Kearse says NFL should get rid of Thursday night games

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jermaine Kearse is no fan of Thursday night games.

The New York Jets wide receiver echoed what has become a growing sentiment among NFL players who think the league should get rid of short work weeks because they are detrimental to their health and safety.

“You’re asking guys who play a high volume on one day and literally give it their all on that one day and ask them to recover and try to bounce back in a couple of days,” Kearse said after practice Friday. “It’s kind of tough, especially when you’re already dealing with certain stuff from previous weeks that might be nagging or lingering.”

Kearse was asked about his thoughts on Thursday games a day after he watched former Seattle teammate Richard Sherman suffer a season-ending Achilles tendon injury in the Seahawks’ win against the Arizona Cardinals.

When asked whether the NFL should ditch the Thursday games, Kearse said flatly: “Yeah.”

The veteran receiver said he couldn’t speak for all players, but thinks games on Thursday nights aren’t “helpful” because of the short recovery time after playing on Sunday.

“This game has a 100 percent injury rate,” Kearse said. “That’s the truth, that’s the facts. … You give them a short week like that, it’s tough.”

Kearse says the NFL Players Association needs to address the issue during its next collective bargaining agreement meetings with the league.

“I think there definitely needs to be a discussion, for sure,” he said. “Just finding better ways to take care of the players. I mean, guys are putting their bodies on the line, day-in and dayout.”

Kearse mentioned Houston rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson suffering a season-ending knee injury on a non-contact play in practice last week.

He added that if players gets banged up on Sunday, they sometimes aren’t ready to play until the following Saturday.

“It depends on how you come out of the game, really,” Kearse said.

Kearse played in a Thursday night game last week when the Jets beat the Buffalo Bills 34-21. He said he was fortunate to not have had any injury issues coming out of the previous game against Atlanta.

Forte to sit out: Matt Forte has been waiting for the swelling in his surgically repaired right knee to subside.

Instead, it has only gotten worse.

The 31-year-old running back will sit out at Tampa Bay because of his ailing knee. He didn’t practice all week after having a seasonhigh 77 yards rushing against Buffalo last Thursday night.

“I’ve been playing with swelling in my knee for a while,” Forte said Friday. “It just got to a point where it’s getting significantly worse. Obviously, coming from a Sunday game to a Thursday game, there’s less recovery time and it just got worse on me.”

Bilal Powell and Elijah McGuire will handle the running duties against the Buccaneers, who have the 22nd-ranked run defense.

Cornerback Morris Claiborne is questionable to play after he was limited for the second straight day. He hadn’t practiced before Thursday since injuring a foot against Atlanta. Claiborne missed the game against Buffalo, but could be back in the lineup Sunday.

In other injuries: defensive lineman Ed Stinson is out with a neck injury, while defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson (shoulder, foot), right guard Brian Winters (abdomen) and backup center Jonotthan Harrison (hand) are questionable.

NOTES: P Lachlan Edwards is tied with Baltimore’s Sam Koch for second in the NFL with 19 punts inside opponents’ 20-yard line, three behind San Francisco’s Bradley Pinion. “All year, he consistently keeps improving every week,” special-teams coordinator Brant Boyer said of Edwards, a seventhround pick last year. “I think he’s slowly becoming the guy that he should and I think you’re going to see him keep elevating his game every year that he keeps playing.”