Wait, Hillis suddenly 100% & playing vs Cinci?

[OconRecon]

Cleveland Browns' Peyton Hillis returns to practice, hopes to play Sunday against Bengals | cleveland.com

He's crediting platelet rich plasma injection, which can give excellent results.

But yet, I'm excited AND bewildered by the weirdness of his year.

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Cleveland Browns' Peyton Hillis returns to practice, hopes to play Sunday against Bengals

Browns running back Peyton Hillis had a stunning turnaround this week in his recovery from a pulled hamstring and expects to play Sunday in Cincinnati.
"I'm looking very positive for this game and hopefully everything will work out and I'm praying that it will," Hillis said. "We don't want to push it too fast but we're all shooting for this Sunday. I'm excited I feel 100 percent again."

Joshua Gunter, The Plain DealerBrowns running back Peyton Hillis had an unexpected turnaround this week in his recovery from a hamstring injury and may be off the sidelines and on the field Sunday in Cincinnati.


Browns coach Pat Shurmur had on Monday ruled Hillis out of the game, thinking he was at least a week away. But after Hillis' unexpected improvement, he upgraded Hillis on Friday to a game-time decision. On Thursday, the Browns put Hillis through a rigorous workout after practice and he came through it well. He followed that with a strong performance in team drills Friday -- one in which he ran full speed -- and Shurmur is now optimistic, too. Hillis is officially listed as questionable.

"Nothing surprises me," Shurmur said. "He's made huge progress this week. Again, because he hasn't played ball in a long time, I think it's still important that I'm cautious with his return."

Hillis attributed his speedier rehab to a platelet-rich plasma injection he received in the hamstring 21/2 weeks ago. It's a therapy that uses high levels of platelets -- in this case from his own blood -- containing growth factors to accelerate the healing process.

"It's supposed to make you heal a lot faster than what it was and that's obviously what it did," Hillis said. "I'm steadily improving day by day."

If Hillis plays, the Browns suddenly have a cornucopia of running backs. Montario Hardesty, who is also listed as questionable with a calf injury, is "ready to roll" in Cincinnati, Shurmur said.

Shurmur was uncertain Friday who would start -- when Hillis was ruled out, Hardesty was slated to start ahead of Chris Ogbonnaya, who ran for 115 yards against the Jaguars last Sunday.

Shurmur did make it clear that Hillis is still his No. 1 back when he's ready for full duty.

"If our backs are healthy, then Hillis is the starter, backed up by Montario, backed up by Obie," Shurmur said. "That's ideal. They'll be up and they'll all be in there playing and I think they're going to have to find a way to get in their rhythm with the plays that they have."

Hillis, who missed five games with the hamstring injury and one with strep throat, now has a chance to put his star-crossed season behind him and try be the back he was last season, when he rushed for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Hillis said the events of this season haven't been as much of a nightmare for him as it might seem. The laundry list includes taking the advice of his agent not to play with strep throat and teammates wondering if it was contract-related; throwing long passes pregame in San Francisco while inactive; skipping a Boys and Girls Club appearance on Halloween; getting married midweek in Arkansas instead of receiving treatment to play; and an "intervention" by teammates trying to help him get his head back on straight.

"[The portrayal has been] way too dramatic," he said. "Things happen. I guess when more people are looking at you, everything seems more severe. I've got to be responsible and understand that as well. As far as this year goes, I just look at it like bumps in the road you have to overcome. I've just got to find a way to overcome all of this and be the player I used to be."

He said he hasn't changed, despite some teammates saying he's a different guy this year.

"No, I believe that as far as me as a person, I'm still the same guy," he said. "You get a few bumps in the road and you have to rebound from that and do your best on and off the field. Hopefully you can go out when you can and play ball and I don't care who you are, when you go out and you do well, it's going to make you feel better as a person and on this team."

He described his meeting with the players' captains group "a bunch of hearsay. People are going to believe or think or hear whatever, but me and the guys are fine. We never thought twice. They just wanted me to get healthy and if I can, help us win. It was very professional. There was no bad blood."

Hillis said sitting out the past five games has been difficult.

"It's awful, I mean just to the point of getting treatment and knowing you can't play, standing on the sideline seeing how you lose close games and wondering you could've been out there and you could've helped and stuff like that, so I've been working my best to get out there and I'm excited about the opportunity."

Hillis said he tried to come back too early, when on Nov. 4, two days before the Houston game, he came up limping after a run in practice.

"Maybe I pushed it too much," he said. "But you know, that's it, just me being a player and wanting to get out there and play and things just happen."

He said the time off has made him hungrier.

"I miss playing football," he said. "It's what I was brought up my whole life to do. I'm excited to get out there playing a game. I'm excited about winning games. I'm excited to see how I can play during this time. I'm excited to make adjustments and improvements for myself and the team."

[DieselPusher]

Looks like Obi and his 115 yards is a great healing factor for Hardesty and Hillis.

[mario]

Hand him his walking papers. We have all seen the kind of character he is.

[next2nothing]

I want him back on the team next year but it is a little funny how Obi-Wan has a couple good games in a row and then Hillis is ready to go lol.

[pl4tinum]

Originally Posted by DieselPusher

Looks like Obi and his 115 yards is a great healing factor for Hardesty and Hillis.

Indeed. Sounds like those guys both took a sh-t in their pants when they saw him do that against the Jags run D.

