Browns S Derrick Kindred on NFI after breaking foot during the bye

On Wednesday, the Cleveland Browns placed rookie safety Derrick Kindred on the non-football injury (NFI) list after he broke his ankle during the bye week.

Head coach Hue Jackson could not elaborate on exactly how Kindred broke it, but he did make it clear that he wasn’t doing something irresponsible:

“I do not think that really matters. Whatever he did, he did not do it right, let me put it to you like that. It is unfortunate. The guy was really starting to play well. It was not anything malicious or anything like that. He did it honestly trying to prepare himself to get back. He did not do anything out of sequence that is going to cause us to feel different about him. He just needs to get back. We do not know how long that is going to be. We will kind of go from there.”

Kindred had recently become part of a more stable starting unit with S Ed Reynolds. Now, Jackson has to decide whether Ibraheim Campbell or Tracy Howard, both of whom struggled to make an impact earlier this year, will get another crack at the job. Interestingly, Jackson threw veteran cornerback Tramon Williams’ name into the mix as a candidate for the role, which is something I wanted to see at the start of the year.

Taking Kindred’s spot on the 53-man roster is DB Trae Elston (5-11, 193 lbs), a rookie out of Mississippi. He signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent and spent some time on the Buccaneers’ practice squad this year. Cleveland also added DB Justin Currie to their practice squad.