The Cleveland Browns spent Tuesday looking backward for a possible answer to a problem that has not gone away.

Free-agent receiver and return man James Proche worked out for the team, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported, a visit that arrives while the club is still sorting through the status of Tylan Wallace.

Wallace, a regular on special teams and a depth option at wide receiver, hurt his knee late in Cleveland’s Week 3 win over the Carolina Panthers.

He was ruled out of the Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and has not practiced since the injury.

The Browns have been away from the facility in the days that followed, and the team has not issued a fresh update on how long Wallace might be sidelined.

Bringing in a return specialist with prior experience in the building is the clearest public signal so far that the absence could stretch beyond a single week.

Proche is not a stranger to Berea. He spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons with the Browns after beginning his career in Baltimore, where the Ravens drafted him in the sixth round in 2020.

Across three seasons with the Ravens, he caught 25 passes for 278 yards and handled 27 punt returns, work that established him as a specialist more than a featured receiver.

Cleveland used him almost entirely in that role. Over two seasons he returned 41 punts at an average of 9.0 yards, solid if unspectacular production that kept the ball out of trouble more often than it flipped field position.

He spent last season with the Tennessee Titans and entered this week without a team.

The timing fits a thin return chart. Rookie KC Concepcion has been handling punts for Cleveland and has brought back four of them for 21 yards.

That sample is small, and the Browns still have other young skill players who can take a kick, but Wallace’s absence removes a veteran who had already been trusted with the job.

A reunion with Proche would give the staff a known option heading into Sunday’s game against the New York Jets, whether as short-term insurance or as a longer stay if Wallace’s knee keeps him out.

Nothing about Tuesday’s workout guarantees a contract. Teams audition free agents every week, and a familiar name does not always beat the players already on the roster.

What the visit does show is that Cleveland is treating the return game as an open question rather than waiting on an injury report that has yet to arrive.