Browns place C Ethan Pocic on IR

The Cleveland Browns placed center Ethan Pocic on the injured reserve list on Tuesday.

Pocic, who injured his knee on the opening series of Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, will now be out for a minimum of four weeks.

The loss of Pocic is a blow to the offensive line as he entered this last weekend’s game as the No. 2-ranked center by Pro Football Focus.

To take Pocic’s spot on the roster the Browns signed center Greg Mancz, a seven-year veteran who has played in 64 games, making 32 starts, since entering the league in 2015 as an undrafted free agent out of Toledo.

The 6-foot-4 and 310-pound Mancz played for the Houston Texans from 2105 to 2020 and started 16 games for the Texans in 2016. He appeared in five games, making four starts, with the Miami Dolphins in 2021 and appeared in one game this season with the Buffalo Bills before being released on November 17.

Mancz overlapped for three seasons in Houston with quarterback Deshaun Watson, making 12 starts while they were with the Texans. With Watson scheduled to make his season debut on December 4 against Houston, it will be interesting to see if Mancz is in the lineup to give Watson a familiar center to work with in his first regular-season game in almost two years.

Related: The continuing journey of Hjalte Froholdt

In the meantime, Hjalte Froholdt, who took over after Pocic was injured on Sunday and had a rough go of it, is expected to step into the starter’s role for this weekend’s home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In other roster moves on Tuesday, the Browns signed safety Bubba Bolden and offensive tackle Will Holden to the practice squad and subsequently released center Jordan Meredith from the practice squad.

The 6-foot-2 and 200-pound Bolden was originally signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent out of Miami, where he played from 2019 to 2021 after transferring from USC. While with the Hurricanes, Bolden had 127 tackles, two sacks and five forced fumbles, according to clevelandbrowns.com.

The 6-foot-7 and 312-pound Holden has bounced around the league since being a fifth-round selection in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He made nine starts and played in 27 games with the Cardinals, playing left tackle, right tackle, left guard and as an extra lineman. Holden has also spent time with the Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions, along with a stint this season on the practice squad of the New York Giants.