The Browns will play without cornerback Denzel Ward for the first time this season when they visit the Bears on Sunday.
Ward has been ruled out with a calf injury after missing practice this week. Ward has 38 tackles and an interception so far this season.
They will also be without tight end David Njoku. Njoku has a knee injury and will miss his second game this season.
The Browns have also ruled out right tackle Jack Conklin (concussion), defensive tackle Adin Huntington (quad), running back Dylan Sampson (calf, hand), and right guard Wyatt Teller (calf). Quarterback Deshaun Watson (Achilles) will not be activated from the physically unable to perform list.
Left guard Joel Bitonio (knee, back), wide receiver Malachi Corley (concussion), defensive tackle Mason Graham (rib), wide receiver Cedric Tillman (concussion, rib), and offensive lineman Zak Zinter (back) are listed as questionable.
Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze returned to practice on Wednesday and he was back on the field on Thursday.
Odunze missed last Sunday’s loss to the Packers with a foot injury, but he has been a limited participant in practice both days this week. Friday will bring another practice and the Bears will then issue their injury designations for Sunday’s game against the Browns.
Odunze leads the Bears with 44 catches, 661 yards and six receiving touchdowns this season.
Cornerback Kyler Gordon (groin) and running back Travis Homer (ankle) missed practice for the second day. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson (hip) and wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (hamstring) were limited participants while linebacker Ruben Hippolyte (shoulder) and cornerback Jaylon Johnson (groin) were full participants.
It’s usually a positive to find your way into the NFL record book, but Bears quarterback Caleb Williams knows one way he’d avoid being commemorated.
Williams and the Bears will face the Browns this weekend, which means they’ll be tangling with defensive end Myles Garrett as he closes in on the NFL’s single-season sack record. Garrett has 20 sacks on the season and needs three more to take sole control of the mark, so one of Williams’ goals for the week is to avoid being dropped three times while trying to pass.
“Obviously, he’s right there at the sack record, almost there at the sack record,” Williams said, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “And so, I’m going to try and make sure that he doesn’t get the sack record on us and on me.”
Williams has been sacked 20 times this season, which is a big upgrade on the league-high 68 times that he was dropped during his rookie season. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur suggested last weekend that some of their success in protection has come because they’re getting away with holding and the Bears figure to try everything they can to make sure that Garrett doesn’t wreck things this weekend.
Shedeur Sanders said on Wednesday that he’s focused on being the Browns’ starting quarterback in Week 15 and not on the final three weeks of the season.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said this week that Sanders will be the team’s starter for the rest of the regular season. That commitment gives Sanders, who has started the last three games, an extended chance to make his case for the job in 2026, but he said at a press conference that he’s only looking at this week when asked about the implications of Stefanski’s announcement.
“Yeah, that’s a long, deep thought,” Sanders said, via a transcript from the team. “Like, that’s not in my focus. My focus right now is the team we’re playing ahead, the Bears — anything past that I’m not really focused on, honestly. I’m thankful for it, but I’m not content with my situation, with everything. And we’re leading this team.”
Sanders made his debut in the second half of a Week 11 loss to the Ravens. He has gone 50-of-87 for 722 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions since becoming the starter.
On Sunday, Da Bears constantly held Packers linebacker Micah Parsons, resorting at times to Da Bear Hug.
From the mugging to the choking to the grabbing to the pulling, it’s astounding that Parsons didn’t draw a single holding penalty.
But there’s a much larger problem. Holding is routinely not called by today’s NFL officials. Coincidentally (or not), the NFL wants yards and points and offensive excitement — especially as gamblers who bet the overs (as to the total score and/or the various crack-cocaine prop bets) keep watching the games deep into the fourth quarter to see whether their various wagers will prevail.
Before 1978, offensive linemen couldn’t extend their hands to block. They had to keep their fists together and elbows out, which has been immortalized by the electric football figure in the blocking posture that prevailed before the NFL realized that making it easier to block defensive linemen would open up the passing game.
Still, it has now gotten out of control. Late in the Week 8 game between the Vikings and Chargers, Prime Video played clips of some of left tackle Joe Alt’s plays during his first game back from a high ankle sprain. In every one of them, he was holding the pass rusher, to some degree.
He’s far from alone.
At this point, teams should be coaching their offensive linemen to do it. It’s similar to the Legion of Boom’s approach to covering receivers. Hold them on every single play, because the officials won’t bog the game down by constantly throwing flags.
As to holding, there are times when they never throw a flag.
So, yes, the Packers have a legitimate beef about the failure to call holding by the Bears. But the Packers should respond by telling their blockers to do the same thing to opposing defenders — if they haven’t already.
Put simply, the officials have allowed the sheer volume of holding fouls to overpower the system.
So hold ‘em if you got ‘em. The NFL wants yards and points and bets and viewers. Calling every hold that happens would directly impact each of those valuable factors of modern-day pro football.
