BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns defense might have taken another jarring hit.
Rookie safety Grant Delpit was carted off the practice field Monday with a right Achilles injury, the latest Cleveland player to go down in what has been a tough training camp so far for the team and first-year coach Kevin Stefanski.
A second-round pick from national champion LSU, Delpit was expected to start this season. The 6-foot-2, 213-pounder got hurt during individual drills. He pounded his hand on the ground in frustration before being helped onto the cart and taken inside the team’s facility.
The team only confirmed Delpit’s injury and said he will undergo further testing. Delpit was penciled in to start alongside Karl Joseph, who was signed as a free agent during the offseason but is nursing a foot injury. The Browns also signed veteran safety Andrew Sendejo.
But Delpit was seen as a long-term upgrade at a position that was a problem for the Browns last season.
Not long after Delpit got hurt, starting cornerback Greedy Williams — another former LSU player — left the field accompanied by athletic trainers with a reported shoulder injury. Williams and Delpit were college teammates.
Williams, who missed Cleveland’s first four games last season with a badly pulled hamstring, did not return to the field. His injury was compounded by cornerback Terrance Mitchell sitting out with a knee injury and backup nickel back M.J. Stewart pulling up in practice with a hamstring injury.
The Browns are missing two other starters on defense as Mack Wilson sustained a serious knee injury last week, and projected nickel back Kevin Johnson sustained a lacerated liver on a routine play in practice.
Wilson hyperextended his left knee, and the Browns are waiting to find out if he needs season-ending surgery.
Johnson’s return is also in question after he was fallen on by rookie tight end Harrison Bryant while trying to break up a pass during a 7-on-7 drill. Johnson spent two days at University Hospital before being released Saturday.
If that wasn’t enough, Browns Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb just returned from a concussion he got last week when thrown to the ground by Wilson on the team’s first full day in pads. The Browns are also without starting center JC Tretter. He underwent knee surgery on the eve of camp opening, and it’s not known how long he’ll be out.
It’s been a strange couple of days for Stefanski. On Sunday, he was one of the 77 false positive covid-19 tests delivered by the NFL’s lab partner.
Stefanski, who has three young children, was at home when he got the call. He left his family’s house and isolated at a condominium near the team’s facility where he stayed during his transition from Minnesota.
It took four hours before Stefanski learned the test was negative.
“It was not fun. I can laugh about it now, but truly, it was not fun to have that phone call very early in the morning and not get the news that it was potentially an error until later,” he said. “It is something that I take seriously, and our whole goal with our players and our staff is to keep everybody safe. That certainly was not fun.”
