BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns will be without linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah for at least the next four games after placing him on injured reserve with a neck injury on Saturday.
Owusu-Koramoah sustained the scary neck injury in Week 8's matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. While attempting a tackle, Owusu-Koramoah took a hit and appeared unconscious on the field. Trainers rushed out, and while the linebacker came to, he was immobilized, loaded onto the cart and taken off the field for further evaluation.
A short time later, he was transported to a local hospital and admitted overnight. His teammates talked about how frightening the situation was after the game.
"Jeremiah's a warrior. Honestly, he's like the energizer of our defense so when he went down it sort of hurt us for a second but then we collectively said we were going to finish this game for him. We didn't know what his status was at the moment, we know he's okay, but we were really scared," said defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Friday that Owusu-Koraoah has been in the facility, walking around and feeling better.
Still, a neck injury is not one to be taken lightly, so the Browns placed the linebacker on IR to give him time to heal.
Owusu-Koramoah will be required to miss the next four games—next week's bye does not count toward IR time—before he's eligible to be activated and return to game action. The earliest Owusu-Koramoah could return is Dec. 8 for the road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The most important thing to the Browns in this case, though, is Owusu-Koramoah's health. Something they've seen work out before, and are hoping for the best-case scenario for their standout linebacker.
"I’ve had that in my career a couple different times. I was in Philly and Avonte Maddox went down with the exact same injury. That was back in 2020, I think we were playing Green Bay. And I saw that happen to Ray Lewis early in his career. It was a training camp practice; I think it was his second year in the NFL and they brought a helicopter in for him. He was strapped to the board, and he had no feeling for about two minutes or so and then started getting it back and things like that. So, I have seen that a couple times and hopefully Jeremiah has the same recovery that those two guys had,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
