The Cleveland Browns were dealt a massive blow on Sunday. Losing to the Buffalo Bills was bad, but losing Quinshon Judkins was even worse.
Judkins suffered a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle, and he’s now looking at a four-to-five-month recovery timeline.
The good news is that Judkins should be back on the field for the start of training camp. The bad news, however, is that the Browns may still need to take some weight off his shoulders. At least, that’s how team film analyst Lance Reisland feels.
He argued that the Browns need to protect Judkins from himself:
“[Quinshon Judkins is] a violent runner and violent runners in the NFL don’t last. As he moves forward, I think two things need to happen. One, is I think he’s an absolute stud, but they’ve got to make sure they get a guy behind him that can carry the load a little bit too,” Reisland said.
Unfortunately, he has a valid point. Dylan Sampson has shown flashes, and he’s been great as a pass catcher and big-play specialist, but he now has two games to prove that he can also handle a bigger workload on the ground.
Judkins’ production had taken a big dip over the past month or so. With no vertical threat in the wide receivers corps and less than impressive quarterback play, the rookie running back came across stacked boxes over and over. Still, the talent is most definitely there, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t be as good – or even better – next season.
The Browns just need to get him some help.
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