The new NFL season has started about as poorly as it possibly can so far for the Cleveland Browns. After suffering a Week 1 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the team also lost tight end David Njoku to injury during the game and watched quarterback Deshaun Watson get hit with a new lawsuit for sexual assault dating back to 2020.
On Wednesday, the bad news piled on with word that the team had placed four new players on injured reserve.
A familiar face for Kansas City Chiefs fans sits among those who were placed on the Browns IR: safety Juan Thornhill. Thornhill was the Chiefs' second-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft and became a Week 1 starter at safety from start of his rookie campaign. For the next four years, he would become a pillar in the team' secondary before leaving for a lucrative deal in free agency to Cleveland.
The Cleveland Browns put four players on injured reserve this week following their season-opening loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Thornhill's placement on IR forces him to miss at least the next four games on the team's schedule due to injury, meaning that the soonest he can return is Week 6, on October 13, when the Browns face the Philadelphia Eagles.
Thornhill already missed six games in his first season with the Browns due to a calf injury that wouldn't go away.
Interestingly, the Browns have been linked with several former Chiefs in the last few days. Former Chiefs tight end Irv Smith worked out for the team following Njoku's injury. They also looked at quarterback Chris Oladokun in a tryout. Previously, the Browns had signed Kadarius Toney to the practice squad.
The three other players placed on injured reserve by the Browns include defensive tackle Mo Hurst, linebacker Tony Fields II, and linebacker Mohamoud Diabate.