Grant Delpit heading to injured reserve, Ogbo Okoronkwo may be done for season for Browns

BEREA — The injury bug continues to take bites out of the Browns.

Safety Grant Delpit was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday with the groin injury he suffered in the win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The move assures Delpit, who had surgery on the injury, will miss the remainder of the Browns regular season, although there is a chance he could return if they qualify for the playoffs.

However, a source confirmed to the Beacon Journal that defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo may miss the remainder of the season due to a pectoral injury suffered against the Jaguars. ESPN's Jake Trotter was the first to report.

Stefanski said Wednesday he didn't have "final confirmation" on Okoronkwo's status for the remainder of the season. He did not practice on Wednesday.

Delpit was injured in the fourth quarter while trying to blitz Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence. He appeared to pull it right before he went in toward Lawrence, leading him to fall down and actually collided with teammate Myles Garrett's knee on the way to the ground.

"He's a guy that showed up every single day this offseason, and I think that really set the tone for us as a defense and really stood out to me, just showing me that he wants to be available for his team," safety Rodney McLeod said Wednesday. "He wants to gain that trust from the locker room, and it means a lot to him. And so I think because of how hard he's worked, it allowed him to really get everything that he's really earned. He earned it this year from offseason to training camp and then the way he's been able to excel this season."

The move to injured reserve for Delpit is just the latest in the last three days for the Browns. They placed right tackle Dawand Jones (knee) and defensive tackle Maurice Hurst II (pectoral) on the injured reserve Tuesday with injuries from the last week.

Jones will have surgery on a torn MCL suffered during this past Thursday's practice. Hurst underwent surgery Wednesday on the pec injury he suffered during the win over the Jaguars game.

"I feel badly for those guys," Stefanski said. "They're a big part of who we are. They certainly have been a big part of our success to date, but next man up."

The Browns have their Week 1 starters at quarterback (Deshaun Watson), running back (Nick Chubb), left tackle (Jedrick Wills Jr.), right tackle (Jack Conklin) and safety (Delpit) all on injured reserve. Also are key rotation pieces at right tackle (Dawand Jones), safety (Rodney McLeod) and defensive tackle (Maurice Hurst II).

Okoronkwo will likely added to that list, meaning the Browns will have lost three players to at least regular-season-ending injuries against Jacksonville. He left the game initially with just over 6:30 remaining in the first quarter with a groin injury, returned, then was injured again on the final play of the third quarter, but returned again.

"We've still been able to grind out these wins with all the adversity that we've had this year and we plan on continuing to do so," Okoronkwo told the Beacon Journal Wednesday before word of his pectoral injury came out. "Of course nobody wants bad luck. Nobody wants it to rain, everybody wants sunshine, but you got to control what you can control at the end of the day."

Delpit had a team-high 77 total tackles this season, his fourth in the league. The Browns signed the 2020 second-round pick (No. 44 overall) to a new three-year, $36 million — $23 million guaranteed — contract extension on Monday, although it had been agreed upon over the weekend.

Okoronkwo, signed a free agent in March from the Houston Texans, had become a critical piece of the defensive line rotation. He had 4.5 sacks and a fumble recovery to go with 31 total tackles.

The Browns promoted veteran Duron Harmon from the practice squad to take Delpit's spot on the roster. The 11-year pro out of Rutgers originally was a third-round pick by the New England Patriots, with whom he went to four Super Bowls and won three of them.

Harmon has also played with the Detroit Lions (2020), Atlanta Falcons (2021), Las Vegas Raiders (2022) and Chicago Bears (this season), whom the Browns play host to on Sunday. Harms appeared in three games with one start for the Bears before signing with the Browns practice squad on Nov. 22.

The Browns potential starting safety group against Chicago could be rookie Ronnie Hickman and second-year pro D'Anthony Bell, with Harmon possibly in there as well. The only original starting safety not on injured reserve is Juan Thornhill, but he missed this past Sunday's game after reinjuring his calf in warmups.

Okoronkwo's injury doesn't necessarily impact the starters — Myles Garrett and Za'Darius Smith are those — but it significantly impacts the rotation up front, especially with Hurst out for the season and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott in concussion protocol. It means more snaps for second-year pros Alex Wright and Sam Kamara, who was signed off the practice squad Tuesday, as well as potentially rookie Isaiah McGuire.

"We believe in everybody in this locker room," linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. said. "They're here for a reason. Obviously it sucks, right, to lose guys. We've done it all year from Week 1 on. So the name of the NFL is next man up as we all like to say. We don't like to say it, but we have to say it, the next man up mentality and yeah, we believe in everybody in this locker room, so whoever gets that opportunity, we believe in that person and it won't be no different with the new guy stepping up."

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 defense suffers injury blows to Grant Delpit, Ogbo Okoronkwo