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Mike Tomlin Says Steelers We're OK With Trading Melvin Ingram

The Pittsburgh Steelers are looking for volunteers, not hostages.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers traded outside linebacker Melvin Ingram for a sixth-round pick near the deadline, but it wasn't for schematic purposes. 

The Steelers shipped their offseason-signing edge rusher eight games into his Pittsburgh career not because they wanted to, but because he wanted out. 

Head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the trade ahead of the Steelers' matchup with Ingram's new team, the Kansas City Chiefs. And he was frank about why the team made the decision to get rid of him. 

"To be quite honest with you and blunt, Melvin no longer wanted to be here. And for us, we prefer volunteers as opposed to hostages and we believe that’s a formula that really allows us to come together in ways that you can’t measure," Tomlin said. "… That’s more of a function of us and the things that we value and less of a function of Kansas City, the things that they needed or the prospects of playing them later in the season."

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