Browns place three on injured list

Offensive tackle Chris Hubbard, fullback Andy Janovich and safety M.J. Stewart all land on injured reserve.

The Cleveland Browns placed three players on the injured reserve list on Tuesday as part of a flurry of transactions.

The club played offensive tackle Chris Hubbard, fullback Andy Janovich (hamstring) and safety M.J. Stewart (hamstring) on the list. Janovich and Stewart will have to miss a minimum of three games, while Hubbard will be out for the year as he is having season-ending surgery on his injured triceps.

Hubbard went down with his injury in Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, and while there was some initial hope that he could return, the news came out last week about his impending need for surgery.

Janovich has played in all five games so far this season, making two starts, and had a rushing touchdown in the Week 2 win against the Houston Texans. Stewart has played in all five games as well, mostly on special teams, but did play 60 snaps on defense against the Chiefs. He has seven tackles on the season.

With that taken care of, the Browns signed defensive end Joe Jackson and fullback Johnny Stanton IV to the active roster from the practice squad, signed offensive tackle Alex Taylor to the practice squad and activated cornerback Tim Harris from the practice squad’s COVID-19 list.

The Browns released Jackson last week only to quickly re-sign him to the practice squad and then elevate him to the gameday roster on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. He played 34 snaps on defense against the Chargers, finishing with two tackles.

Stanton, who is 6-foot-2 and 240 pounds, joined the Minnesota Vikings in 2018 as an undrafted free agent out of UNLV. He landed in injured reserve that first season, and then spent part of the 2019 season on Minnesota’s practice squad before signing with the Browns in 2020. He played in one game with Cleveland last season while spending the rest of the campaign on the practice squad.

The Browns signed Taylor in 2020 as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina State and added him to the practice squad on October 26 of last season. He appeared in one game during the regular season. He did not make the final roster this season, and spent four weeks on the practice squad with the Chicago Bears.