Cleveland Browns 'prepare for both' Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Beathard when Jaguars visit

BEREA — Grant Delpit was an interested viewer of the "Monday Night Football" game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars. After all, one is a AFC North rival of the Browns and the other is Sunday's opponent.

What Delpit didn't expect to see was what happened with 5:27 remaining in regulation. Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was dropping back to pass when his left tackle, Walker Little, stepped on his ankle after being driven backward into the quarterback.

Lawrence, the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, stayed down for some time before being helped to the locker room. C.J. Beathard came off the bench for Jacksonville, which lost 34-31 in overtime.

"Off the bat, I was watching the play," Delpit said Wednesday. "I just seen him kind of fall down awkwardly. I was just praying right away that it wasn't anything serious because we've already lost so many people in this league this year."

Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Tuesday it was a high ankle sprain for the franchise quarterback. However, he did not say who the starting quarterback for the AFC South leaders would be when they come to Cleveland on Sunday to play the Browns.

Both Lawrence and Beathard appeared on the Jaguars' injury report Wednesday. Lawrence did not practice at all with the ankle injury, while Beathard was limited with a shoulder injury.

The Browns, meanwhile, have to prepare for someone to play quarterback for the Jaguars. Until told otherwise, that means they're looking at the potential to see Lawrence.

"I'm sure he's doing everything in his power to play," Delpit said, "because this is a critical time in the year, so of course we're going to prepare for him. He's playing great right now, so props to him, but we have to prepare for both quarterbacks in that case."

This wouldn't be the first time the Browns have had to prepare for multiple quarterbacks. They didn't know for certain who was starting for the Arizona Cardinals in Week 9 until the day before the game when it was announced rookie Clayton Tune would start while Kyler Murray used one more week to recover.

That was a case of the Cardinals deciding whether or not to bring Murray off the injured reserve list after having practiced the whole week. This is a case of a quarterback trying to come back the same week in which he suffered an injury.

Lawrence has come back to play in the same week he's been injured once before this season. He sustained a knee injury on Oct 15 against the Colts, only to come back four nights later on Oct. 19 and go 20-of-29 passing for 204 yards and a touchdown in a win at the New Orleans Saints.

“Yeah, it’s still early in the week," Lawrence told Jacksonville-area reporters on Wednesday. "In New Orleans, I didn’t know until right before the game. This is a short week, but that was a really short week. We’ll have a couple of more days than we did then, which is nice, but we still lost a day playing on Monday night. I guess that’s just the way it’s been going this year with some of that stuff. I’m really just taking it one day at a time.

"I’m trying to do as much as I can each day without aggravating it or making anything worse but trying to progress towards hopefully playing. That’s the goal every week and every day, is to try to get as healthy as possible. The past 48 hours have been some big steps and I’m really happy with how it’s healing up."

If Lawrence can't go, then it'll be Beathard making his first start since Jan. 1, 2021, when he was with the San Francisco 49ers. The sixth-year pro completed 9 of 10 passes for 63 yards while being sacked twice after replacing the injured Lawrence on Monday.

Beathard has never faced the Browns in his career. He has faced Anthony Walker Jr. before, albeit at a different stage in their football careers.

"Obviously kicked my butt when I was in college one time," Walker, a former Northwestern product, said of the ex-Iowa quarterback. "Got him back my senior year, though, so that was good. But, yeah, another guy, like I said, just veteran presence. You can never underestimate that as a quarterback. You've seen everything, like I said, can get those guys in the right plays, and at the end of the day they have playmakers to get the ball to, so I know he can do that really well, and that's how they attack defenses."

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 'prepare for both' Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Beathard with Jaguars