The Pittsburgh Steelers–Cleveland Browns game is on Thursday and when you have a Thursday game, it limits the amount of recovery time for someone if they pick up an injury the week before. That’s what happened to the Browns as they already ruled out defensive end Jadeveon Clowney for Thursday’s game.
Clowney injured his ankle in the third quarter of last Sunday’s game against the New York Jets. Initially ruled questionable, Clowney didn’t return to the game as the Jets came back to win 31-30. The 29-year-old defensive end is in his second season with the Browns and has 1.5 sacks in the first two games. His sack against Joe Flacco resulted in a fumble that Clowney recovered.
Other top players, like Steelers free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, are also injured but they are expected to play.
While it bites that a Thursday night game means that players only have four days to recover, it also means that they will have ten days to recover for the next game. Maybe that means Clowney can come back against the Atlanta Falcons but we know he’ll be out against one of their AFC North rivals.