BEREA — Jedrick Wills Jr. was back on the practice field Wednesday. The Browns left tackle, however, said he won't be starting Sunday when the season opens against the Dallas Cowboys.
"Oh, no, I won't be," Wills said when asked before Wednesday's practice about starting. "I'm not starting this week. I'm just going out there for indy (individual drills) and seeing how it feels and get back into things."
Wills didn't rule out playing against the Cowboys. Much of that, he acknowledged, hinges on how his right knee responds to his first practices since last November.
If Wills, as he said, isn't starting on Sunday, that would likely mean it will be the veteran Jack Conklin starting for him, with Dallas' star pass rusher Micah Parsons looming on the other side. Conklin has never started an NFL game at the position, but did play there throughout his collegiate career at Michigan State.
Conklin, who is only in his second week back after recovering from his own season-end knee injury suffered in last year's season opener, would only say the Browns were "still working through that" when asked if it was a done deal. The other option would be James Hudson III, who started training camp in Wills place at left tackle.
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"I think he'll do good," Wills said. "I mean, he took some reps in there at practice, from what I saw, he was perfectly fine. I know that he's played left tackle before in the past, so I think he'll do all right."
Wills sustained a high-grade sprain to the MCL, a low-grade sprain to the PCL and bone bruises in his right knee in the Browns' Week 9 win over the Arizona Cardinals last Nov. 5. At the time of the injury, the Browns and Wills believed the injury would not end his season.
That later changed as Wills continued his rehab. He went on season-ending injured reserve on Dec. 12 after arthroscopic surgery.
"Originally I was not going to need surgery," Wills explained. "It was going to be rehab. I don't remember the exact timeline, but at first I wasn't going to have surgery, and then later on they found out that they needed to scope it."
The process of recovery took longer than even Wills expected. While missing on-field work during OTAs and minicamp was expected, there was a belief among many that he would be back at some point in training camp, which started with him on the physically unable to perform list.
Wills remained on the PUP list throughout training camp. Even when he came off the list on Aug. 26, he did not practice at all that week, nor the Browns practice on Monday.
"I mean, I knew it was a pretty significant injury," Wills said. "Wasn't exactly sure how long it was going to take. It's definitely taken a while. That's about it."
Wills' left tackle position was a revolving door of players during training camp, which created significant issues for the offense as a whole. The Browns started with Hudson at the spot, then rotated in Hakeem Adeniji and Germain Ifedi in search of some consistency.
Conklin's experience at left tackle in the NFL consists of 67 combined snaps over his first two seasons with the Tennessee Titans. Those snaps were limited to no more than a handful in any game, mostly in heavy or unbalanced looks.
The transition Conklin may have to go through from right to left tackle is just a reverse of what he did coming out of college. He turned into a two-time All-Pro, including one as a rookie.
“You know, it's different, but I did it in college," Conklin said. "It's definitely just getting the mentality of mostly just verbiage. The thought of everything one way and it's just flipping it in your head. So, again, maybe it's just a little second more thought when I hear the play just to make sure I'm thinking of it as out the left side compared to the right, but that's just [it].”
The importance of having the left tackle spot solidified is magnified this week in particular. The Cowboys defense includes Parsons, one of the best pass rushers in the game.
Parsons led the league in pass-rush win rate a year ago at 35.3%, ahead of the Browns' Myles Garrett, who was at 30.5%. Both players finished with 14 sacks last season.
"Yousee him all over the place," Conklin said of Conklin. "He is a great player. They try to get him all over the place, give everybody problems. We're all going to have to go out and prepare. It's hard to say, but he's a great player and we give him a lot of credit."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
