Mike Tomlin may rest starters even though Steelers have shot at No. 1 seed

The Steelers still have a chance to earn home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, but they would need the Patriots to lose to the Jets in New England in order for that to happen. That outcome is so unlikely that Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin is considering benching his starters in Week 17.

With the Steelers and Patriots both playing at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday, there will be no way of knowing the outcome of the Pats-Jets game before Pittsburgh takes on the Browns. Despite that, Tomlin has not ruled out sitting his best players.

“I’m undecided as I stand here right now,” he said Tuesday, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s obvious those discussions are in play. We’ll do what’s best for us short term and long, and we won’t look back.”

Tomlin has a lot of factors to consider. The most obvious is that the chances of the Jets beating the Patriots are incredibly slim. The Steelers coach might also believe his team can beat Cleveland with second-stringers, though the Browns should be highly motivated to avoid going 0-16.

“Who we choose to employ or utilize or activate, we’re in the process of discussing. But make no mistake about it, the expectation will be what it is. The people we put on the field, we’ll expect them to play and play winning football,” Tomlin said. “That will be our mentality as we prepare. We don’t try to over-think some of these things. We set out on this thing to dominate the AFC North [Division], and we have an AFC North game this weekend at our place so that will be our mentality.”

The Steelers feel they were cheated out of a win against the Patriots in numerous ways two weekends ago, but they were able to put all that aside and dominate the Texans on Christmas day. Still, their fate is no longer in their own hands, and you can’t blame Tomlin for trying to be realistic. The No. 2 seed is likely as good as it gets for Pittsburgh.