A bit of worthy pre-game news on this Sunday morning as starting right guard Trai Essex has been benched and Ramon Foster will get the start today against the Oakland Raiders in that spot. Essex has been horrible in pass blocking again this year and even his run blocking took a step backwards against the Patriots last Sunday night. In addition, reserve tackle Tony Hills is inactive today so that means if the Steelers once again are only dressing 7 linemen and if either starting tackle goes down, Foster will likely be asked to move outside and Essex will take back over at guard. In another interesting pre-game note, rookie receiver Antonio Brown is active today for the first time in several weeks as the Steelers have chosen to dress 6 wide receivers today. Brown might get a chance to return kicks with Emmanuel Sanders seeing more of an increased role as the 3rd receiver in certain sets.
