Update, 1:57 p.m.: The Steelers ruled out Le’Veon Bell from playing Saturday after he did not practice all week.  Original post: The two NFL playoff games that will take place Saturday could be notable just as much for the players who won’t be on the field as for those who are.  The Arizona Cardinals will be without their top two quarterbacks, leaving the unproven Ryan Lindley as their starter by necessity, when they face the Carolina Panthers in a first-round NFC game Saturday afternoon in Charlotte. The Pittsburgh Steelers might be minus tailback Le’Veon Bell, the NFL’s second-leading rusher during the regular season, when they host the Baltimore Ravens in an opening-round AFC game Saturday night.  The Steelers secured the AFC North title and earned a home game this weekend when they beat the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday night in Pittsburgh. But it was a costly victory for the Steelers as Bell hurt his right knee on an open-field hit by Bengals safety Reggie Nelson. Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin exchanged words with Nelson while leaving the field following the game, but said afterward that Nelson’s hit was legal and the exchange, according to Tomlin, was about something that Nelson thought Tomlin had said about him.  The Steelers called Bell’s knee injury a hyperextension without any significant structural damage. But that does not necessarily mean Bell will be able to play Saturday, especially with one fewer day to heal than in a normal preparation week. Bell did not participate in practice Wednesday or Thursday.  “The big thing for us to do is prepare for if he does not play,” Tomlin said during a news conference earlier in the week. “Obviously if he does, that’s easy. We’re gonna do our due diligence and make alternate plans for if he doesn’t, and we’ll leave the light on for him. I know that he’s interested in that. … It’s just gonna be based on how he feels and how effective he is.”  Rookies Dri Archer and Josh Harris are Bell’s backups. They totaled only 56 rushing yards during the regular season. The Steelers also signed veteran running back Ben Tate during the week. The Steelers released LeGarrette Blount in November after he left the field before a victory over the Tennessee Titans was over, and he signed with the New England Patriots.  Bell ran for 1,361 yards this season, second in the league to the 1,845 yards by DeMarco Murray of Dallas. If the Steelers must play the Ravens without Bell, that would put a greater burden on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who tied for the league lead with 4,952 passing yards, and wideout Antonio Brown, who led the NFL with 1,698 receiving yards.  Roethlisberger threw for 340 yards and six touchdowns when the Steelers beat the Ravens, 43-23, in Pittsburgh in November. The Ravens won the teams’ earlier meeting, 26-6, in a Thursday night game in Week 2 in Baltimore.  “Just rest assured that we’re gonna make the right decision,” Tomlin said. “We won’t be swayed by circumstance one way or the other, the magnitude of the game and so forth. If he’s healthy, he’s able to protect himself that he can be a positive contributor to our efforts, we’ll play him. If we can’t answer yes to all of those questions and then some, we won’t. And it’s just that simple, and we’ll proceed with no excuses. We feel confident that we can field the type of team that’s capable of winning this game but also any game if given a legitimate time to prepare. And that’s what we have.”  The Cardinals, at first glance, might seem to have a major advantage over the Panthers after going 11-5 during the regular season. The Panthers went 7-8-1 to finish in first place in the weak NFC South and are the second team to reach the NFL playoffs with a losing record in a non-strike season.  But the Panthers are playing at home and are hoping to follow the path of the 2010 Seattle Seahawks, who won the NFC West at 7-9 and beat the 11-win New Orleans Saints in a first-round playoff game at home.  Carolina also gets to face the third quarterback to serve as Arizona’s starter this season in Lindley, who has career NFL totals of two touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. The Cardinals lost their final two regular season games with Lindley as the starter after Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton suffered knee injuries.  There initially had been hopes that Stanton would return for the playoffs. But those hopes dimmed when Stanton had to undergo arthroscopic surgery for an infection in his injured knee, and the Cardinals announced during the week that Stanton would remain sidelined and Lindley would be the starter this weekend.  Lindley did play better last Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, throwing for 316 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw three interceptions, giving him four in two starts this season, and the Cardinals lost, 20-17. They fell, 35-6, to the Seahawks in Lindley’s first start a week earlier.  “When you get experience in big games, and those were two big games, it affects how you play,” Cardinals Coach Bruce Arians said at a news conference this week. “I think he’s more than ready now to play extremely well.”  Arians also has rookie Logan Thomas available. Arians said early in the week before the regular season finale that he planned to start Thomas in that game, only to switch back to Lindley as the starter for the 49ers game when Thomas struggled in a midweek practice. Thomas, a fourth-round draft pick from Virginia Tech, completed only one of nine passes this season. But the lone completion was an 81-yard touchdown.  Mark Maske covers the NFL for The Washington Post.
Arizona will start third-stringer Ryan Lindley on Saturday afternoon at Carolina. Pittsburgh could be without the NFL's second-leading rusher Saturday night against Baltimore.