'We're damn close': Jarvis Landry's return may not be imminent, but he's bullish on Browns

MENTOR — It was cast aside after a week and a half, but Jarvis Landry is still angry about the knee brace.

The Monday after he sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee in a Sept. 19 victory over the Houston Texans, the Browns five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver took to Twitter to express his dismay.

“Every Time I put this brace on somebody gon have to pay for it in the near future,” he tweeted. The message was followed by three purple devils and the hashtag #Offline.

“Fortunately, I’m out of the brace, but [there] was a period where I had to put it on to walk, I had to put it on to go up and down the stairs,” Landry said Tuesday. “Then on game day, I took it off because I was trying to be the little solider on the field so nobody saw me with it on. It’s frustrating.

“That’s a real tweet, though. When I come back, somebody got to see me.”

That important date remains uncertain.

Landry has spent the required three games on injured reserve, but still isn’t sure when he will be cleared. He was not  designated to return from IR on Wednesday, instead running on the side during practice. That would seemingly make his chances slim of playing as the Browns (3-2) host the Arizona Cardinals (5-0) Sunday.

Attending the Girls High School Flag Football Jamboree hosted by the Browns Tuesday night at Mentor High School’s Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium, Landry said he is “day to day.”

Landry said he wasn’t allowed to travel to Los Angeles for Sunday’s 47-42 loss to the Chargers at SoFi Stadium because of his rehab schedule and the possibility the knee would swell during the long flight.

“We’ve got three home games this next little turn, so it will be a perfect time somewhere in there if I can get back,” he said. “At the end of the day, the team and myself and my camp, we’re smart about the decisions about coming back or not and when that will be.”

Facing the Cardinals, the league's only undefeated team, would be the best-case scenario for Landry, but he didn’t go all-in on that suggestion.

“I think it can be,” Landry said. “I’ve been missing the game. I want to be playing. I’ve been active in the meetings, continue to be a leader.

“But there’s still something about Sunday, game day that I’ve always looked forward to. And that’s the part of it all that I miss. I still put all the work in in a sense, but I don’t get that reward, which is the game day. Hopefully, that comes sooner than later.”

Landry's ultimate moment of leadership:'It's contagious': Jarvis Landry's 97-second speech helped launch Browns' culture change

In his eighth season, Landry, 28, had never missed a game until 2020, when being a high-risk close contact of linebacker B.J. Goodson landed Landry on the reserve/COVID-19 list for a Dec. 27 road loss to the New York Jets. Pride in that dependability has made this layoff a challenge.

“It’s been extremely tough. But I’ve been so focused in my rehab and making sure I can get back as quickly as possible that the weekdays kind of fly by,” he said. “Sundays have definitely been the hardest day. But it’s always good when you’re winning and this past week we didn’t do that, so it was a little bit tougher. But the other two weeks, we pulled it out. It was fun to watch, but it was definitely hard.”

Some fans have speculated that had Landry played against the Chargers, the Browns would not have blown a 27-13 third-quarter lead.

“I hear it, but I think we’re trying to get all the pieces back together healthy on the field at the same time and then we’ll see,” Landry said. “I think for the most part the guys have been doing everything possible to win games. They’ve been playing hard, they’ve been playing together. Went on the road to Minnesota and did whatever it took [in a 14-7 victory]. This past week they just fell short.

"At the end of the day, I think we have what we need. If we can definitely be all together in on it, it definitely can make a difference.”

Landry is anxious to see what a complete Browns team can achieve. When the season began, they were without his close friend and former Louisiana State teammate Odell Beckham Jr., still rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last Oct. 25. Beckham returned on Sept. 26 against the Chicago Bears, the first game Landry missed while on IR.

“That’s something I was excited for. In the beginning, we didn’t know when Odell would actually be back," Landry said. "Now the wait is on me.”

Receivers have a special connection:Nate Burleson envisions OBJ boosting Browns with Jarvis Landry sidelined: 'It is something out of a movie'

Beckham caught only two passes for 20 yards against the Chargers and dropped his only other target, an easy reception over the middle on fourth-and-2 from the LA 17 in the second quarter. At Minnesota, he pulled in two passes for 27 yards on seven targets. That has revived talk about Beckham’s lack of chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield.

“Both of these guys work hard. Both of these guys are professionals. They’re going to find a way,” Landry said. “That’s important to them and important to our team that the success comes from both those guys. We need both of those guys on the field healthy doing what they do to be able to win games.

“The bottom line it’s not so much about figuring it out. As it comes together, it’s going to be special when we get all the pieces together.”

After the Browns suffered a 33-29 loss at Kansas City in the season opener, Landry said falling short against two of the best teams in the AFC has not dampened his optimism.

“I feel like the first game ... we really win that game,” he said, perhaps thinking of Jamie Gillan's dropped punt. “This past one, we get a fourth down, Hail Mary, just throw the ball up."

He tried to do quick math on the two defeats, which came by a total of nine points, before arriving at a simply stated conclusion.

"We’re damn close," he said.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/browns. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.