How healthy are Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett?
Maxx Crosby, in a shocking twist for Raiders fans, sat out a handful of plays on Sunday against Carolina.
He was and is still dealing with a high ankle sprain, which is a pretty serious injury that could nag him for the entire season if the team is not careful.
Pierce did mention that Crosby is somewhere near 80% healthy, but is still one of the best edge rushers in the league playing through injury.
The Browns have four offensive tackles and six total offensive linemen on the injury report currently, so they may be thin at the position come Sunday or be playing hobbled.
Everyone wants Crosby to play, including him, but sometimes a coach like Pierce may want to protect a player from himself so that he can heal and be better for later in the season. I think Crosby will play through injury, as he has always done, and have a field day against a shaky Browns OL.
On the other side of things, Browns star edge rusher and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett is also dealing with a multitude of injuries.
Garrett injured his foot, Achilles, and thigh on Sunday against the New York Giants and has not participated in practice yet this week either.
With the Raiders likely down a man on the OL and potentially starting a third-round rookie at RT, Garrett's injury status will be critical. If he is healthy enough to go, he may wreak havoc on an inexperienced player in DJ Glaze, but if he is less than 100%, it could benefit the Raiders tremendously.
Obviously, you never cheer for injuries and want to beat each team at their full strength, so hopefully everyone is good to go on Sunday for an intense and clean battle.