BEREA: Browns starting free safety Jordan Poyer remained hospitalized for observation Monday after suffering a lacerated kidney that could end his season.
“Obviously a kidney is a serious thing,” coach Hue Jackson said Monday. “I hope we can [get Poyer back this season], but if we don’t, I do understand that too, because that’s something that’s very serious.”
Jackson said he exchanged texts with Poyer and hoped he’d be released from the hospital soon.
“He wants to be back with his teammates, battling with those guys,” Jackson said. “Like most of our players do, they feel like when they’re not around these guys like they’re letting them down. He’s not. He took a major hit. Obviously that’s going to take some time for him to heal.”
As Poyer ran down the field on punt coverage Sunday in a 28-26 loss to the Tennessee Titans, running back Antonio Andrews blasted him in the midsection, chest and face mask.
Poyer writhed on the ground and remained there for several minutes after absorbing the hit with 6:33 left in the second quarter. He eventually walked to the sideline with medical personnel who checked him for a concussion and carted him off the field from the sideline. Jackson said he doesn’t know whether Poyer suffered a concussion.
Poyer was taken to St. Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., before halftime and stayed there overnight.
Jackson said Poyer was in high spirits when they communicated.
“He was playing good, too,” Jackson said. “And he had probably, in my opinion, one of his best weeks of practice, and I think he was looking to have a tremendous game and that’s a blow because he’s one of our better players. But we want to wish him well, a speedy recovery.”
Andrews was penalized for an illegal blindside block, but Jackson didn’t criticize him for delivering the devastating hit.
“It’s football,” Jackson said. “You have an assignment. You have a guy to block, and the guy’s clearly in your sights. … I don’t think the player was intentionally trying to hurt him. I think he was trying to do his job, which was block him, and he did. He blocked him. He might’ve led with his head a little bit, but that’s what he got flagged for. That’s part of this game.”
Monitoring Pryor
Wide receiver Terrelle Pryor suffered a hamstring injury against the Titans, Jackson revealed.
“We will see how he goes through the week,” Jackson said. “Hopefully that is not a big issue, but we will work on that.”
Rookie quarterback Cody Kessler certainly hopes Pryor will be available Sunday when the Browns (0-6) visit the Cincinnati Bengals (2-4).
“I’d love to have him out there, and he’s been great for me to be out there and helping me out a ton,” Kessler said. “But that’s going to be for him to get healthy and hopefully be ready.”
Pryor, who had a nagging hamstring injury last year, caught a career-high nine catches for 75 yards and a career-high two touchdowns Sunday. He played 64-of-67 snaps despite the injury.
“[It shows] just how tough he is and how much he loves this team and how much he really wants to win and as we all do,” Kessler said. “[I and] the other guys that are in this rookie class see those older guys that are fighting through different things.”
Per the NFL, Pryor is the first player with two passing touchdowns in a game and two receiving touchdowns in a game since legendary Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton.
According to ProFootballFocus.com, Browns quarterbacks have a passer rating of 91.3 when targeting Pryor, and he has just one dropped pass on 34 catchable targets.
Rough return
Starting center Cameron Erving didn’t fare well against the Titans in his first game back from a bruised lung and received the worst grade on the Browns’ offense from PFF.
Erving missed three games with the injury and appeared to be unsteady in the locker room after Sunday’s game. Jackson said Erving’s first live action in weeks was exhausting for him.
“There are some things he is going to clean up and needs to clean up as we continue to move forward,” Jackson said. “But here is a guy that had not practiced a lot of football or played a lot this season because he has been out lately.”
PFF has Erving ranked last among 34 centers this season.
Does Jackson still have confidence Erving, a 2015 first-round draft pick, can still be a good starting center?
“I do, but I think it is still really early,” Jackson said. “I think we need more time. We need more evidence of sustained playing to say anything or do anything. I think Cam Erving is doing good. Can we do some things better? Yeah, but let’s give him time. Let’s not write a script on him yet. Let’s let him earn a right to have a script written on him.”
Tossing and turning
Jackson insisted he still feels good about his decision to go for two points instead of kick an extra point when the Browns cut the Titans’ lead to 28-19 with 2:07 left in the fourth quarter.
“There are two sides of it, but I think at that point in time, I felt very comfortable and still do with the decision that we made to, ‘Hey look, let’s try to go for it here so we know exactly where we are and what we are needing,’ ” he said.
“When I look back — trust me, you guys made me think of it all night — I turned, tossed, pillow over my head, cover over my head, said, ‘Hue, OK.’ I have even called everybody that was involved with this with me, and I feel even better about what we decided to do today than even I did yesterday.”
Reunion on horizon
Jackson’s impending return to Cincinnati will be a major storyline leading up to Sunday’s game.
“I miss the hell out of him,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said of Jackson during a news conference Monday. “I watch their games every week, and text or call him. He’s coaching his tail off, as we knew he would.”
Lewis shared the advice he would give Jackson, who spent the past four seasons with the Bengals, including the past two as their offensive coordinator.
“Put your head down and coach,” Lewis said. “Don’t worry about what they’re talking about. The only way they like you is if you win.”
Other injury updates
• Jackson said he isn’t “impatient” with cornerback Joe Haden as the two-time Pro Bowler deals with a groin injury suffered last week in practice that sidelined him Sunday. “I watched [Haden’s] workout [pregame], and he looked like he could not do it,” Jackson said. Haden sat out Sept. 25 in Miami with a separate groin injury.
• The Browns hope tight end Randall Telfer (right high-ankle sprain) and defensive lineman Xavier Cooper (shoulder) can return to practice this week and play Sunday, Jackson said.
• Rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman (broken right hand) hasn’t been cleared to practice yet, Jackson said.
• Cornerback Marcus Burley (hamstring) will miss some time, the coach said.
• The status of quarterback Robert Griffin III (fractured left shoulder, on injured reserve) remains unchanged, Jackson said.