[Vegasdogg]

Originally Posted by mario

Hand him his walking papers. We have all seen the kind of character he is.

Sure because all 24 year old's should be judged by the decisions they make at this age. Oh and by the way, when you're talented enough to have an agent make million dollar deals, come back to the board and tell us what you've learned. The kid made a mistake. Not a big one mind you, but the injury just compounded it. Peyton Hillis will suck it up, learn from the bumpy road, and become a better man and NFL player.

He is an asset. He is young. He is looking for a long term lockup contract and a guy like him doesn't really warrant 5 years. That is most likely what he wanted. He got hurt, like most big white guys not named Mike Alstott have been known to suffer, so he needs to back off the demands and have a great 5-6 games.

Walking papers? Character? Like you have that department cornered.

[Vegasdogg]

Originally Posted by next2nothing

I want him back on the team next year but it is a little funny how Obi-Wan has a couple good games in a row and then Hillis is ready to go lol.

Hammy's are hard to judge. I would NEVER consider a guy like Hillis to be more concerned about a contract than his team winning. If he could play he'd be out there earning more $$ for his next contract. Sitting on the bench for his second team does nothing for his negotiating power. I don't get fans who say he was milking an injury. For what? To show teams that may like him that he is injury prone? This raises his bargaining power?

[next2nothing]

Originally Posted by Vegasdogg

Hammy's are hard to judge. I would NEVER consider a guy like Hillis to be more concerned about a contract than his team winning. If he could play he'd be out there earning more $$ for his next contract. Sitting on the bench for his second team does nothing for his negotiating power. I don't get fans who say he was milking an injury. For what? To show teams that may like him that he is injury prone? This raises his bargaining power?

I never said he was milking the injury. I know hammies are hard to judge. Look at Andre Johnson, he was supposed to be out a couple weeks at first and still hasn't gotten 100%. I want Hillis back here big time but you do have to admit that when all this stuff started coming out it didn't exactly help him out. So it did paint a bad picture of him to the fans.

I was just mentioning it was funny. I think he does care about the team and I do think he wants to be out there earning his contract because you're right, sitting on the sidelines does nothing to help him. I loved the guy when he came here and took over the RB spot and want to see him play next year in a Browns uniform because we really don't need to have another hole to fill.

[jnuh]

I think most of the Hillis stuff has been overblown by the media. Not saying he is an angel in the situation, because I am sure there is truth to some of it, but for the most part I don't think it is as bad as it is potrayed.

I would love to see Hillis come back this Sunday, and to finish out the season strong. I would also have no problem bringing him back at a reasonable price. (eventhough we probably will not)

I know a great deal of people think he is overrated, and he probably was after last season. I still love 2 things about him though ... he is obviously a big back that can break down and tire a defense when we are trying to burn clock, and he is also versatile enough to be in on third downs because of how well he catches out of the backfield.

Like Vegas said too ... 24 year olds make mistakes. I know I did. It is hypocritical not to give him a pass on some of the stuff that happened. Last season went to his head ... and its probably because he never reached any sort of fame being a third stringer through college and on the Broncos. And like I said a lot of it could have been overblown by the media.

Lets just take baby steps and see how finishes out the season. He is still a Brown and I will certainly be pulling for him.

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by next2nothing

I want him back on the team next year but it is a little funny how Obi-Wan has a couple good games in a row and then Hillis is ready to go lol.

I don't know that it's funny, it's moreso pathetic that some are actually going around inferring he's been chilling at home without any injury and only jumped up to return because some scrub had one good game against a middle of the pack rush defense. Funny how the media has slanted public opinion against him, people are eating it up and he can't even go take a piss without there being some sort of ulterior motive in peoples minds.

Like I said, if the dude was sporting gold teethwith dredlocks and a 2 year olds grasp of the English language, like another RB in the NFL it would be a non issue with the media and non issue with the fans. The same dolts screaming "get rid of him!" would be screaming to what's the term? Ahh yeah, "pay da man!"

[Riffer X]

Ironically, Hillis hurt his hammy worse trying to rush back too soon in practice.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by jnuh

I think most of the Hillis stuff has been overblown by the media. Not saying he is an angel in the situation, because I am sure there is truth to some of it, but for the most part I don't think it is as bad as it is potrayed.

I would love to see Hillis come back this Sunday, and to finish out the season strong. I would also have no problem bringing him back at a reasonable price. (eventhough we probably will not)

I know a great deal of people think he is overrated, and he probably was after last season. I still love 2 things about him though ... he is obviously a big back that can break down and tire a defense when we are trying to burn clock, and he is also versatile enough to be in on third downs because of how well he catches out of the backfield.

Like Vegas said too ... 24 year olds make mistakes. I know I did. It is hypocritical not to give him a pass on some of the stuff that happened. Last season went to his head ... and its probably because he never reached any sort of fame being a third stringer through college and on the Broncos. And like I said a lot of it could have been overblown by the media.

Lets just take baby steps and see how finishes out the season. He is still a Brown and I will certainly be pulling for him.

Good post. Right about where I am at. I'm still a Hillis fan, I'm not thrilled with how he's handled some of this adversity, but he's 24. I'm also a realist and understand why bringing him back at too high a cost is not what is best for the Browns who I am a fan of first. Hopefully thing work out by the end of the season to make everyone happy, the Browns, the Fans and Hillis.