Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he took the decision out of Ryan Clark's hands and told his player he won't play tonight in Denver.

Tomlin, who has been mum on his decision despite reports in the Post-Gazette and elsewhere that Clark was not likely to play, gave his reasons on the team's official web site today.

Tomlin and Clark had insisted all week that no decision would be made until Monday, and Tomlin listed him as questionable on Saturday.

"I told Ryan I wasn't going to allow him to play, and he was OK with that. I think it was the appropriate thing to do in this situation," Tomlin said on Steelers.com.

"I didn't want to be worried about his physical well-being, and I know his teammates would be, plus his wife and family. By not allowing him to play, I think we all can be singularly focused on what we came to Denver to do, which is win a football game."

Tomlin said both Tyrone Carter and Ryan Mundy will replace Clark at free safety.

"It's really similar to how we handled Troy when he was down. You're going to see some Tyrone Carter, you're going to see some Ryan Mundy. Those guys collectively do a nice job, and there's a reason why we share the workload when we start replacing guys, because those guys also have their full complement of special teams duty. They can play defensive snaps, handle their special teams work and hopefully we won't miss a beat."

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