On Saturday August 17th at 4:25 pm EST the Cleveland Browns will host the Minnesota Vikings at Cleveland Browns Stadium for their second preseason game of 2024. Both teams will have two joint practices earlier in the week leading up to the game. Head Coach Kevin Stefanski already said that quarterback Deshaun Watson will not play in this game. And I would expect other key Cleveland Browns starters to not play either. We probably won’t see Myles Garrett or Amari Cooper play. The work and preparation for the 2024 season will be done in the joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday of that week. The potential of seeing rookie Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy Saturday is now gone. McCarthy will undergo knee surgery and will miss the 2024 season. Also, due to legal troubles, I wouldn’t expect to see Browns rookie DT Michael Hall jr. So, what can Cleveland Browns fans look for on Saturday versus the Vikings?

Cleveland Browns fans can hope to see clean football and execution of plays. They don’t want to see stupid undisciplined penalties. Nor do they want to see procedural penalties like delay of game, illegal formation, too many players of the field, lining up in the neutral zone, or offsides. And most importantly fans do not want to see injuries.

As the Cleveland Browns 2024 training camp continues injuries to players have been mounting. One of the keys to the Cleveland Browns success is staying healthy. And losing any key player in a preseason game could be devastating. I believe that almost all Cleveland Browns starters will be rested on Saturday.

Most important to Cleveland Browns fans they want the team to play much better than they did against the Packers. I understand it will be backup players on the field for both teams. But we as Browns fans want to see effort from all players. Anything less than that would be unacceptable.