Friday news and notes

Clifton Geathers, we barely knew you.

Geathers, who was talked about a lot by the coaching staff in the offseason, was placed on the Waived/Injured List Friday. Undrafted rookie defensive end Joe Okafor was signed to take his place on the roster.

With Geathers gone, that means the much-maligned Cam Thomas is all but assured a roster spot on this team again this year.

In fact, even before Geathers began sitting out practices earlier this week, it was becoming evident that Thomas was making a push. Quite frankly, he had been better than Geathers, who at 6-8 didn't seem to play with the leverage needed to be a force in the run game.

That won't be good news to many Steelers fans, who have lasting memories of Thomas getting pushed around on defense last season after signing as a free agent with the team.

But he does look better in this training camp than he did last year. Is he a starter? Nope. The Steelers are pretty set there with Cam Heyward, Steve McLendon and Stephon Tuitt. And Daniel McCullers will likely be the backup nose tackle.

But Thomas will see some action this season as a reserve defensive end.

Of the other young defensive ends, I probably like Joe Kruger the best, but it's an "eh" group. The games got a lot more important for those guys.

I do like young nose tackle Mike Thornton, but he's not pushing anyone off the 53-man roster.

@ Mike Tomlin confirmed today that Ben Roethlisberger, James Harrison, Maurkice Pouncey, Heath Miller, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell will not play in Sunday's preseason opener.

That's not surprising for any of them. I also wouldn't expect anyone else who has been nicked up this week to play.

This will be a game for the young guys. And it's the most important game many of them will ever have played.

@ Harrison, by the way, will begin practicing next week, though I wouldn't expect him to play in a preseason game until the third one.