Browns DE could making shocking return Week 18 vs. Bengals
With their playoff positioning sealed, the Cleveland Browns will rest a host of big-name contributors in Week 18 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
One player who could suit up, however, suffered what was thought to be a season-ending injury less than one month ago.
The news is surprising, as Ogbonnia Okoronkwo tore his pectoral muscle during the team's Week 14 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 10. Despite his ability to play through the injury that day, reports said that the defensive end likely wouldn't be returning to the field this winter, let alone in the regular season.
At the time of the news, the Browns were 8-5 and fighting to stay alive in the AFC playoff picture. Since then, they've won three straight and are now locked into the No. 5 seed in the postseason.
Though Okoronkwo hasn't made any starts this season, he'd appeared in all 13 contests prior to the injury, had played in a career-high 56% of his team's defensive snaps and was on pace to surpass last season's career high of 518 defensive snaps played as well.
The Oklahoma product signed with Cleveland in March 2023 and at the time of his injury, was second on the team in sacks (4.5), third in tackles for loss (career-high 12) and fourth in quarterback hits (eight). Even with the three missed games, Okoronkwo's still third in tackles for loss and fourth in quarterback hits and has only dropped to third in sacks.
The Super Bowl LVI champion with the Los Angeles Rams is listed as Pro Bowler Myles Garrett's direct backup on the team depth chart, so with Garrett sitting out Sunday's contest, Okoronkwo should get a chance to rack up some more stats if he's active.
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