According to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Cleveland's 2020 first-round pick Jedrick Wills is slated to make his 2024 season debut on Sunday against the New York Giants. If so, it will be the first game he plays in since injuring his right knee against the Arizona Cardinals Week 9 of last season.
Wills was a limited participant at each day of practice this week, which represented progress for the young left tackle. In previous weeks he had been listed as a did not practice at least one of the three days.
It's been a long road back to the field for the Alabama product since suffering an MCL injury in November last year. At the time, the Browns thought there was a chance that Wills would be back sooner rather than later as they placed him on the IR but didn't rule him out for the remainder of the season. Over a month later he wound up undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery and was promptly deemed out for the rest of the 2023 campaign.
Wills has been on the comeback trail ever since, gradually ramping things up throughout spring workouts, training camp and now the first few weeks of the season. Initially Wills was expected back for the start of the year, but he revealed a few weeks back that the extent of the injury went beyond just an MCL issue and thus delayed his return.
Meanwhile, fellow tackle Jack Conklin has been on a same path back to action after suffering an even more serious knee injury than Wills in Week 1 of last year. Conklin appeared to be in line to make his long-awaited return against the Giants as well after practicing fully every day this week. However, a hamstring issue popped up for the nine-year veteran on Saturday and he's been downgraded from questionable to out.
That means Wills is likely to step into his usual spot as the team's starting left tackle, with second-year tackle Dawand Jones manning the right side. Jones did miss a day of practice this week with a knee injury as well. For the first two weeks, James Hudson III was the Browns starter at left tackle.
