NFL Trade Rumors: Why Peyton Hillis' Hamstring Kept Him with the Browns

Peyton Hillis is still a member of the Cleveland Browns because of a hamstring injury he suffered on Sunday in the Browns loss to the Oakland Raiders.

I don’t have a source to confirm this statement, but after watching the two sides deal with each other this year, it’s clear a healthy Hillis would have been shipped out of town.

With the lack of a new contract extension entering the season, it was going to be trouble from the start. He was a last second scratch from a game earlier this year as he battled strep throat. Many people wondered aloud if his agent told him not to try and gut it out.

Both Hillis and the Browns denied the story, but it wan’ts exactly the prettiest of situations to deal with.

On Sunday, Browns head coach Pat Shurmur told the media Hillis was going to receive the “bulk” of the carries against Oakland.

After six carries for 14 yards, he was sitting on the bench, not looking very fatigued or injured. To compound the problem the Browns never announced the injury until almost two quarters later. It left the CBS TV crew and fans all over wondering if he had been benched. Yet Shurmur is sticking to the story that he injured his hamstring.

At 2-3, things are beginning to unravel for the Browns and getting rid of the main problem would have been the best solution. Yet considering he had an MRI on the hamstring, it’s a risk not worth taking for another team.

Now a disgruntled Hillis is forced to play out the string (let’s face it, the Browns aren’t going anywhere this season), in an attempt to pad his stats as much as humanly possible to score a big contract.

The Browns have to play him because they know he’s the best talent on offense, yet they know he’s walking after the season with all of the controversy this season. They won’t be able to develop the young Montario Hardesty as much as they could have with Hillis out of town and the locker room may even get divided.

Not the happiest of times in Cleveland, right now.

Who knew the Browns best option was to trade the Madden cover boy only six weeks ago?