Steelers Rule Out Joey Porter Jr. for Thursday Night Rock Fight Against Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will miss Thursday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns due to a back injury, shaking up the AFC North matchup.
HotTakes Editorial TeamUpdated 1 min read
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are heading into a short-week divisional rock fight without their top corner. Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that Joey Porter Jr. is officially out for Thursday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns due to a back issue.
Losing your CB1 on a normal week is bad. Losing him on a Thursday night against an AFC North rival is the kind of thing that makes defensive coordinators stare blankly at their play sheets.
"Adam Schefter reported that Porter is ruled out due to his back issue."
Pittsburgh is coming off a tight 30-27 win over the Bengals on Sunday. Turning around four days later with a compromised secondary is a brutal assignment, especially when the Browns just scraped together a 21-18 win over the Panthers and are looking to build momentum at home.
Porter usually draws the toughest assignments on the outside. Without him, the Steelers have to shuffle their coverage packages, which completely changes the math for anyone looking at Cleveland's passing props or the overall game total.
Back injuries are notoriously tricky, so the real question is whether this is just a short-week precaution or something that lingers into October. For now, Pittsburgh has to figure out how to survive a prime-time road game with a glaring hole on the perimeter.
Key stats
Key statsPittsburgh is coming off a 30-27 win over the Bengals.
Cleveland is coming off a 21-18 win over the Panthers.
What's next
The Steelers will need to adjust their secondary for Thursday night, while monitoring Porter's back injury to see if it lingers into the rest of October.
