Pittsburgh Steelers injury report: Starters sit vs winless Browns

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be without a number of starters during their Week 17 matchup with the winless Cleveland Browns.

Like most expected, the Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Cleveland Browns without many of their starters. As they face an 0-15 AFC North rival, with little chance to adjust playoff seeding, Pittsburgh has decided to pull a few of their starters before the game even begins.

After missing most of practice, it’s no surprise some of these guys aren’t on the field. With two week before their first playoff game, no one is worth risking injury. So, Pittsburgh has decided to rest starters like Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Maurkice Pouncey and Cameron Heyward.

As the game progresses, more and more starters should expect to be pulled. For Pittsburgh to move up in the AFC standings, they’d need the New England Patriots to lose to the New York Jets at home. Something very unlikely to happen.

Therefore, they’ll decide to take the safe approach to tackle this game as a way to keep players safe and give backups quality time before the postseason.

Injury Report

Pittsburgh Steelers

Inactive

Ben Roethlisberger

Le’Veon Bell

Antonio Brown

Cameron Heyward

Maurkice Pouncey

David DeCastro

Coty Sensabaugh

Cleveland Browns

Inactive

Cody Kessley

Danny Vitale

Jeremy Cash

Marcus Martin

Geoff Gray

Matt Hazel

Matt Lengel

This isn’t a very meaningful game for either side. Best case scenario for the Browns, they pull off their first win of the season. For Pittsburgh, it’s sending Cleveland home to Ohio as only the second team in NFL history to finish a season winless.

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Hopefully Cleveland improves in the offseason, but right now, this AFC North rivalry isn’t much to talk about. For Steelers fans, the more important game of the day will be whether or not New York can pull off a miracle and help the Steelers send the AFC through Pittsburgh.