Dylan Sampson — Week 1: Two Kickoff Returns, Then a Brace, Then Out
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Sampson returned Jacksonville's first two kickoffs Sunday, thirty-seven and twenty-seven yards, and had no carries or targets. He went to the locker room with trainers in the first quarter, came back out in a brace to test the injury and was ruled out for the rest of the game, per George M. Thomas at the Akron Beacon Journal. Quinshon Judkins carried twelve times in a 34–10 loss to the Jaguars.
When Dylan Sampson's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
Dylan Sampson's Sunday is two kickoff returns and nothing else. The first was the opening kick, 62 yards to the Cleveland three, brought out to the 40 for 37 yards. The second came after Jacksonville's first touchdown, with eight 11 left in the first quarter: a kick to the goal line, returned 27 yards to the 27, with a holding penalty on Cleveland that moved the ball back to the 17. The next kickoff was a touchback; after that, Malachi Corley returned one and Raheim Sanders returned three. Sampson had no carries and no targets, and the play-by-play carries no injury note on him.
The reporting, from George M. Thomas at the Akron Beacon Journal: Sampson went to the locker room with trainers in the first quarter, later came back to the field in a brace to test it, and was ruled out for the remainder of the game. That report names no injury and carries no timeline, and this show will not add one.
What the Browns' backfield did without him is the football in this episode. Cleveland ran 22 times for 87 yards: 12 carries to Quinshon Judkins for 33, six to Deshaun Watson for 38, three to KC Concepcion for 15, one to Sanders for one. Judkins's longest run was five yards. Sanders, the other back who touched the ball, also caught all three of his targets for 25 yards, including two in the last minute and a half of the first half. Nothing a Cleveland running back did Sunday reached the end zone, and the Browns' seven red-zone plays produced no touchdown.
Back in June the preview's read on Sampson was peripheral opportunity rather than a locked-in role — 15 games last season without a job of his own. Sunday's opportunity was two kickoffs, and then it was an injury. The question of what his role would have been on a day Cleveland threw 22 times and ran 22 is unanswered, because he was not there for it. Cleveland is at the Buccaneers on Sunday the twentieth, and whether he is on the field for it is a question for the reporting, not for this show.
_Data via nflverse._
When Dylan Sampson's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going