Steelers Staying Mum on Whether Starters will Play vs. Browns

The Steelers will play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at FirstEnergy Field in Cleveland as both teams wrap up their regular seasons.


The game will be pivotal for the Browns, who will clinch a playoff berth with a win and see their chances of playing postseason football significantly lessened with a loss.

The game will be far less important for the visitors from Pittsburgh, who can only either be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs, and may not even have that amount of mobility, depending on what the Buffalo Bills do on Monday night.

With the game not meaning much for the Steelers, there’s an open question as to whether veterans like Ben Roethlisberger, Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro and Cam Heyward will suit up on Sunday.

For now, that’s going to remain an open question, as neither head coach Mike Tomlin nor any of the Steelers veterans were willing to tip their hands after Sunday’s win over the Indianapolis Colts.

“We’ll ponder those possibilities in the morning,” Tomlin said on Monday night. “Tonight, we’re going to wear our hats and t-shirts.”

“I’m going to celebrate this with my family,” Roethlisberger said, while declining to offer his opinion on whether or not he’d like to play in the finale.

“We’re gonna prepare like we have a game,” defensive end Stephon Tuitt said. “We’ll let the coaches decide what we do.”