On Sunday the league came down with suspensions on a number of players across the league for the use of Performance Enhancing Abilities. Denzel Ward was among those that received an 8 game suspension. When asked about the suspension Coach Dale of the Browns didn’t mince words stating “you know if Denz wants to play stupid games, he is gonna win stupid prizes. In all fairness, this is something I should’ve monitored better up until this point but with a player like Denz you can’t help but put your trust in him that he’ll do the right thing and play the right way, unfortunately this backfired on me and will be something I learn from as a coach.” Coach Dale went on to say “on the bright side, if we could afford to lose a guy, it was in the secondary just due to the depth we have at the backend. I fully expect our guys to step up and be ready to play in the absence of Denz.”
The suspension comes at a horrible time for Cleveland as they are currently on a 6 game win streak. Myles Garrett had this to say on the timing of the suspension. “Just when we were starting to gel and get a rhythm going, something like this happens. I love Denz to death but he’s got to put the team first. Hopefully he learns from this and comes back better. I know I did after my helmet fiasco with Mason Rudolph a few years back.” When Garrett was asked if Cleveland can still make a playoff push without their star corner he only had this to say, “Dale yeah”