Steelers vs Browns inactives: Week 12 injury report for Thursday Night Football

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

The Steelers earned a crucial Week 11 win over the Baltimore Ravens to improve to 8-2 on the season. They're now 1.5 games ahead of Baltimore for first place in the AFC North, and are only 1.0 game behind the Kansas City Chiefs for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. It hasn't always looked pretty, but the Steelers have one of the best records in football.

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

While these two teams are headed in opposite directions, there is still a game to be played. This game is extremely important for at least one of the teams, and this divisional rivalry always has bragging rights at stake. 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.

Steelers official inactives for Week 11 vs. Browns

As you can see, most of the Steelers on the injury report are there because of rest. With this being a short week, that's certainly understandable. Those who are resting should be participating in the game on Thursday night.

While the Steelers look mostly good on their injury report, a couple of defensive players have been ruled out. Alex Highsmith is the big name defensive player who will be sidelined for this game, as he's set to miss his second straight game 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 sidelines is cornerback Cory Trice Jr. who, despite being able to practice fully this week, was not cleared to return. The 24-year-old has been sidelined since Week 3 due to a hamstring injury. Hopefully, since he was able to participate fully in practice, he'll be back for their next game.

Browns official inactives for Week 11 vs. Steelers

The Browns injury report features several more players, all of whom are dealing with an injury. Most of them were able to participate fully in Cleveland's last practice, making it more likely that they're able to suit up on Thursday, but there are some exceptions to that.

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

Two players have been ruled out for this game. Geoff Swaim has been targeted just once this season so his absence isn't groundbreaking by any means, but Jedrick Wills is Cleveland's starting left tackle. He is set to miss his fifth game of the season due to a knee injury.