CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns are a little thin at quarterback heading into tonight’s Monday Night Football game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Four hours before kicking off against the Jets, the Browns announced that veteran signal-caller Drew Stanton was placed on injured reserve because of a knee issue. To fill Stanton’s spot on the active roster, the Browns elevated third-year NFL running back Elijah McGuire from the practice squad.
Without Stanton, the Browns have starter Baker Mayfield and former Alliance of American Football (AAF) standout Garrett Gilbert as the only quarterbacks on the roster, and they have a short turnaround time to get a new signal-caller acclimated to the system.
Following the Monday Night Football game, the Browns will return home and immediately begin preparations for a second straight prime time appearance when they host the reigning NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland on Sunday Night Football.
“It is a phenomenal asset to have that I think goes to one of the most undervalued things within the building, for me at least,” Mayfield said of the quarterback room during training camp. “Being able to talk through things and having an open forum when meetings hit. Freddie will come in there. Obviously, his responsibility is a little bit more now, but when he sits down in there we are still having conversations.
“It is just talking through things of how Drew ran it in Arizona and how Freddie taught it there. Also, Garrett has kind of bounced around a little bit and been in a bunch of different offenses. Just different things, different pointers and they are able to see things that me in Year 2 that it is a new thing for me. It is very beneficial to be able to actually just listen to them and not take it as criticism but just seeing that I do not have the experience that they have.”
In 12 NFL seasons, Stanton has completed 345 of his 659 attempts (52.4 percent) for 4,059 yards and 20 touchdowns against 24 interceptions.
Now in his third season out of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette after being selected by the Jets in the sixth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, McGuire has rushed for 591 yards and four touchdowns on 180 carries and caught 36 passes for 370 yards and two scores.