Cleveland Browns

Injuries, poor play plaguing Browns defense

Published Oct. 8, 2014 3:34 p.m. ET

foxsports

BEREA, Ohio - The struggling Cleveland Browns defense will be down at least one starter for Sunday's game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Phil Taylor, who's been starting at defensive end, had arthroscopic knee surgery Wednesday morning and is out at least a few weeks. Cornerback Joe Haden has a hip injury that's going to leave his status as questionable through the week and possibly up until Sunday morning.

Haden was not dressed for practice Wednesday. He was riding an exercise bike along the sideline as his teammates stretched in the portion of practice open to the media. Haden went through a Wednesday morning walkthrough session, Browns coach Mike Pettine said, and will be given the benefit of the doubt as a veteran if he can't practice this week.

"We'll keep a very close eye on that," Pettine said. "We'll try to get him to Sunday morning."

Pettine said he was "cautiously optimistic" about Haden's chances to play Sunday. If Haden can't go, first-round cornerback Justin Gilbert, who was essentially benched last week, would move into the starting lineup opposite Buster Skrine. Undrafted rookie K'Waun Williams played as the Browns slot cornerback, and Pettine said Williams is strictly a slot corner as the Browns develop a contingency plan.

The Browns rank 31st in the NFL in total defense, 29th against the rush and 28th against the pass. The Browns are allowing 421 yards per game and the Steelers are averaging 404 yards per game, fourth-best in the league to this point.

In the season opener at Pittsburgh, Antonio Brown had 5 catches for 116 yards, mostly against Haden, and Markus Wheaton had 6 catches for 97 yards, including the final two catches of the game against Gilbert that set up the winning field goal. Pettine said Gilbert has been "inconsistent" and "has been picked on," but said he expects Gilbert to respond this week.

"Nobody's bailing on him," Pettine said.

Backup defensive end Billy Winn was also out of Wednesday's practice with a quad injury. The Browns do have some depth on their defensive line and can put John Hughes, who was a healthy scratch last week, into Taylor's starting spot. With Taylor down, backup nose tackle Ishmaa'ily Kitchen figures to be active and play in the base defensive package, too.