Sit 'em or play 'em? It's coach Mike Tomlin's turn to again play that game as the Steelers get ready for Christmas with visions of sugar plums, the Cleveland Browns.

Their game against the lowly Browns (4-11) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Heinz Field means nothing to their playoff position. They will enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the American Football Conference with a first-week bye. They will play Jan. 10 or 11 at Heinz Field.

That means Tomlin can, if he wishes, rest some of his mildly injured players and a few who really don't need to risk injuries before the playoffs begin. High on that latter list would be linebacker James Harrison, who left the game Sunday in Nashville, Tenn., in the first half with a hip injury. He returned to play the entire second half and even recorded his team-record 16th quarterback sack, but was limping afterward in the locker room.

Harrison said he would not mind taking the weekend off.

"It's not really that meaningful a game right now and the way I'm feeling right now, yeah," he said.

It's the second season finale in his two years as coach that Tomlin has the luxury of resting some players. In Baltimore last year, with the AFC North Division title already secure and neither of the top two seeds available, Tomlin did not play quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, receiver Hines Ward or safety Troy Polamalu. But then, they did not have a first-round playoff bye either.

Tomlin also acknowledged that week that he might sit some of his players for that finale against the Ravens. That was not the case when he was asked a few times if he would rest some this Sunday.

"We have the Cleveland Browns, a division opponent," was his first answer.

Asked later if he would play the Browns as he would any regular-season game, Tomlin answered, "We're playing Cleveland."

That would be three days after Christmas against a team that has lost five consecutive games and scored 31 points in that span, none on offense. Yes, they are playing Cleveland, which has lost 10 in a row to the Steelers and 16 of the past 17.

The most obvious player to sit would be Roethlisberger. He has been sacked 46 times, one short of his career high set last season and tying his total of 2006. Those rank 2-3-4 in the all-time sack list per season of a Steelers quarterback. Only Cliff Stoudt had more, 51, in 1983.

Roethlisberger, sacked five times by the Titans, has been sacked 139 times over the past three seasons and might relish a reprieve Sunday.

"It's coach's call," Roethlisberger said. "It was a very physical football game. I know we have lot of guys with bumps and bruises; we'll see how it goes."

Others who should be candidates to sit or play little are Willie Parker, Polamalu and Aaron Smith. This should be Gary Russell's time to shine, and time to get Byron Leftwich some work.

Ward, who needs 27 yards receiving for his first 1,000-yard season since 2004, said he wants to play.

"You want to rest guys but you don't want to get out of sync," Ward said. "You play guys, you could get injuries. Me, personally, I want to play. I don't want to get two, three weeks off before you actually get hit again.

"I think we need to go in on a good note as far as executing our game plan and then, accordingly, guys will start getting pulled out."

Safety Ryan Clark also would be a natural to sit. He has helped solidify their secondary since his return after missing half of last season when his spleen was removed.

He left the game Sunday after his dislocated right shoulder was re-injured, and walked out of the locker room with his arm in a sling. A week ago, he showed up at the Steelers training facility on crutches with a foot injury.

"It's on coach," Clark explained of the upcoming decision. "You got to play if coach wants you to go out there and play, that's what we're going to do. If he decides to rest guys, guys who are banged up, that's good, too. Either way, we have to move on."