CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the Browns get set to open their 2022 season, they will still be without one of their top offensive lineman.
Former All-Pro right tackle Jack Conklin has officially been ruled out for Sunday's Week 1 game against the Carolina Panthers as he continues to recover from the knee injury he suffered last season. The 28-year-old had been listed as questionable in the days prior to kickoff.
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In addition, top backup Chris Hubbard is also out with an undisclosed ailment, so James Hudson III will start in Conklin's place. Hudson made four starts as a rookie last season with both Conklin and Hubbard hurt.
A 2016 first-round pick out of Michigan State, Conklin came to Cleveland from Tennessee four years later and earned first-team All-Pro honors that year. Unfortunately, he missed several games with an elbow injury in 2021, and after coming back for Week 12 in Baltimore ended up tearing his right patellar tendon and missed the remainder of the campaign.
More surprising than the absence of Conklin and Hubbard is the apparent absence of running back D'Ernest Johnson, who has been listed as a healthy scratch. Johnson turned heads last year by finishing second on the team with 534 rushing yards, but it appears rookie Jerome Ford and hybrid back Demetric Felton will get more opportunities today behind top runners Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.
The Browns' other inactives this afternoon are as follows:
- QB Kellen Mond
- WR Michael Woods II (illness)
- DE Isaiah Thomas
- S Richard LeCounte III