BEREA, Ohio — Receiver Cedric Tillman remained in the concussion protocol as the Browns returned to practice on Monday.
Tillman suffered the concussion on the final play of the third quarter when he took a hard blow to the head from linebacker Patrick Queen, but it didn’t draw a flag and wasn’t considered a dirty play.
He caught 2 of 4 targets for 28 yards, including a long catch of 24 yards before Steelers safety DeShon Elliott knocked the ball out of his hand and recovered it.
Tillman and tight end Geoff Swaim are both still in the protocol, with Swaim having been inactive for the Steelers game with a concussion suffered in the Saints game four days beforehand.
“We’ll see how they come out of it in the next few days,” Kevin Stefanski said.
With the 10-day break between the Browns’ 24-19 victory over the Steelers Thursday night, and the next game Dec. 2 in Denver on Monday Night Football, Tillman has a chance to clear the protocol in time to play.
If he can’t play, other receivers such as Elijah Moore, Jamari Thrash and Jaelon Darden will get more opportunities.
Tillman is fourth on the team with 29 catches and third with 339 yards, but leads the team with three TD catches.
OT Jedrick Wills Jr. still idle
Backup swing tackle Wills was still idle on Monday afternoon with the knee injury that kept him home from New Orleans and out of the Steelers game, but still has a week to recover for the Broncos game.
Germain Ifedi replaced Dawand Jones (broken fibula) at left tackle against the Steelers, and ranked last among Browns offensive players with a 36.0 grade, including 19.3 in pass-blocking.
The Browns were hoping Wills would be ready to face the Steelers, but with the short turnaround, he didn’t recover in time.
“It’s not responding just yet, but hopeful that it does,” Stefanski said.
Like Tillman, Wills might benefit from the 10 days between games and be ready in Denver.
“Anytime you have extra days it helps dealing with any injuries, but you just have to treat the injury you have,” Stefanski said. “I think any player, when you’re going through this, you want to get out there on the field. You want to help the team, but again, you just have to do everything in your power to get out there. Of course it’s frustrating for sure for these guys.”
Jerry Jeudy on a roll
Jeudy is on a hot streak as he heads back to Denver, where he spent the first four seasons of his career after being drafted by them No. 15 overall in 2020 out of Alabama.
“He’s done a nice job,” Stefanski said. “I mean, he’s catching short throws, turning them into long gains, he’s catching balls down the field. He also has made a lot of plays in scramble drill since we’ve had him and I think he has an ability to shake open.”
In his past four games with Jameis Winston at the helm, Jeudy has averaged seven receptions and 95 yards. In the first seven games, with Deshaun Watson starting, he averaged three catches and 38 yards.
One area where Jeudy can still make progress is in touchdown receptions. He has only two so far this season, including an 89-yarder in New Orleans. He also had 142 yards that game for his sixth-career 100-yard game. It was the second-highest total of his career, and his first 100-yard game since the finale of 2022, when he had a career high 154 yards.
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David Njoku’s uneven Steelers game
Njoku caught only 1 of 5 targets for 9 yards against the Steelers, including the dropped TD pass in the back of the end zone before Jameis Winston went leaped into the end zone to score from the 2.
He also came right back and made the acrobatic catch of the two-point pass after Winston’s TD that made it 18-6 with 12:16 left in the game.
But Stefanski didn’t attribute the 20% catch rate to the whiteout conditions.
“I think all the guys certainly had to deal with the elements, but I don’t think there’s any big thing that made him not have as many catches,” he said. “He drops the easy one, catches the hard one, which I can’t explain that. But yeah, I don’t think there’s anything particular.”
Nick Chubb excels in short-yardage
Chubb was golden in short-yardage situations against the Steelers, converting two fourth and 1s on touchdown drives, and scoring twice on 2-yard runs, including the game winner with 57 seconds left.
“Short yard success is really important to stay on the football field,” SteWe had that fourth and one early in the game where he got it. We had another, I think it was fourth and one where we handed the ball to Nick, so got hard yards in short yards, hard yards down there in the goal line. Those were very big plays in the course of the game to be able to stay on the field.”
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