During a conference call with the media on Friday, Cleveland Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski confirmed that right guard Shawn Lauvao was having arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle. Chudzinski also conceded the fact that Lauvao will miss the remainder of the preseason and part of the regular season. Beyond that, he did not provide a timetable as to when he'll be back.
This is a huge setback for Lauvao, who is in a contract year and was looking live the favorite to be the team's starting right guard for the third consecutive year. Now, offensive guard Jason Pinkston will shift over to right guard. Since returning from a blood clot that put him on injured reserve last year, Pinkston has been fighting to reclaim a starting role on the offensive line. Now, it's time to whip him back into shape as quick as possible; that's part of the reason he played half the game against the Rams on Thursday, despite starting.
Pinkston played beyond the other starters for conditioning purposes, Chud said.
— Tom Reed (@treed1919) August 9, 2013
Although the Browns could toy with the idea of putting Pinkston back at left guard, where he started for one and a half years, and moving Greco over to right guard, Chudzinski said that he intends to keep Greco on the left and Pinkston on the right. Rookie offensive guard Garrett Gilkey would seem to be the favorite to be next-in-line should something happen to Greco or Pinkston.