Joe Thomas out for season; LT unsure of NFL future
— -- Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas will miss the rest of the season after an MRI discovered a torn triceps in his left arm, the team announced Monday.
Thomas tweeted Monday that the injury was a torn triceps tendon. On a conference call, he said he will probably have surgery Tuesday and that a full recovery may take six to nine months.
He was less definitive on the future of his NFL career.
"Am I done playing? I don't know," Thomas said. "I think that's a decision that's best talked about in the offseason."
Thomas, 32, noted that he still has one year remaining on his contract.
He had not missed a snap for the Browns since he was taken third overall in the 2007 draft, a streak of 10,363 consecutive plays that the team said is unprecedented in NFL history. He is also one of five players in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in each of their first 10 seasons in the league, joining Mel Renfro, Merlin Olsen, Barry Sanders and Lawrence Taylor.
He injured the arm making what he called a routine block on a short run in the third quarter of Sunday's 12-9 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
"I've done it a million times where you're just blocking a guy and you go try to finish him and you get one last shove, one last push, and just felt something unnatural in your arm," Thomas said Sunday.
Thomas' coach and teammates commented on the injury Monday, including quarterback? DeShone Kizer calling the situation "heartbreaking."
"He is a guy that keeps us all going and moving forward," coach Hue Jackson said. "So we owe him more than what we've given him thus far, that's for sure."
"I kind of thought for a second that he was unbreakable, and it was like nothing could go wrong with him," said guard Joel Bitonio, who before the injury had lined up next to Thomas every play he has been with the Browns. "To see him go down, you kind of realized he's a mortal among us."
Thomas was able to keep his sense of humor, even with the injury, as his Monday tweet shows:
"It wasn't an infinity streak," Thomas said Sunday. "There was certainly going to be a time where either because of injury or lack of production it was going to end. I think I was enough of a realist to understand that I wasn't going to be able to continue on forever without missing a play. It was just a matter of time, and unfortunately it happened in Week 7."
