Denzel Ward has spent the last three games, plus one quarter, away from the field. That will change when the Browns Pro Bowl cornerback returns in Sunday's game at the Miami Dolphins. Ward has been out since sustaining a concussion at just under the 14-minute mark of the Browns' Oct. 9 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. It happened while he was trying to tackle Austin Ekeler at the end of a 17-yard run. The concussion led to Ward miss the next three games, losses to New England and Baltimore and a win over Cincinnati. The bye week, though, allowed him to continue his recovery while not missing out on any on-field time.

The concussion wasn't due to a violent head-on collision. As Ward was bringing Ekeler down, he rolled under the Chargers back, leading to his head bouncing off the ground. It was almost immediately obvious that Ward had sustained a concussion. He stumbled as he got off the ground, and medical personnel on the sideline took away his helmet almost as soon as he got to the bench. Ward wasn't surprised by the diagnosis. It was the third time in his NFL career he has been diagnosed with a concussion. That fact may be a cause for concern for some. Ward isn't one of those people. "I mean, it's not affecting me right now, so I'm good," Ward said. "My focuses on football, but I mean, I do wanna take care of my health then make sure I'm good and try to do the things I can to prevent it from happening again and just to keep my health up. So I think I'm good, though.”

None of the Browns' coaches have officially said Ward will play against the Dolphins. All coach Kevin Stefanski would say when asked about Ward on Wednesday was that he wasn't sure he was "fully cleared yet," but that he was "hitting all the benchmarks right now." Those benchmarks are part of the NFL's concussion protocol, which players must pass through before they can be cleared to play. The interest twist to Ward returning against the Dolphins is that the league adjusted the protocol after the uproar which came out when Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion on Sept. 29 at Cincinnati just days after leaving and then returning to a game against Buffalo with what appeared to be concussion-like symptoms.

The protocol existed when Ward was a rookie in 2018. However, he acknowledges that it's changed from that time. “Yeah, in a good way," Ward said. "I definitely think it's a little harder than when I was a rookie and I had got a concussion. So I mean that's a good thing, though, taking care of guys and making sure they're ready to play once they get back.” If the Browns could pick exactly one team to get Ward back against, it may very well be the Dolphins. Miami is ranked second in the league in passing offense, with 293.6 yards per game, Tagovailoa is leading the league in passer rating at 115.9 and average gain per pass at 9.17. Of course, what's helped the third-year quarterback is the presence of two of the top five receivers in the league, Tyreek Hill (first in the league with 1,104 receiving yards and 76 catches) and Jaylen Waddle (fifth in the league with 812 yards on 47 catches).

Ward doesn't have any experience playing against Tagovailoa or Waddle, both of whom were still at the University of Alabama in 2019, the last time the Browns played Miami. He had two solo and one assisted tackle, plus a tackle for loss and a pass defensed in that 41-24 win in Cleveland. Who Ward is very familiar with is Hill, who was acquired by the Dolphins this offseason in a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs. Hill's played against the Browns twice − in the 2020 AFC Divisional Round and the 2021 regular-season opener − and has had a combined 15 catches for 266 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown catch in last year's opener.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices