Browns put LB Barton on injured reserve

CLEVELAND, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The Cleveland Browns said Tuesday that linebacker Eric Barton has been placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury.

The team leader with 58 tackles, Barton started all eight games this season, recovering one fumble. The team said he was injured in the Browns' game Sunday at Chicago.

ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported Tuesday that Barton had been diagnosed with a serious neck injury after seeing a spine specialist at The Cleveland Clinic. The broadcaster said he had a bulging disc between the C3 and C4 vertebrae -- a condition that threatens his season.

Barton's injury means Cleveland has now placed both of its opening day starting inside linebackers -- Barton and D'Qwell Jackson -- on injured reserve.

The club also said it signed running back Thomas Brown to the practice squad and released wide receiver Darnell Jenkins from the practice squad. Officials said Brown, originally drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the sixth-round (172nd overall) of the 2008 NFL draft, was waived by the Falcons on Sept. 5.