Not long ago Brian Hoyer was, according to one headline, living a Hollywood dream as starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Today, reality proves painful.
 Hoyer |
Hoyer is done for the season after a knee injury in Thursday's 37-24 victory over the Buffalo Bills, the team announced Friday. Brandon Weeden is again the Browns' starting QB, and the franchise is forced to address its roster needs.
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Also Friday, the Bills announced QB EJ Manuel would be out several weeks with a bum knee. He was injured in the third quarter.
Reports flew in the wake of Thursday's game that Hoyer had knee ligament damage, with a strain mentioned as best case and a tear as worst case.
Hoyer had an MRI Friday morning. Coach Rob Chudzinski told reporters the results at his day-after news conference.
"I just got word back on the MRI for Brian Hoyer. It is a torn ACL that will require surgery," Chudzinski said, as reported by Cleveland.com. "There is no other damage besides the ACL. Obviously he'll be out for the season."
The QB was seen hobbling in the locker room and left the on crutches, his right knee immobilized in a brace.
"You hate to see that," Weeden said. "I can't really put it into words, it's a tough situation."
Wide receiver Josh Gordon called Hoyer's injury "heartbreaking."
"He's a great guy. I hope he comes back healthy," Gordon told Cleveland.com. "Deflated? No, if anything it fired us up, because we had to bounce back from it. People were expecting great things from this team, and we just couldn't hold our heads down and quit from that point and let everybody down, so we had to come out here and prove something."
Hoyer, the Cleveland kid who was starting for his hometown team, left the game during the Browns' second series.
As Hoyer slid following an 11-yard scramble in the first quarter, both of his legs were awkwardly bent when he was hit from the side by Bills rookie linebacker Kiko Alonso just a few yards in front of Cleveland's sideline, which protested for a penalty to be called. Hoyer was in obvious pain as he was checked by Cleveland's medical personnel. He spent a few minutes on a trainer's table on the sideline before limping to the locker room for tests and treatment.
Having said at halftime his quarterback might have ligament damage, Chudzinski backtracked in postgame comments.
"I don't want to be too premature," he said. "Let's find out what the status is and see what the MRI says. Obviously any time you lose a guy and he has to go out of the game, a guy that has done what he has done, it's disappointing."