Browns hoping for the best with Greedy Williams, Grant Delpit injuries

Grant Delpit and Greedy Williams are attempting comebacks from career-threatening injuries for the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland Browns safety Grant Delpit and cornerback Greedy Williams are coming back from very significant injuries, and although every fan including this one is pulling for both of them, the road back is far from certain.

This author, of course, is not a medical authority and is not providing medical advice. However, from a sports perspective, it’s possible to venture into the medical literature to try to understand the statistics of sports recovery. I have not been faint-hearted about NFL injuries.

For example, I once argued for drafting Jeffery Simmons in Round1 despite an ACL tear, because the statistics showed a very high recovery rate for his type of injury.

Assuming that the team has access to medical reports and can be reasonably certain there are no additional complications, such surgeries are usually recoverable. The statistics can be used to ding the prospects a few spots in the draft, but the odds are still greatly in favor of near-total recovery.

There are statistics that can be used to calculate how many draft spots to penalize the player for an injury of that type, and for an ACL without additional complications, it’s just a few spots in the round. Many fans still had a cow concerning this suggestion, but events have shown that Simmons was a much better investment than Sheldon Richardson.

But Delpit and Williams are facing injuries that are much more serious than an ACL tear. Though both players have a chance to make it back, it is not a sure thing. Put it this way, if these injuries had happened in college, it might have knocked their draft status all the way back to day three.

No one is saying that these players cannot overcome their injuries, but neither is anyone saying it is anything but a challenge, either.

Delpit is coming back from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Having a sportswriter trying to read medical journals is a little like the Ape People in 2001: A Space Odyssey trying figure out the meaning of the monolith. Nevertheless, sports medicine journals have published extensively on NFL players trying to come back from this surgery:

"“[In] NFL skill players who returned to play, there were significant decreases in games played per season (11.67 games per year pre-injury versus 6.17 games per year postinjury) when averaged over the three seasons before the injury and the three seasons after the injury.3 There were also decreases averaging nearly 50% in power ratings of the returning players for the three seasons after the injury compared to the three seasons before the injury. These data indicate that even in players able to return to their former level of play, the quality of play may suffer permanently.” — Shirzad, Khalid, et al. “Return to football after Achilles tendon rupture.” Lower Extremity Review (2010)."

That was 11 years ago. Yet more recent studies seem equally discouraging. Yang et al say that the return to play (RTP) rate as of 2019 was even lower than reported by Shirzad et al in 2010.

"“The overall [Return to Play] rate was 61.3%. Age, number of prior seasons, position type, or draft round status did not significantly affect RTP…. However, for those able to return, performance only in the season immediately following injury appears to be affected; players return to preinjury levels if given the opportunity to play >1 season after injury.” — Yang, JaeWon, et al. “Factors affecting return to play after primary Achilles tendon tear: a cohort of NFL players.” Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine 7.3 (2019): 2325967119830139."

What that says is that Delpit might not reach his full potential in 2021, but if he makes it through the season, we might see the real Delpit in 2022. Still, the return to play rate as measured in the study was only 61.3%, and within that group, many of those players are not able to play at their former level. There is every reason to be hopeful, but it’s far from a slam dunk.

Greedy Williams has axillary nerve dysfunction in his shoulder. That is, he seems to have lost feeling in his shoulder and perhaps part of his arm. To make a long story short, this author’s literature search involved journals that normally are read by brain surgeons, rather than sportswriters, but the general sense is that the data appears to be much more sparse than the case for a torn Achilles.

An article by Chris Mallac, “Axillary nerve injury: a pressing problem,” in Diagnose & Treat, Elbow and arm injuries, Shoulder injuries, Sports Injury Bulletin does not specifically address NFL athletes, but does briefly review ten case studies of athletes exhibiting similar symptoms to Willams’ symptoms.

Additional references are listed at the end of this article. The picture of axillary nerve injury is not complete or well-defined. However, all 10 athletes in Mallac’s case studies experienced some level of recovery but not necessarily to the same level as prior to the injury. It’s impossible for us on the outside to say what will happen over the course of a season to the shoulder of an NFL cornerback, which may be a worst-case scenario. That has to be more torque and impact than almost any other sport.

For that matter, only Williams knows for sure how well his shoulder has responded thus far. From the standpoint of an outsider looking in, we know that he’s working hard, lifting weights and doing everything in his power to make it back. Does that mean he has recovered full use of the arm and full range of motion and hand-eye coordination like before? There is certainly every reason to be hopeful, but no way for us to know.

As fans, the best we can do is offer support, encouragement, and for those of us who have religious faith, prayers for recovery are in order, also. I never pray for a Browns win, but prayers for well-being do matter, and this fan does pray for Greedy and Grant.

Conversely, it’s really low class when people get on social media and accuse any player, but especially Browns players, of lack of heart when they are injured. In the case of Williams, he has taken a lot of totally undeserved abuse because clueless fans believe there is no such thing as an axillary nerve dysfunction.

Football is a violent, dangerous game, and when someone gives their heart and soul to the Cleveland Browns and ends up getting injured, perhaps permanently, they don’t need shallow fans ridiculing them for their injuries. Don’t be like them, please.

Okay, end of rant.

What is the impact of the injury situation on the makeup of the team? Definitely, both Delpit and Williams should make the team, but in this fan’s opinion they are more likely to be extra defensive backs rather than starters, at least initially. Depending on how things go, they can earn more playing time later in the season.

The Browns lack depth at both safety and cornerback. They will probably want to carry five of each on the 53-player active roster.

Who do the Browns have that played 25% or more of the team’s defensive snaps in 2020 at safety and received some sort of grade from Pro Football Focus?

Right now they have John Johnson and Ronnie Harrison, plus Sheldrick Redwine who performed at near the bottom of 94 ranked safeties in the NFL. Redwine is definitely good enough to play in the NFL, but not necessarily a lock to make the team. How much has he improved since last season?

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is listed as a linebacker, but is expected to be used in coverage like a safety. On Monday, does he report to the linebacker room or the defensive backs room in Berea?

The Browns have drafted Richard LeCounte based on the assumption that he wasn’t healthy on draft day but might be rehabbed. He’s perhaps the greatest wild card, somewhere between a staring caliber safety and the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list. We’ll just have to see where he is this summer. Karl Joseph and Tavierre Thomas are gone.

Safety appears to be massively upgraded, but even with the addition of Delpit, there is room for a safety to be added.

There has been some player movement at cornerback as well. Denzel Ward is all-world, and he is now joined by Troy Hill, the former Ram, who is especially good as a slot corner. The number two corner will be rookie Greg Newsome.

Robert Jackson and Brian Allen played also but got picked on a lot. That position was not deep, and now Terrance Mitchell and Kevin Johnson are gone, so the Browns added two and subtracted two. With the addition of Williams, there is still room for another defensive back to make the roster.

For further reading:

Lee, Sangkook, et al. “Axillary nerve injury associated with sports.” Neurosurgical focus 31.5 (2011): E10; also,

Kuhlman, Geoffrey S., and Douglas B. McKeag. “The ‘burner’: a common nerve injury in contact sports.” American family physician 60.7 (1999): 2035.