Cleveland Browns back at practice on New Year’s Day

Practice is back on for the Cleveland Browns on Friday

It was starting to feel as though the Cleveland Browns were never going to be able to practice again. Every time there was any kind of news feed about the team the past week-plus, it kept centering around the facility being closed down.

Now, we finally got some good news as the facility in Berea was back open on New Year’s Day and the team was at practice. This is excellent news with just a couple of days to prepare for their biggest game of the season as they face the Pittsburgh Steelers in a playoff-clinching scenario in Week 17.

As for the previous closings, the most devastating came last weekend when it was announced just hours before they flew to New Jersey that several players were going to be unavailable for their Week 16 game against the New York Jets.

Cleveland found themselves without their top-four wideouts as Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, KhaDarel Hodge, and Donovan Peoples-Jones all missed the game. On defense, two linebackers were out as B.J. Goodson and Jacob Phillips were unable to go.

Now in Week 17, they do have their receivers back but that doesn’t mean things have been smooth sailing. Cleveland found out this week they will be without Andrew Sendejo, Harrison Bryant, and most recently, Denzel Ward.

On that list, the most devastating absence will be Ward. He’s easily the best player in their secondary and without him, there’s no denying that the Pittsburgh passing game will find some holes to work with.

Even with him out, Cleveland is favored to win this game since Pittsburgh is resting many of their starters. And at least they will have more time to practice this week than they did for the Jets game.