Browns Place Joe Thomas On Injured Reserve; Left Tackle Unsure Of NFL Future

The Cleveland Browns will be without their All-Pro Left Tackle Joe Thomas for the rest of the season, as the Left Tackle will undergo surgery on his torn tricep. The injury took place midway through the third quarter and forced Thomas to miss his first snap of his eleven-year NFL career. Today, the Browns placed Thomas on injured reserve after the news of surgery came to fruition.

Talking with the media today, Thomas was asked about his NFL future following his return from the injury. Thomas left his decision up in the air currently, saying he will revisit the decision come off-season time.

“My plan is to rehab. You are asking, am I done playing? I don’t know. I think that is a decision that is best to be talked about in the offseason. Right now is obviously too soon after the injury and before the surgery. You have no idea how the rehab or the surgery is going to go. For me, talking about the last few years of my career, that decision about do I continue to play or do I retire is something that I have always left up the offseason because it does take some time to get away from football and have reflection and discussions with family and just figure out what the next step would be of my career and if it is the right time to continue or if it is time to hang it up. Right now, it is too early to make any decisions obviously. You go through a range of emotions after an injury like that. Like I said, it is the most fair to myself and my teammates to just wait until after the season to really kind of sit down with my family and kind of discuss what the future looks like.”

Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson talked about the loss of Thomas and if this can be considered a rough time for the Browns.

“Oh, I think it will, but we have to get over it quick because nobody else cares about that. I just think in our locker room you are used to having him in there, seeing him in there and knowing he is going to play. He has been iron man. You walk out there, Joe Thomas is on the field ready to go. I think our players, we need to get past that as fast as we can. We don’t have that safety net anymore. He is not going to be here playing this season, the rest of this season. As fast as we can, we have to turn that corner.”