The brawl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football was an ugly look for the NFL. The league made sure to make it abundantly clear that this kind of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated, suspending Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and Larry Ogunjobi, as well as Pittsburgh’s Maurkice Pouncey and fining both teams a combined $500k.
There are no silver lining for any of the parties involved — but the ugliness of the incident will potentially provide benefit to the Miami Dolphins in their hunt for higher draft picks. Is it ideal for the Dolphins to play the Browns next weekend without half of their starting defensive line? No, of course not. But the Browns will sorely miss Garrett for the rest of the season — losing him could potentially neutralize a late-season push from the Browns and help the Dolphins’ strength of schedule for any final record ties in the NFL Draft order.
And losing Maurkice Pouncey for three games is notable for Pittsburgh as well — especially given the lingering health issues with RB James Conner. The Steelers came into Thursday Night Football riding a 4 game win streak. The streak is over and the Steelers offense without Conner looked awful. Mason Rudolph folded under pressure against the Browns, and now Rudolph will play without one of Pittsburgh’s best offensive linemen for the next three games. Pittsburgh’s own push for the postseason is hurt by Pouncey’s suspension (and possibly by the NFL’s decision not to suspend Rudolph, given how poorly he played) and as a result, the Dolphins may see that Steelers’ 1st-round pick start to climb back up the NFL Draft order. The Steelers play Cincinnati, Cleveland and Arizona in their next three games without Pouncey — if his absence contributes to even one extra loss for the Steelers, it may be the difference in 3-5 spots in the draft order this spring for the Dolphins.
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