The Cleveland Browns are looking to play spoiler against the Kansas City Chiefs when they take on the reigning champions at Huntington Bank Field in Week 15.
One position that not just Cleveland, but most of Kansas City's opponents, have honed in on attacking to defeat the Chiefs (or get close) has been tight end. Because of the Chiefs' lack of solid defense in their linebacker room, it's easy for teams to take advantage of this by emphasizing their tight ends in their offensive schemes.
Unfortunately for the Browns, their best tight end is likely out for Week 15. David Njoku suffered a hamstring injury in the Browns' Week 14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and according to OC Ken Dorsey and Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, they'll just have to go "tight end by committee" against the champs.
Read more: 3 bold predictions for Browns against Chiefs in Week 15
That means that Jordan Akins and Blake Whiteheart are sure to get major touches in Week 15 with Jameis Winston under center - and that's assuming Winston is protected well enough by the offensive line against Chris Jones to allow him time to pass downfield. If not, Cleveland might have to rely on their running backs in Nick Chubb and Jerome Ford to finally have impactful games.
Other injuries for the Browns include G Joel Bitonio, who has been dealing with a back injury this week. He also didn't pratice on Wednesday before the Week 15 bout.
In better news for Cleveland, they're likely to see some action from rookie DT Mike Hall Jr. who is finally active and back practicing after previously dealing with a knee injury. In addition to Hall, Myles Garrett was back at practice after missing the first one for personal reasons. He seems primed to go against the Chiefs, who are already singing his praises.
#Chiefs DT Chris Jones says he has a lot of respect for Browns DE Myles Garrett's game but adds: "I hope he has no success against us, and that continues through four quarters."
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) December 12, 2024
Cedric Tillman, another key piece to the Browns' offense, practiced on Wednesday and might be good to go in Week 15 after suffering a concussion in Week 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
How about at kicker?
The Browns announced that they had added Riley Patterson to their practice squad ahead of Week 15, and after another disastrous outing from starting kicker Dustin Hopkins. Hopkins, who missed two three point attempts against the Steelers in Week 14, is sitting at 64 percent on the season on his kicks.
The competition felt inevitable, especially since the team just extended Hopkins and clearly want to see if this is just a fluke year or if Hopkins is just this poor of a kicker now after investing in him. Head coach Kevin Stefanski and now STC Bubba Ventrone both told reporters that both kickers will practice this week and that they'd make a call on who is kicking against the Chiefs ahead of the game.