Thomas to decide on future in offseason

LT placed on injured reserve

Joe Thomas might never wear a Browns uniform — or any football uniform — again.

The Browns iron-man left tackle will undergo season-ending surgery to repair his torn left triceps, possibly as soon as Oct. 24, and during the rehab that can take up to nine months, Thomas will decide whether he wants to continue his career or retire. He was placed on injured reserve on Oct. 23.

Thomas, a 10-time Pro Bowl player, never missed a snap with the Browns until he was injured on a routine run block with 5:21 left in the third quarter of the game with the Titans on Oct. 22. His amazing streak for consecutive plays ended at 10,363. Before that moment, it seemed the words Thomas and retirement would never be uttered in the same sentence for at least five years. But Thomas will turn 33 in December, which means he will be closer to 34 when the Browns’ 2018 training camp begins in late July.

Given the team’s current 0-7 record and its 4-40 record since the 11th game of 2014, there is little chance the Browns will be relevant next season.

“Well, my plan is to rehab,”

Thomas said during a conference call on Oct. 23. “If you’re asking, ‘Am I done playing?’ I don’t know. I think that’s a decision that’s best to be talked about in the offseason. Right now is obviously too soon after the injury and before the surgery.

“You have no idea how any of the rehab or the surgery is going to go. For me, talking about the last few years of my career, that decision about ‘Do I continue to play or do I retire?’ I think is something that I’ve always left up to the offseason because I think it does take some time to get away from football and have reflection and discussions with family and just figure out what the next step would be of my career and if it’s the right time to continue or if it’s the right time to hang it up.”

Thomas is under contract with the Browns in 2018 for $8.8 million. He

has played with ankle and knee injuries throughout his career. But it could be an arm injury that forces him to leave football not on his own terms.

“What he meant to me as a player, as a person, the things he brought to our football team in the locker room and the leadership piece will be missed,” Coach Hue Jackson said in his day-after news conference. “Hopefully, we’ll get him back here (in 2018). Joe’s a tremendous competitor and just knowing him – I’m not speaking for him – he’ll come back and want to continue to do what he does, which is be one of the best left tackles in this league.

“Hopefully, he’ll want to do that as we continue to move forward. That injury is a serious injury. That limb, that arm you use in protection, to block and do those things — this is not

an easy injury. It’s a legitimate, long-healing process. He has to go through it, and I don’t know how that’s going to come back. I want him to come back. I think we all do, but I think we all have to understand that this is a serious injury we are talking about.”

Thomas said he felt a tendon separate from his left elbow. A video of the injury shows the tendon coiling toward his shoulder underneath his skin.

From a practical side, Spencer Drango took Thomas’ spot against Tennessee and did not play well. But the plan is for him to start at left tackle against the Vikings. Jackson could move left guard Joel Bitonio left tackle and Drango to guard, but Jackson didn’t want to shake up two positions.

This also ends any possibility of the Browns trading Thomas this season. The trading deadline is Oct. 31.