Ahead of the 2024 NFL season, there was reason to believe that a Week 12 Thursday night football match between Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns would play a big role in determining the AFC North standings or at least AFC playoff positioning. As it turns out, the stakes in this game are pretty low.

The Steelers won a crucial win in Week 11 over the Baltimore Ravens to improve to 8-2 on the season. They are now 1.5 games ahead of Baltimore for first place in the AFC North and are just 1.0 games behind the Kansas City Chiefs for the #1 seed in the AFC. It it didn’t always look prettybut the Steelers have one of the best records in football.

On the other hand, this season has been a disaster for the Browns. They fell to 2-8 on the season after a Week 11 loss to the New Orleans Saints and are close to out of postseason competition. They have an opportunity to play spoiler at home against a prime-time division rival, but even with a win, it’s hard to get too excited about where the Browns are as a franchise right now.

As these two teams head in opposite directions, there is still one game left to play. This game is extremely important to at least one of the teams, and this divisional rivalry always has bragging rights on the line. With that in mind, the injury report can play a role in deciding the outcome of the game. Here’s the latest on that front.

As you can see, most of the Steelers on the injury report are there because of rest. Being a short week, it’s certainly understandable. Those who are resting should be in Thursday night’s game.

While the Steelers look mostly good on their injury report, a few defensive players have been sidelined. Alex Highsmith is the most important defensive player to be ruled out for this game as he looks set to miss his second game in a row with an ankle injury. Highsmith is an extremely impactful linebacker when healthy, but as we saw in Week 11, the Steelers have enough talent without him to make life difficult for the opposition.

Joining Highsmith on the sideline is cornerback Cory Trice Jr. who, while able to train fully this week, has not been cleared to return. The 24-year-old has been sidelined since Week 3 with a hamstring injury. Hopefully, since he was able to participate fully in training, he will be back for their next game.

The Browns’ injury report features multiple players, all dealing with injury. Most of them were able to fully participate in Cleveland’s last practice, making it more likely that they will be able to suit up on Thursday, but there are a few exceptions to that.

The biggest name on this list is Myles Garrett, arguably the best defensive player in all of football. Garrett hasn’t missed a game this season, so losing him would hurt a Browns defense that has underperformed this season. Garrett being listed as a limited participant in Cleveland’s most recent practice isn’t great, but given his track record of durability, there’s reason to believe he’ll be able to adjust even if he’s not 100 percent.

Two players were sent off for this game. Geoff Swaim has only been targeted once this season, so his absence isn’t revolutionary by any means, but Jedrick Wills is Cleveland’s starting left tackle. He will miss his fifth game of the season with a knee injury.