Steelers will sit Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell for regular season finale

Landry Jones and Stevan Ridley will start in place of the Pittsburgh stars

The Pittsburgh Steelers are locked into a first-round bye in the playoffs, but they need help in order to secure the No. 1 seed. With the Patriots reportedly set to play their starters against the New York Jets, Pittsburgh has decided to read the tea leaves and sit important players for the regular season finale against the Cleveland Browns. 

According to several reports, Ben Roethlisberger and Le'Veon Bell will not play in Week 17. Landry Jones will make the start at quarterback while recent signee Stevan Ridley will take Bell's place in the backfield. 

Steelers beat writer Aditi Kinkhabwala spoke with both Jones and Ridley about the opportunity in front of them this week. 

Mike Tomlin insisted he's not conceding anything by resting Ben Roethlisberger today. Landry Jones, who will start at QB for the #Steelers, said, "I'm glad he has that confidence in me."

— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) December 31, 2017

With Le'Veon Bell slated to get the day off, new #Steelers signee Stevan Ridley is expecting a solid workload. I asked if going from a Ben Roethlisberger huddle his first week to a Landry Jones one this added to the challenge. Said, "No, we call what we're going to call."

— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) December 31, 2017

The Steelers are looking to deal the Browns their 16th loss of the season, making them the second team in modern football history to go 0-16. (The 2008 Lions previously accomplished the ignominious feat.) With Ben and Bell resting this week and Antonio Brown already nursing a partially torn calf injury, the Steelers will go over a month without having had the entire core of their offense in the game together by the time they take the field two weeks from now on divisional weekend.