Browns put WR David Bell on PUP list

Rookie wide receiver is dealing with a foot injury as Cleveland’s rookies report to Berea for training camp.

The Cleveland Browns welcomed their rookies and quarterbacks to Berea on Friday for the start of training camp, but one player will have to wait a little longer before he can get on the field.

The Browns placed wide receiver David Bell on the active/physically unable to perform (PUP) list on Friday as Bell is dealing with a foot injury.

It is a bit of a disappointment, but the injury is not believed to be serious, according to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, and Bell should be good to go in a couple of weeks.

That is good news as the Browns are expecting Bell to fill the slot receiver role previously held, for the most part, by veteran wide receiver Jarvis Landry, who signed with the New Orleans Saints in the offseason as a free agent.

Bell was a full participant in Organized Team Activities and the mandatory minicamp, so hopefully missing a few weeks of training camp will not set him back too much.

The Browns selected Bell in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Purdue and expect him to contribute as a rookie, as wide receivers coach/pass game coordinator Chad O’Shea. said in May (quote via clevelandbrowns.com):

“He’s an exceptional route-runner that has the ability to separate versus tight coverage and we believe that at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to your ability to separate versus man coverage in this league on the money downs — on third down and in your situational football in the red zone. We identified him as being able to do that, and he did it at a level we thought was really impressive.”

Bell was a First-Team All-American in 2021 as he caught 93 passes for 1,286 yards and six touchdowns. He also earned First-Team honors in 2020 and finished his collegiate career with 21 total touchdowns.

While on the PUP list, Bell will count toward the 90-player roster limit. He will be eligible to be activated once he passes his physical.