BEREA, Ohio — Coach Freddie Kitchens benched Damarious Randall for Sunday’s 20-13 loss to the Steelers -- the Browns’ biggest game of the season to date -- but plans to reinstate him for Sunday’s game against the Bengals.

“His status going forward is he’ll come back this week and I’m assuming we’ll do everything we need to do to be on the field,’’ Kitchens said Monday.

Randall, the Browns starting free safety, was benched for an incident that occurred last week, but Kitchens wouldn’t specify. The news came down on Saturday that Randall wouldn’t be making the bus trip to Pittsburgh.

“With all due respect, I’m not going to comment on why,’’ Kitchens said. “It’s just sometimes you have to make decisions with 52 other guys [in mind]. Listen, I do not take those decisions lightly because I know it potentially could affect the team, but sometimes when you make decisions like that, it is for the 52 other guys, as well.”

ESPN.com’s Jake Trotter reported that Randall skipped a practice last week, but a source told cleveland.com that it’s more complicated than that. Randall wasn’t available during the open locker room period on Monday.

“Listen, ask Damarious,’’ said Kitchens said. “What Damarious and I talk about is going to stay between Damarious and I. …I made a decision. We’re living with that decision. I have 52 other guys to think about.”

Kitchens indicated he can put the incident behind him.

“Damarious has my trust,’’ he said. “It has nothing to do with trust. I trust these guys as long as they show me they can be trustworthy so moving forward, I do not have a problem with Damarious.”

Randall’s benching might not bode well for his future here. In the final year of his contract, he’s due to become an unrestricted free agent in March. In seven games, he has 34 tackles, two sacks and four passes defensed.

He’s missed five games this season, two with a concussion that he didn’t believe he had, two with a hamstring and one for the benching. He was also ejected from the first meeting against the Steelers for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Diontae Johnson which he said wasn’t intentional. He’s appealing his $28,075 fine for that hit.

In the meantime, Kitchens has been talking up his replacement, rookie Sheldrick Redwine, the Browns’ fourth-round pick out of Miami.

“Redwine did an excellent job in the middle of the field and so did (S Juston) Burris,’’ Kitchens said.

Kitchens benched Randall despite the Browns being thin at safety this season with Eric Murray recovering from a knee injury, Morgan Burnett on IR with a torn Achilles and Jermaine Whitehead being waived for threatening social media posts.

More Browns coverage