Harrison signs up with the Patriots Collateral damage

give us the very best chance to win,” Tomlin said. “We needed the people we kept. We needed to activate Marcus Gilbert. There’s really nothing more to it than that.”

That quote might raise a few eyebrows considering one of the players Tomlin kept was defensive lineman Daniel McCullers, who has played just 11 defensive snaps all season. McCullers is in the final year of his rookie contract, and there is little reason to believe he’ll be back with the team next season.

Harrison’s teammates have come out in recent days and said how much he meant to the team in terms of his leadership.

“Intangibles are always part of decisions,” Tomlin said. “There is no cookie cutter in terms of decision making. You better weigh all variables — some of them aren’t intangibles — and we do.”

Tomlin said it was too early to say if any roster moves would be made before the regular-season finale against the Cleveland Browns. There had been speculation that Harrison could be re-signed by the Steelers, but that won’t happen now.

Before Harrison officially joined New England, Tomlin did not close the door on his return.

“The door is always left open for anyone we stop doing business with,” Tomlin said. “That’s no different than any of the decisions that we’ve had to make over the season if someone is unemployed. I’ll leave the discussion that James and I had between he and I. I think that’s appropriate.”

The Steelers gave up 176 rushing yards Monday to the Texans, the most they’ve allowed on the ground since the Jacksonville game in early October. But Tomlin didn’t sound very concerned about that number.

In fact, he said the Steelers chose to allow the Texans to run up yards on the ground in exchange for keeping a close eye on AllPro receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

“Some of it was just our desire to minimize [Hopkins],” Tomlin said. “I don’t want to make more of a deal out of it than it was. I was completely comfortable once we got a multi-score lead to let them run if they so chose. We couldn’t let [Hopkins] do what we’ve seen him do. That was our focus as we went into the football game. We realized it could have been some collateral damage in terms of the run game.”

Injury update

Tomlin ruled receiver Antonio Brown out for the Browns game. Brown missed his first game of the season against the Texans with a calf injury that he sustained in the game the previous week against the Patriots. The good news for the Steelers is Brown will have almost a full month to recover from his injury. The injury occurred Dec. 17, and the Steelers won’t have to play their first playoff game until Jan. 13 or 14.

Tomlin acknowledged Tuesday the uncertainty surrounding Brown’s return if only because he hasn’t been injured very often in his eight-year career.

“He hadn’t missed a lot of time over the course of his career, so we don’t have a lot to draw from in that regard,” he said.

Tomlin said no significant injuries were sustained during the Houston game.