Cleveland Browns left tackle Dawand Jones fractured a bone in his lower left leg and was taken off the field on a cart, wearing an air cast, during the first half of Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said Jones will need surgery, which will end his season.
“He knew it right away, and I feel bad for him,” Stefanski said after the Saints’ 35-14 victory. “I felt he was doing some decent things over there.”
While being treated on the field, Jones seemed to tell the Browns medical staff that he thought his ankle was broken.
Jones’ injury came at a tough time for Cleveland.
Just a day before, the Browns had announced that their usual starting offensive tackle, Jedrick Wills Jr., would be out for the game due to a knee injury.
This decision came after Wills mentioned that he made a “business decision” not to play in a game last month against Baltimore because his surgically repaired knee didn’t feel right. Stefanski later said Wills, a first-round pick in 2020, had used a “poor choice of words” in explaining why he sat out.
Wills, who had been listed on the injury report this week but was marked as a “full” participant, was replaced by the 6-foot-8, 374-pound Jones, a 2023 fourth-round draft pick from Ohio State. After Jones got injured, reserve tackle Germain Ifedi stepped in to take his place.
Meanwhile, Browns defensive back Denzel Ward left the game and went to the locker room after taking a hard hit while Saints tight end Taysom Hill lost a fumble deep in Cleveland’s territory during the second quarter.
The Browns said Ward had a chest injury, but he was able to return for the first defensive series of the second half.
