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The Cleveland Browns might be banged up heading into their Week 17 match, but so are the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Browns will be without quarterbacks Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy, meaning Thaddeus Lewis will make his first career start. Running back Trent Richardson is also out, so Montario Hardesty will start in his place.
Sheldon Brown's consecutive games streak will end at 175; Buster Skrine is expected to start opposite Joe Haden. The Browns placed safety Usama Young on injured reserve during the week, but rookie Tashaun Gipson will be back this week and is expected to start with Eric Hagg in the secondary.
For the Steelers, OT Mike Adams is out again, and tight end Heath Miller was placed on injured reserve during the week with a torn ACL. This will only be the fifth game that Miller has missed during his 8-year career; his blocking and receiving skills are so valuable to the success that the Steelers offense does have, which makes you wonder if they'll be crippled this Sunday. WR Mike Wallace will also miss the first game of his 4-year career with a hip injury.
Defensively, the Steelers are a bit thin at the cornerback position. Top cornerback Ike Taylor was placed on injured reserve after missing several games due to an ankle injury. The next two guys in like are Curtis Brown and Keenan Lewis. Brown has been ruled out with an ankle injury. Lewis is expected to play, but he did miss two days of practice this week with a knee injury. Cortez Allen will likely start at one of the cornerback positions, but he's hot right now -- he picked off two passes and forced a fumble last week against the Bengals.
The full injury and practice report for Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh is below.
| BROWNS | WED | THU | FRI | STATUS |
| QB Brandon Weeden (right shoulder) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| QB Colt McCoy (right shoulder) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| RB Trent Richardson (ankle) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| TE Jordan Cameron (head) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| CB Sheldon Brown (head, foot) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| DT Ishmaa'ily Kitchen (calf) | LP | LP | LP | QUESTIONABLE |
| WR Joshua Cribbs (knee) | LP | LP | FP | PROBABLE |
| TE Alex Smith (illness) | FP | FP | FP | PROBABLE |
| C John Greco (thumb) | FP | FP | FP | PROBABLE |
| OT Joe Thomas (back) | LP | LP | FP | PROBABLE |
| DT John Hughes (back) | FP | FP | FP | PROBABLE |
| DE Juqua Parker (knee) | LP | LP | FP | PROBABLE |
| DE Frostee Rucker (shoulder, hamstring) | LP | LP | LP | PROBABLE |
| S Tashaun Gipson (foot) | LP | FP | FP | PROBABLE |
| STEELERS | WED | THU | FRI | STATUS |
| WR Mike Wallace (hip) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| OT Mike Adams (ankle) | LP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| CB Curtis Brown (ankle) | DNP | DNP | DNP | OUT |
| LB Marshall McFadden (abdomen) | -- | LP | DNP | OUT |
| G David DeCastro (hamstring) | FP | FP | FP | PROBABLE |
| CB Keenan Lewis (knee) | DNP | DNP | FP | PROBABLE |
| S Troy Polamalu (not injury related) | DNP | DNP | FP | PROBABLE |
DNP - Did Not Participate
LP - Limited Participation
FP - Full Participation