Anthony Walker Jr. placed on injured reserve by Browns due to knee injury
BEREA — One of the biggest leaders on the Browns defense is ending his regular season on the injured reserve list for the second consecutive season.
Linebacker and team captain Anthony Walker Jr. was placed on injured reserve by the team on Friday, two days ahead of the regular-season finale at the Cincinnati Bengals. He has been out since injuring the knee prior the Browns' Week 15 win over the Chicago Bears.
To take Walker's spot on the 53-man active roster, the Browns added defensive end Sam Kamara. Kamara has spent most of the season on the practice squad, although he did appear the Week 16 win at the Houston Texans.
Walker underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Dec. 21, a week after sustaining the injury in practice. The injured reserve trip means the earliest he could return, if at all, is if the Browns were to make it to the Super Bowl.
This season in 12 games, Walker recorded 42 tackles, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. He is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
The Browns currently have 13 players on injured reserve, including now nine players who were significant participants in their season-opening win over the same Bengals team they close out the regular season against on Sunday. Of the other 12 players besides Walker, only safety Grant Delpit — who's been on injured reserve since after the Week 14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars — may be able to return during the playoffs.
Despite all of those injuries, many of which occurred weeks or even months ago, the Browns (11-5) have already clinched their spot as the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs.
"I think for us, it was just like, hey, we've set in place a platform, we set in place a culture, a standard to which anyone who is inside of this framework has to keep that 1/11th as we talk about all the time," linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said this week. "And I think for us, at least for the players, we're not like, OK, we prefer this guy over this guy or this guy over another. I think for us it's like, are you keeping a standard? Are you doing little things that will allow us to continue to propel ourselves forward, to give the city what it's been asking for years."
Walker finished last season on injured reserve after sustaining a torn quad muscle during the Sept. 22 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. This season, he earned the Browns' Ed Block Courage Award for his comeback from that injury, as well as the team's nomination for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
The Browns struggled mightily once Walker went down a year ago, the first of five season-ending injuries the linebacking corps endured. This year, even with the team captain having already missed four games — a hamstring injury sidelined him in Week 12 at the Denver Broncos — due to injury, they have weathered the storm well enough.
Tony Fields II, who filled in for Walker a year ago as well, has started in his spot when the Browns are in their base look. Owusu-Koramoah and Sione Takitaki also have seen elevated snaps as the other two normal starting linebackers.
"We miss A-Walk," linebackers coach Jason Tarver said Friday morning. "We love him, but we know that certain things are going to happen in this game as you go through the year and obviously this team's a great example of resilience at every position of playing. But I think we were more — the players and the coaches have more experience with that and then also being able to apply it within the scheme of they're all more prepared to do everything."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns place Anthony Walker Jr. on injured reserve with knee injury
