The NFL has upheld Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee's regular-season suspension after hearing his appeal.

If the Steelers (7-7) make the playoffs, though, the safety would be eligible to rejoin the active roster.

Kazee was suspended without pay for the final three regular-season games after a hard hit on Michael Pittman, Jr. that landed the Indianapolis Colts wide receiver in the concussion protocol. 

The NFL announced Monday that Kazee was suspended for repeated violation of rules meant to protect the health and safety of players.

Kazee had previously been fined five times this season for unnecessary roughness, and his status as a repeat offender factored into the decision to levy the harsh punishment. He will lose roughly $208,000 in salary.

George Pickens says he was trying to avoid an injury when he stopped engaging with Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones near the goal line on a first-quarter run by Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Jaylen Warren in Saturday's loss.

"I was just trying to prevent the Tank Dell situation, the same thing that happened to [him]," Pickens said. "I ain't want to get an injury. When you stay on the block too low, you can get ran up on very easily."

Dell, a wide receiver for the Houston Texans, broke his leg earlier this season when he was rolled up on in a goal-line scrum. Pickens, however, was one-on-one with Jones.

Pickens has drawn criticism for the play on which he appeared to make minimal effort in blocking Jones, resulting in Warren being tackled at the 1-yard line.

Pickens, though, brushed off the critiques about his effort.

"All the people that's questioning my effort don't play football," he said. "They do what y'all [the media] do."

The Pittsburgh Steelers are turning to Mason Rudolph at quarterback.

Mike Tomlin stopped short of definitively naming Rudolph the starter for Saturday's pivotal division game against the Cincinnati Bengals, he said Rudolph "is the guy with the ball."

"It's our intention as we sit here today to give Mason Rudolph an opportunity to start," Tomlin said. "He's a veteran guy. He's a backup but he's also a veteran guy. He's been in our program a long time. He's here for those reasons. We got a great deal of comfort with him."

Tomlin also added he's not ruling out Kenny Pickett, who had "TightRope" surgery for a high ankle sprain on Dec. 4, for Saturday's game.

Ben Roethlisberger doesn't like what he sees about the state of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done," the former quarterback said on his podcast.

Roethlisberger was reacting to the team's 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots last week. He didn't like the way that game ended either, calling out Mike Tomlin. Trying to rally late, Pittsburgh didn't have its full complement of timeouts, having had to use some earlier to get organized.

"You can't afford in the second half of games to burn silly timeouts and to not have them late in the game," he said. "To me, that's bad coaching."

He added: "There's some feel you have to have in those situations because timeouts can be so valuable, as we saw in this game. If we have one more timeout there, we get a completion, we can work the middle of the field and all you got to do is give Boz [Chris Boswell] a 60-yard chance. Give him a chance and he'll tie the game. I like my chances in overtime because they scored all their points early and the momentum had shifted."

The NFL and NFL Players Association are jointly reviewing T.J. Watt's concussion and the protocol after the Pittsburgh Steelers defender entered the protocol a day after taking a hard hit early in the team's Thursday night loss to the New England Patriots, according to a league source.

Watt entered the league's concussion protocol Friday morning after he arrived at the Steelers' practice facility and reported concussion symptoms.

Watt was hit in the face by running back Ezekiel Elliott's knee on the first play of the game. He missed just two plays before returning to the field.

The review, which is standard when a player enters the protocol, will involve a review of video and medical report, as well as interviews with Watt, the Steelers' medical staff and independent medical staff.

Kenny Pickett is expected to be sidelined "a couple weeks" with a right ankle injury, according to a source.

Pickett suffered the injury on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.

The injury puts Mitch Trubisky in line to start against the New England Patriots on Thursday night.

"We'll roll with Mitch if [Pickett] can't play," Mike Tomlin said.