Browns place key defensive lineman on IR

The injuries keep piling up in Cleveland, and the Browns will now play the rest of the season without a key defensive lineman. The Browns have placed defensive tackle Maurice Hurst on injured reserve, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 in Houston.

The veteran defensive lineman will miss the rest of the season while nursing a pectoral injury. Hurst was limited to a season-low 28 percent of his team’s defensive snaps during Sunday’s win over the Jaguars.

“My 2023 season is over, and the frustration is unbearable,” Hurst tweeted on Tuesday. “However I am grateful to my teammates, coaches, staff, and the city of Cleveland for welcoming me and making me a part of this family…. I’ll be back better than before.”

Hurst caught on with Cleveland this past offseason and has seen time in 13 games while appearing in about 40 percent of his team’s defensive snaps. He’s compiled 22 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and five QBs, and more notably, he’s graded as the 11th-best interior defender among 131 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus. The site also gave him a top-10 positional grade for his run-stopping ability.

Hurst spent three seasons with the Raiders to begin his career, collecting eight sacks in 40 games. He got into two games with the 49ers in 2021, and after re-signing with the organization, a torn bicep kept him off the field for the entire 2022 campaign.

With Hurst out of the lineup, the Browns could simply hand out his weekly snaps to the other DTs on the roster. Dalvin Tomlinson has led the position grouping in snap count this season (491), but Jordan Elliott (309), Shelby Harris (306), and Hurst (304) have pretty much rotated in and out of the lineup.

The Browns also announced that they’ve placed offensive lineman Dawand Jones on IR. The right tackle suffered a knee injury at practice last week that will require season-ending surgery.