday, the Browns downgraded usual first-string offensive tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. to out with a knee injury.
That move came days after Wills said he made a “business decision” by not playing in a game last month against Baltimore because his surgically repaired knee wasn’t right. Stefanski later said Wills, a first-round pick in 2020, used a “poor choice of words” in explaining his decision to sit out.
Wills, who'd been listed on the team’s injury report this week, but as a “full” participant, was replaced in Sunday's lineup by the 6-foot-8, 374-pound Jones, a 2023 fourth-round draft choice out of Ohio State. After Jones went down, reserve tackle Germain Ifedi entered the game.
Meanwhile, Browns defensive back Denzel Ward went to the locker room after a hard hit that caused Saints tight end Taysom Hill's lost fumble deep in Cleveland territory in the second quarter.
The Browns said Ward had a chest injury, but he returned for Cleveland's first defensive series of the second half.
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The Associated Press
